Heading: (Philippine-American War)
Author: Bryan, William Jennings
Title: Autograph Letter Signed to a sympathetic Republican Senator on supporting the Spanish-American Peace Treaty with a reservation for Philippine self-government
Place Published: Lincoln, Nebraska
Publisher:
Date Published: [January 1899]
Description:

4 pp. on Bryan's printed note paper. Recipient unnamed, but undoubtedly maverick Massachusetts Senator George Hoar.

Bryan was planning another run for the presidency when he wrote this somewhat ambiguous note to Republican Senator Hoar. Realizing that the American people reveled in victory over Spain - and the acquisition of new colonial territory - Bryan had publicly pleaded for speedy ratification of the 1898 Treaty of Paris but with an amending resolution declaring that the policy of the United States Government was to guarantee eventual Philippine independence and self-government.

He did not anticipate that, weeks later, Emilio Aguinaldo would declare creation of the first Philippine Republic, with an independent government not subject to American domination. Weeks after that, the US Senate ratified the Peace Treaty - with no mention of the Philippine reservation favored by Bryan and Hoar - and the Philippine-American War had begun. It was an insurrection which won few sympathizers in the United States - despite Senator Hoar's denunciation of the "subjugation" of the Philippines as "iniquitous" - and which would help lose the 1900 election for Bryan and the anti-imperialist Democrats.

"...I have read with much gratification your newspaper report of your speech. Please send me a complete copy when it is presented. You are on solid ground when you build upon the declaration that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. I hope your patriotic appeal will reach the heart of your party, it will if the party has a heart left. The sentiment is coming our way. Keep up the fight. If the treaty is ratified we can then deal with the question as an American question and by resolution declare the nation's purpose. If we reject the treaty we assume responsibility for anything that may happen. If the imperialists delay or defeat a resolution declaring policy they assume responsibility for accidents. The resolution gives us a proposition upon which we can appeal to the people, opposition to the treaty does not..."

Light wear; good or better