The Peril of the Republic of the United States of America - Percy T. Magan

at all recognize it.”
The forcible annexation of the Philippine
Islands is now being attempted. The government of
the United States is endeavoring to subject this
people against their will. To enforce this idea is to
enforce slavery; not in the extreme degree, to be
sure, but in part and in principle nevertheless. On
this point a United States senator has truly said:--
“Wherever a people are required to render an
obedience which is involuntary, that requirement is
an enslavement of that people. “There are different
degrees of enslavement. If we put our yoke upon a
people, if we rule them arbitrarily, if we send them
governors and judges, if we make laws for them
without their participation, if we enforce obedience
to such laws by our army, then it is an absolute
enslavement. If, on the contrary, we allow them
free institutions, but at the same time prescribe to
them that they shall owe allegiance to a
government against their will, it is none the less an
enslavement, although less in degree.”[3]
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