causes which lead to the war (see Nagasaki Press, July 19) but adds that peace can only be had now by recognition of American sovereignty."

Chairman" Well! It looks pretty clear that the position of the Americans is becoming less and less enviable. It is to be hoped that Captain Bevans can clear it all up in the discussion of the next question relating to the justice of the American policy in the Philippines."

PHILIPPINES?

VAT

IN THE

'ATTELS' law of nations: "He who is engaged in war derives all his right from the justice of his cause.

Whoever, therefore, takes up arms without a lawful cause can have absolutely no right whatever; every act of hostility that he commits is an act of injustice. He is chargeable with all the evils, all the horrors of the war; all the effusion of blood, the desolation of families, the rapine, the acts of violence, the ravages, the conflagrations are his works and his crimes. He is guilty of a crime against the enemy whom he attacks, oppresses, and massacres without cause; he is guilty of a crime against his people, whom he forces into acts of injustice, and exposes to danger, without reason or necessity; against those of his subjects who are ruined or distressed by the war, who lose their lives, their property, or their health, in consequence of it; finally, he is guilty of a crime against mankind in general, whose peace he

disturbs, and to whom he sets a pernicious example. Shocking catalogue of miseries. and crimes! Dreadful account to be given to the King of kings, to the common Father of men ! "

The Century had plowed the waves for another day and night and the passengers had gathered under the awnings, and had seated themselves on the steamer chairs, when the chairman called the "meeting" to order and said the question under discussion was one of morals. If the administration is right, the Filipinos are wrong; and if the Filipinos have justice on their side, the administration has become the champion of injustice. "Do unto others as ye would that others should do unto you." Under the same circumstances the Golden Rule is for nations as well as for individuals. If we are not treating the Filipinos as we would wish them to treat us, were the circumstances reversed, we are wrong. If the flag is not engaged in an honorable warfare it is engaged in a dishonorable one, and it is the duty of every American patriot to rescue it. If we are treating the Filipinos wrongly, our first

2

"It was the administration's purpose to force a fight unless the Filipinos humbly submitted to any conditions the Americans

might see fit to impose."

40

thought should be to get ourselves right. We would be injuring ourselves much more than we can injure the Filipinos. Thus spoke the chairman before he called upon Captain Bevans to show cause why the administration should not be condemned for waging an unjustifiable war.

I

Captain Bevans-"I recognize fully the gravity of the burdens that have fallen upon the shoulders of the American people; but our people will never shrink from them, notwithstanding the opposition of 'copperhead' politicians. Lincoln encountered the same brood that are biting at McKinley now. shall quote to you from a speech delivered by Senator Lindsay before the American Bar Association in session at Buffalo, N. Y. He is one of the great constitutional lawyers of the country, and has made, I think, the ablest speech on such of the constitutional questions as he discusses. He has clinched the argument in favor of the administration's policy. He bases his argument upon an early decision of the Supreme Court, which said:

"The Constitution confers absolutely on