64 Presidential Addresses 



the great work of peace and freedom that has al 

 ready been accomplished. 



Peace and freedom are there two better objects 

 for which a soldier can fight? .Well, these are pre 

 cisely the objects for which our soldiers are fighting 

 in the Philippines. When there is talk of the cruel 

 ties committed in the Philippines, remember always 

 that by far the greater proportion of these cruelties 

 have been committed by the insurgents against their 

 own people as well as against our soldiers and 

 that not only the surest but the only effectual way of 

 stopping them is by the progress of the American 

 arms. The victories of the American Army have 

 been the really effective means of putting a stop 

 to cruelty in the Philippines. Wherever these vic 

 tories have been complete and such is now the case 

 throughout the greater part of the islands all 

 cruelties have ceased, and the native is secure in his 

 life, his liberty, and his pursuit of happiness. Where 

 the insurrection still smoulders there is always a 

 chance for cruelty to show itself. 



Our soldiers conquer; and what is the object for 

 which they conquer? To establish a military gov 

 ernment ? No. The laws we are now endeavoring to 

 enact for the government of the Philippines are to 

 increase the power and domain of the civil at the 

 expense of the military authorities, and to render 

 even more difficult than in the past the chance of 

 oppression. The military power is used to secure 

 peace, in order that it may itself be supplanted by 

 the civil power. The progress of the American 



