Europe and elsewhere, by Mark Twain [pseud.] [with an appreciation by Brander Matthews and an introduction by Albert Bigelow Paine]

TO THE PERSON SITTING IN DARKNESS
bad mistake: he played the European game, the
Chamberlain game. It was a pity; it was a great
pity, that error; that one grievous error, that irrevocable error. For it was the very place and time
to play the American game again. And at no cost.
Rich winnings to be gathered in, too; rich and
permanent; indestructible; a fortune transmissible
forever to the children of the flag. Not land, not
money, not dominion-no, something worth many
times more than that dross: our share, the spectacle
of a nation of long harassed and persecuted slaves
set free through our influence; our posterity's share,
the golden memory of that fair deed. The game
was in our hands. If it had been played according
to the American rules, Dewey would have sailed
away from Manila as soon as he had destroyed the
Spanish fleet-after putting up a sign on shore
guaranteeing foreign property and life against damage by the Filipinos, and warning the Powers that
interference with the emancipated patriots would be
regarded as an act unfriendly to the United States.
The Powers cannot combine, in even a bad cause,
and the sign would not have been molested.
Dewey could have gone about his affairs elsewhere,
and left the competent Filipino army to starve out
the little Spanish garrison and send it home, and the
Filipino citizens to set up the form of government
they might prefer, and deal with the friars and their
doubtful acquisitions according to Filipino ideas of
fairness and justice-ideas which have since been
tested and found to be of as high an order as any
that prevail in Europe or America.
263