Power, it must be remembered, which
is secured by oppression or usurpation or by any form of injustice
is soon dethroned. We have no right in law or morals to usurp
that which belongs to another, whether it is property or power."
I suppose he was then speaking of our duty as to any people
whom we might liberate from Spain, as the results of the Spanish
War. He unquestionably meant that we had no right, in law
or morals, to usurp the right of self-government which belonged
to the Cubans, or to the Philippine people.
Yet I have no doubt whatever that in the attitude that he
took later he was actuated by a serious and lofty purpose
to do right. I think he was led on from one step to another
by what he deemed the necessity of the present occasion. I
dare say that he was influenced, as any other man who was
not more than human would have been influenced, by the apparently
earnest desire of the American people, as he understood it,
as it was conveyed to him on his Western journey. But I believe
every step he took he thought necessary at the time. I further
believe, although I may not be able to convince other men,
and no man will know until the secret history of that time
shall be made known, that if he had lived, before his Administration
was over, he would have placed the Republic again on the principles
from which it seems to me we departed--the great doctrine
of Jefferson, the great doctrine of the Declaration of Independence,
that there can be no just Government by one people over another
without its consent, and that the International law declared
by the Republic is that all Governments must depend for their
just powers upon the consent of the governed.
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