96 Presidential Addresses 



people walk up and stand by the candidate they 

 wanted. 



But at last, on the July 4th that has just passed 

 on the 1 26th anniversary of our independence it 

 was possible at the same time to declare amnesty 

 throughout the islands and definitely to establish 

 civil rule over all of them, excepting the country of 

 the Mohammedan Moros, where the conditions were 

 wholly different. Each inhabitant of the Philip 

 pines is now guaranteed his civil and religious 

 rights, his rights to life, personal liberty, and the 

 pursuit of happiness, subject only to not infringing 

 the rights of others. It is worth noting that dur 

 ing these three or four years under us the Philip 

 pine people have attained to a greater degree of 

 self-government, that they now have more to say 

 as to how they shall be governed, than is the case 

 with any people in the Orient which is under Euro 

 pean rule. Nor is this all. Congress has, with far- 

 seeing wisdom, heartily supported all that has been 

 done by the Executive. Wise laws for the govern 

 ment of the Philippine Islands have been placed 

 upon the statute books, and under those laws pro 

 vision is made for the introduction into the Philip 

 pines of representative government, with only the 

 delay absolutely necessary to allow for the estab 

 lishment of definite peace, for the taking of a census, 

 and the settling down of the country. In short, we 

 are governing the Filipinos primarily in their inter 

 est, and for their very great benefit. And we have 

 acted in practical' fashion not trying to lay down 



