And State Papers 93 



a humiliating position, because when the actual test 

 came it would have been quite out of the question for 

 us, after some striking deed of savagery had oc 

 curred in the islands, to stand by and prevent the re 

 entry of civilization into them. While the mere 

 fact of our having threatened thus to guarantee the 

 local tyrants and wrongdoers against outside inter 

 ference by ourselves or others, would have put a 

 premium upon every species of tyranny and anarchy 

 within the islands. 



Finally, there was the course which we adopted 

 not an easy course, and one fraught with danger 

 and difficulty, as is generally the case in this world 

 when some great feat is to be accomplished as an 

 incident to working out national destiny. We made 

 up our minds to stay in the islands to put down 

 violence to establish peace and order and then 

 to introduce a just and wise civil rule accompanied 

 by a measure of self-government which should in 

 crease as rapidly as the islanders showed themselves 

 fit for it. It was certainly a formidable task; but 

 think of the marvelously successful way in which it 

 has been accomplished! The first and vitally im 

 portant feat was the establishment of the supremacy 

 of the American flag; and this had to be done by 

 the effort of these gallant fellow-Americans of ours 

 to whom so great a debt is due the officers and en 

 listed men of the United States regular and volun 

 teer forces. In a succession of campaigns, carried 

 on in unknown tropic jungles against an elusive and 

 treacherous foe vastly outnumbering them, under 



