The people of the Philippines, their religious progress and preparation for spiritual leadership in the Far East,

AMERICA ARRIVES

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at Hongkong, and I ordered him to go to Manila, and he
had to; because, if defeated, he had no place to refit on that
side of the globe, and if the Dons were victorious they would
likely cross the Pacific and ravage our Oregon and California
coasts. And so he had to destroy the Spanish fleet, and did it!
But that was as far as I thought then.
"When next I realized that the Philippines had dropped
into our lap, I confess I did not know what to do with them.
I sought counsel from all sides-Democrats as well as Republicans-but got little help. I thought first we would take
only Manila; then Luzon; then other islands, perhaps also.
I walked the floor of the White House night after night until
midnight; and I am not ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that
I went down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for light
and guidance more than one night. And one night late it
came to me this way-I don't know how it was, but it came:
"( i) That we could not give them back to Spain-that we
would be cowardly and dishonorable;
"(2) That we could not turn them over to France or
Germany-our commercial rivals in the Orient-that would
be bad business and discreditable;
"(3) That we could not leave them to themselves-they
were unfit for self-government-and they would soon have
anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain's was; and
"(4) That there was nothing left for us to do but to take
them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize
and Christianize them, and by God's grace, do the very best
we could by them, as our fellow-men for whom Christ also
died. And then I went to bed, and went to sleep, and slept
soundly, and the next morning I sent for the chief engineer
of the War Department (our map-maker), and told him to
put the Philippines on the map of the United States (pointing
to a large map on the wall of his office); and there they are,
and there they will stay while I am President!"
Dewey, who could not know what America was going to
do, evidently judged that his wisest course was to avoid talking with the Filipinos at all until he had definite information
for them. Interpreters proved exceedingly unreliable and