McKinley's "Decision on the Philippines" (1900)
A conservative Republican from Ohio and an advocate of imperialism, President William McKinley framed his decision to annex the Philippines in religious terms:
When next I realized that the Philippines had dropped into our laps, I confess I did not know what to do with them. I sought counsel from all sides--Democrats as well as Republicans--but got little help. I thought first we would take only Manila; then Luzon; then other islands, perhaps, also.
I walked the floor of the White House night after night until midnight; and I am not ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that I went down on my knees and prayed to Almighty God for light and guidance more than one night. And one night late it came to me this way--I don't know how it was, but it came:
- That we could not give them back to Spain--that would be cowardly and dishonorable;
- That we could not turn them over to France or Germany, our commercial rivals in the Orient--that would be bad business and discreditable;
- That we could not leave them to themselves-they were unfit for self-government, and they would soon have anarchy and misrule worse then Spain's was; and
- That there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow men for whom Christ also died.
And then I went to bed and went to sleep, and slept soundly, and the next morning I sent for the chief engineer of the War Department (our map-maker), and I told him to put the Philippines on the map of the United States (pointing to a large map on the wall of his office), and there they are and there they will stay while I am President!
Exercise
- After reading McKinley's justification for annexing the Philippines, why might you be surprised to learn that approximately 85% of Filipinos were already Christian by 1898?
- How did McKinley's religious views affect his final decision on the Philippines?