And State Papers 239 



ment, it needed genuine statesmanship to see this 

 and to act accordingly at the time of the first revolt. 

 A weaker and less far-sighted man than President 

 McKinley would have shrunk from a task very diffi 

 cult in itself, and certain to furnish occasion for 

 attack and misrepresentation no less than for honest 

 misunderstanding. But President McKinley never 

 flinched. He refused to consider the thought of 

 abandoning our duty in our new possessions. While 

 sedulously endeavoring to act with the utmost hu 

 manity toward the insurrectionists, he never faltered 

 in the determination to put them down by force of 

 arms, alike for the sake of our own interest and 

 honor, and for the sake of the interest of the isl 

 anders, and particularly of the great numbers of 

 friendly natives, including those most highly civil 

 ized, for whom abandonment by us would have 

 meant ruin and death. Again his policy was most 

 amply vindicated. Peace has come to the islands, 

 together with a greater measure of individual lib 

 erty and self-government than they have ever before 

 known. All the tasks set us as a result of the war 

 with Spain have so far been well and honorably 

 accomplished, and as a result this Nation stands 

 higher than ever before among the nations of 

 mankind. 



President McKinley's second campaign was 

 fought mainly on the issue of approving what he 

 had done in his first administration, and specifically 

 what he had done as regards these problems spring 

 ing out of the war with Spain. The result was that 



