And State Papers 61 



a general condemnation of our army than these 

 lynchings afford for the condemnation of the com 

 munities in which they occur. In each case it is 

 well to condemn the deed, and it is well also to re 

 frain from including both guilty and innocent in the 

 same sweeping condemnation. 



In every community there are people who com 

 mit acts of well-nigh inconceivable horror and base 

 ness. If we fix our eyes only upon these individuals 

 and upon their acts, and if we forget the far more 

 numerous citizens of upright and honest life and 

 blind ourselves to their countless deeds of wisdom 

 and justice and philanthropy, it is easy enough to 

 condemn the community. There is not a city in 

 this land which we could not thus condemn if we 

 fixed our eyes solely upon its police record and 

 refused to look at what it had accomplished for 

 decency and justice and charity. Yet this is exactly 

 the attitude which has been taken by too many men 

 with reference to our army in the Philippines; and 

 it is an attitude iniquitous in its absurdity and its 

 injustice. 



The rules of warfare which have been promul 

 gated by the War Department and accepted as the 

 basis of conduct by our troops in the field are the 

 rules laid down by Abraham Lincoln when you, my 

 hearers, were fighting for the Union. These rules 

 provide, of course, for the just severity necessary 

 in war. The most destructive of all forms of cruelty 

 would be to show weakness where sternness is de 

 manded by iron need. But all cruelty is forbidden, 



