And State Papers 67 



has already reached to the shores of Asia. The 

 might of our people already looms large against the 

 world-horizon; and it will loom ever larger as the 

 years go by. No statesman has a right to neglect 

 the interests of our people in the Pacific; interests 

 which are important to all our people, but of most 

 importance to those of our people who have built 

 populous and thriving States to the west of the 

 great watershed of this continent. 



This should no more be a party question than 

 the war for the Union should have been a party 

 question. At this moment the man in highest office 

 in the Philippine Islands is the Vice-Governor, Gen 

 eral Luke Wright, of Tennessee, who gallantly 

 wore" the gray in the Civil War and who is now 

 working hand in hand with the head of our army 

 in the Philippines, Adna Chaffee, who in the Civil 

 War gallantly wore the blue. Those two, and the 

 men under them, from the North and from the 

 South, in civil life and in military life, as teachers, 

 as administrators, as, soldiers, are laboring mightily 

 for us who live at home. Here and there black 

 sheep are to be found among them ; but taken as a 

 whole they represent as high a standard of public 

 service as this country has ever seen. They are 

 doing a great work for civilization, a great work 

 for the honor and the interest of this nation, and 

 above all for the welfare of the inhabitants of the 

 Philippine Islands. All honor to them ; and shame, 

 thrice shame, to us if we fail to uphold their hands ! 



