The Anti-Imperialist
League
We hold that the
policy known as imperialism is hostile to liberty and tends towards militarism,
an evil from which it has been our glory to be free. We regret that it has
become necessary in the land of Washington and Lincoln to reaffirm that all
men, of whatever race or color, are entitled to life, liberty and
the pursuit of
happiness. We maintain that governments derive their just powers from the
consent of the governed. We insist that the subjugation of any people is “criminal
aggression” and open disloyalty to the distinctive principles of our government.
We earnestly condemn
the policy of the present National Administration in the Philippines. It seeks
to extinguish the spirit of 1776 in those islands. We deplore the sacrifice of
our soldiers and sailors, whose bravery deserves admiration even in an unjust
war. We denounce the slaughter of the Filipinos as a needless horror. We
protest against the extension of American sovereignty by Spanish methods.
. . .We demand the immediate cessation of the war against
liberty, begun by Spain and continued by us. We urge that Congress be promptly
convened to announce to the Filipinos our purpose to concede to them the
independence for which they have so long fought and which of right is theirs.
We deny that the
obligation of all citizens to support their Government in times of grave
National peril applies to the present situation. If an Administration may with
impunity ignore the issues upon which it was chosen, deliberately create a
condition of war anywhere on the face of the globe, debauch the civil service
for spoils to promote the adventure, organize a truthrepressing
[sic] censorship and demand of all citizens a suspension of judgment and their
unanimous support while it chooses to continue the fighting, representative
government itself is imperiled.
We propose to
contribute to the defeat of any person or party that stands for the forcible
subjugation of any people. We shall oppose for reelection all who in the White
House or in Congress betray American liberty in pursuit of un-American ends. We
still hope that both of our great political parties will support and defend the
Declaration of Independence in the closing campaign of the century.
We hold, with Abraham
Lincoln, that “no man is good enough to govern another without that man’s
consent. When the white man governs himself, that is self-government, but when
he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than
self-government—this is despotism.”