Jacob Gould Schurman Quotes
Should our power by any fatality be withdrawn, the commission believe that the government of the Philippines would speedily lapse into anarchy, which would excuse, if it did not necessitate, the intervention of other powers and the eventual division of the islands among them. Only through American occupation, therefore, is the idea of a free, self-governing, and united Philippine commonwealth at all conceivable. And the indispensable need from the Filipino point of view of maintaining American sovereignty over the archipelago is recognized by all intelligent Filipinos and even by those insurgents who desire an American protectorate.
There already was a revolutionary effort of Filipinos to obtain independence from Spain when the U. S. defeated the Spanish in the Spanish American War. The revolutionaries then split. Most trusted the United States and looked to America to help them set up an independent government. Others wanted all foreign forces out. They continued their insurrection against the Americans which produced atrocities on both sides. Finally the insurrection was defeated, and the Philippines have been independent ever since. This quotation was the policy justification that President McKinley used to justify the American involvement in the Philippines after the defeat of Spain.
Jacob Gould Schurman, 1854–1942, Chairman of the First United States Philippine Commission, President of Cornell University, U. S. Ambassador to Germany, Commission Report, November 2, 1900
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There was an interesting parallel to the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. When American troops would explain their mission to locals, many were actually fearful of terms like democracy, freedom, education, development and modernity. Religious and cultural forces had made these concepts fearful and undesirable and while there were many who saw these as desirable, there were also many who perceived these as undesirable and even evil. The American military faced the same problem a century ago.
She was referring to the aftermath of the Iraq War.
Shortly after he refused to join, his brother who had joined the Resistance had been captured, tortured and murdered by the Germans. He then joined the active resistance even though the Americans had not yet arrived. He realized that resistance was just an annoyance to the Germans, and the time the Resistance could really make a difference was after the Americans and British had landed in France.
General Otis, the commander of American troops in the Philippines regarded this proclamation as tantamount to a declaration of war and prepared his forces for such.
The Colonel defined people capable of bearing arms as males and females over 20 years of age. Many were slaughtered. Fortunately, most of his officers and men did not follow this order but enough did to make it one of the most disgraceful events in American military history. Smith was court marshaled and found guilty but his punishment was to be cashiered from the army. There were many atrocities committed by the minorities of both sides in this brutal war. Military and Congressional Investigations caused the army manual to be revised military policies reformed.
The Philippine-American War was terribly brutal. In response to insurgent atrocities against American soldiers, some of the Americans also adopted brutal tactics including torture and mutilation. Washington had heard stories of this improper behavior in the part of some American troops and instructed the senior officers to investigate and discipline the men if the reports were true. Unfortunately some of the senior officers covered up the illegal and criminal behavior of some Americans. This quotation was taken from a New York Times report on a representative of the Red Cross who went to the Philippines at the invitation of the insurgents. He generally found serious atrocities by some of the soldiers on both sides but by no means all of the combatants. General Otis, the U. S. Commander tried to keep Blake out, and had him detained away from the battle areas for some weeks where he was “educated” about the enemy atrocities. Finally Blake got to the field and reached the insurgent commander who had invited him. His report generally praised the American troops, but spared no details when there were guilty of atrocities.
This quotation is one of the best statements reflecting the logic and thinking of a large part of American expansionists and imperialists. Mark Twain and others formed an Anti-Imperialistic League to combat this viewpoint and ideology and both political parties had members on each side of this issue. A little over a century later, we ended up with similar dilemmas regarding nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan after our invasions removed their terrible government. One really notable factor in this quotation is that expansionists like McKinley believed sincerely that imperialism was our DUTY which we could not fairly shirk. That is perhaps the biggest difference between America then and 100 years later.
Jacob Gould Schurman was a Canadian-born American educator and diplomat, who served as President of Cornell University and United States Ambassador to Germany.
