USA Wanted to Stay in the Philippines: Benevolent Assimilation

[MikeLigalig.com]

DECEMBER 21, 1898: The policy of 'Benevolent Assimilation' is proclaimed by US President McKinley, the first official indication of American policy regarding the Philippines. It expressly indicates the intention of the US to stay in the Philippines by exercising the right of sovereignty over the Filipinos.

[islander]

Manifest Destiny


William McKinley was the 25th President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1897 until his assassination in September 1901. (wikipedia)

Mckinley to a delegation of Methodist church leaders:

Hold a moment longer! Not quite yet, gentlemen! Before you go I would like to say just a word about the Philippine business. I have been criticized a good deal about the Philippines, but don’t deserve it. The truth is I didn’t want the Philippines, and when they came to us, as a gift from the gods, I did not know what to do with them.

[islander]

When the Spanish War broke out Dewey was at Hongkong, and I ordered him to go to Manila and to capture or destroy the Spanish fleet, and he had to; because, if defeated, he had no place to refit on that side of the globe, and if the Dons were victorious they would likely cross the Pacific and ravage our Oregon and California coasts. And so he had to destroy the Spanish fleet, and did it! But that was as far as I thought then.

[islander]

When I next 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 sidesâ€"Democrats as well as Republicansâ€"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 Almighty God for light and guidance more than one night.

[islander]

And one night late it came to me this wayâ€"I don’t know how it was, but it came:

(1) That we could not give them back to Spainâ€"that would be cowardly and dishonorable;

(2) that we could not turn them over to France and Germanyâ€"our commercial rivals in the Orientâ€"that would be bad business and discreditable;

[islander]

(3) that we could not leave them to themselvesâ€"they were unfit for self-governmentâ€"and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain’s was; and

(4) 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.

[islander]

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!

Source: General James Rusling, “Interview with President William McKinley,” The Christian Advocate 22 January 1903, 17. Reprinted in Daniel Schirmer and Stephen Rosskamm Shalom, eds., The Philippines Reader (Boston: South End Press, 1987), 22â€"23.

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/

[islander]

McKinley disingenuously disavowed the U.S. military action that brought the Philippines under U.S. control, and acknowledged, directly and indirectly, the equally powerful forces of racism, nationalism, and especially commercialism, that shaped American actions. (http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5575/)

[islander]

(4) 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.

at least, that president acknowledged that christ also died for us.

[islander]

(4) 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.

hehe, one thing with the powerful forces of racism, nationalism and commercialism is that even a national president gets myopic enough to fail to see that the philippines was largely catholic at the time.

[islander]

or maybe for methodists being catholic is not christian?

[Lorenzo]

Ironically enough, McKinley went to the same college as I.

[Lorenzo]

or maybe for methodists being catholic is not christian?

Protestantism sprouted in the Philippines after the archipelago passed from Spain to the United States. During the Spanish colonial epoch, the Royal Audencia prosecuted heretics actively. Still, 100 or so years later, protestants only constitute a minority in the Philippines. The overwhelming majority of Filipinos still adhere to the Roman Catholic Faith, testament to almost 400 years of Catholic Spanish Rule.

[Lorenzo]

hehe, one thing with the powerful forces of racism, nationalism and commercialism is that even a national president gets myopic enough to fail to see that the philippines was largely catholic at the time.

Those were indeed closed-minded times. The supposed European superiority over native peoples was used as pretext as the mandate to "civilize" foreign peoples by conquering them.