628 Presidential Addresses 



No policy ever entered into by the American people 

 has vindicated itself in more signal manner than the 

 policy of holding the Philippines. The triumph of 

 our arms, above all the triumph of our laws and 

 principles, has come sooner than we had any right 

 to expect. Too much praise can not be given to 

 the army for what it has done in the Philippines' 

 both in warfare and from an administrative stand- 

 point in preparing the way for civil government; 

 and similar credit belongs to the civil authorities 

 for the way in which they have planted the seeds 

 of self-government in the ground thus made ready 

 for them. The courage, the unflinching endurance, 

 the high soldierly efficiency, and the general kind- 

 heartedness and humanity of our troops have been 

 strikingly manifested. There now remain only some 

 fifteen thousand troops in the islands. All told, 

 over one hundred thousand have been sent there. 

 Of course, there have been individual instances of 

 wrongdoing among them. They warred under fear- 

 ful difficulties of climate and surroundings; and 

 under the strain of the terrible provocations which 

 they continually received from their foes, occasional 

 instances of cruel retaliation occurred. Every ef- 

 fort has been made to prevent such cruelties, and 

 finally these efforts have been completely success- 

 ful. Every effort has also been made to detect and 

 punish the wrongdoers. After making all allow- 

 ance for these misdeeds, it remains true that few 

 indeed have been the instances in which war has 

 been waged by a civilized power against semi-civ- 



