And State Papers 205 



done well. The first and absolutely indispensable 

 requisite was order peace. The reign of lawless 

 violence, of resistance to legitimate authority, the 

 reign of anarchy, could no more be tolerated abroad 

 than it could be tolerated here in our own land. 



The American flag stands for orderly liberty, and 

 it stands for it abroad as it stands for it at home. 

 The task of our soldiers was to restore and main 

 tain order in the islands. The army had the task to 

 do, and it did it well and thoroughly. The fullest 

 and heartiest praise belongs to our soldiers who in 

 the Philippines brought to a triumphant conclusion 

 a war, small indeed compared to the gigantic strug 

 gle in which the older men whom I am addressing 

 took part in the early sixties, but inconceivably ha 

 rassing and difficult, because it was waged amid the 

 pathless jungles of great tropic islands and against 

 a foe very elusive, very treacherous, and often in 

 conceivably cruel both toward our men and toward 

 the great numbers of peace-loving Filipinos who 

 gladly welcomed our advent. The soldiers included 

 both regulars and volunteers, men from the North, 

 the South, the East, and the West, men from Penn 

 sylvania and from Tennessee, no less than men from 

 the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Slope and to 

 all alike we give honor, for they acted as American 

 soldiers should. Cruelties were committed here and 

 there. The fact that they were committed under 

 wellnigh intolerable provocation affords no excuse 

 for such cruelties, nor can we admit as justification 

 that they were retaliatory in kind. Every effort has 



