And State Papers 627 



them. A copy of the conditions is herewith trans- 

 mitted. 



Of Porto Rico it is only necessary to say that 

 the prosperity of the island and the wisdom with 

 which it has been governed have been such as to 

 make it serve as an example of all that is best in 

 insular administration. 



On July 4 last, on the one hundred and twenty- 

 sixth anniversary of the declaration of our inde- 

 pendence, peace and amnesty were promulgated in 

 the Philippine Islands. Some trouble has since from 

 time to time threatened with the Mohammedan Mo- 

 ros, but with the late insurrectionary Filipinos the 

 war has entirely ceased. Civil government has now 

 been introduced. Not only does each Filipino en- 

 joy such rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of 

 happiness as he has never before known during 

 the recorded history of the islands, but the people 

 taken as a whole now enjoy a measure of self- 

 government greater than that granted to any other 

 Orientals by any foregn power and greater than 

 that enjoyed by any other Orientals under their own 

 governments, save the Japanese alone. We have 

 not gone too far in granting these rights of liberty 

 and self-government; but we have certainly gone 

 to the limit that in the interests of the Philippine 

 people themselves it was wise or just to go. To 

 hurry matters, to go faster than we are now going, 

 would entail calamity on the people of the islands. 



