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Messages and Papers of William McKinley V.2. by William McKinley

W >> William McKinley >> Messages and Papers of William McKinley V.2.




Second. Copy of instructions relating to a proclamation sent to General
Otis and of the proclamation issued by General Otis pursuant thereto.
Said copies of documents are appended hereto, marked "II." No
disapproval of the said proclamation was expressed by my authority or
that of the War Department. It was, in fact, approved by me, although no
formal communication to that effect was sent to General Otis.

Also, among the papers marked "II," a letter of instructions to
Maj.-Gen. Wesley Merritt, commanding the army in the Philippines, under
date of May 28, 1898, and a proclamation issued by him to the people of
the Philippines dated August 14, 1898.

Third. Copies of English translations of all constitutions, forms of
government, or proclamations issued by Aguinaldo, or any congress or
legislative assembly or body claiming to be such, or convention of the
people of the Philippine Islands, or any part thereof, or claiming to
represent them, or any part thereof, of which information has come to me
or to any Department of the Government. Said copies of documents are
appended hereto marked "III."

Fourth. Copies of all written instructions given by me to the
commissioners to the Philippine Islands, or either of them. Said copies
of documents are appended hereto marked "IV."

Fifth. Such information as has come to me, or any Department of the
Government, since January 1, 1898, in regard to any plans of the people
in arms against the United States for the pillage of Manila, for risings
in the city, or for the destruction of foreign property and the massacre
of foreign residents. Said copies of documents are appended hereto
marked "V."

Sixth. The information which has come to me, or any Department of the
Government, of the treatment of the other inhabitants of the Philippines
by those in arms against the authority of the United States, and of the
attitude and feeling of such other inhabitants or tribes toward the
so-called government of Aguinaldo and his armed followers, is contained
in the preliminary statement of the Philippine Commission, dated
November 2, 1899, in the report of the Philippine Commission, dated
January 31, 1900, and transmitted by me to Congress February 2, 1900,
together with the preliminary statement, and the report of Maj.-Gen. E.
S. Otis, United States Volunteers, commanding the Department of the
Pacific and Eighth Army Corps, dated August 31, 1899, and transmitted to
Congress with the report of the Secretary of War, dated November 29,
1899, with the accompanying documents.

Seventh. The information which has come to me, or any Department of the
Government, of the treatment of prisoners, either Spanish or American,
by the people in arms against the authority of the United States, is
contained in the same documents.

Eighth. The information that has come to me, or any Department of the
Government, as to any aid or encouragement received by Aguinaldo and
his followers from persons in the United States, as to what pamphlets,
speeches, or other documents emanating from the United States, and
adverse to its authority and to its policy, were circulated, in whole or
in part, among the Filipinos in arms against the United States, among
the other inhabitants of the islands, or among the soldiers of the
United States, and any information as to the effect, if any, of such
pamphlets, speeches, and other documents, or of similar utterances in
the United States upon the course of the rebellion against the United
States is contained in the same documents, and the copies of documents
appended hereto marked "VI."

WILLIAM McKINLEY.



EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 15, 1900_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In response to the resolution of the Senate of March 12, 1900, calling
for the correspondence touching the request of the Government of the
South African Republics for my intervention with a view to the cessation
of hostilities, I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State
furnishing the requested papers.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.



EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 21, 1900_.

_To the Senate_:

In response to the resolution of the Senate of January 23, 1900,
requesting the President, "if in his opinion it is not incompatible
with the public interest, to furnish the Senate with copies of the
correspondence with the Republic of Colombia in relation to the Panama
Canal and to the treaty between this Government and New Granada
concluded December 12, 1846, not heretofore communicated," I transmit
herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.



EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, March 27, 1900_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

In response to the resolution of the House of Representatives of March
24, 1900, reading as follows:

WHEREAS the commercial community of the United States is deeply
interested in ascertaining the conditions which are to govern trade
in such parts of the Chinese Empire as are claimed by various foreign
powers to be within their "areas of interest"; and

WHEREAS bills are now pending before both Houses of Congress for the
dispatch of a mission to China to study its economic condition:
Therefore, be it

_Resolved_, That the President of the United States be requested
to transmit to the House of Representatives, if not incompatible with
the public service, such correspondence as may have passed between the
Department of State and various foreign Governments concerning the
maintenance of the "open door" policy in China,


I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with
accompanying papers.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.



EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, April 2, 1900_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith a copy of a letter from Mr. Ferdinand W. Peck,
Commissioner-General of the United States to the Paris Exposition of
1900, dated November 17, 1899, submitting a detailed statement of the
expenditures incurred under authority of law.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.



EXECUTIVE MANSION, _April 17, 1900_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State in response
to the resolution of the House of Representatives of March 23, 1900,
calling for copies of any and all letters on file in the Department of
State from citizens of the United States resident in the South African
Republic from January 1, 1899, to the present time, making complaints
of treatment by the South African Republic.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.



EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, May 3, 1900_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I herewith return, without approval, House bill No. 4001, entitled "An
act authorizing the rights of settlers on the Navajo Indian Reservation,
Territory of Arizona." My objections to the bill are embodied in the
following statement:

This tribe has a population of about 20,500 souls, of whom 1,000 dress
in the manner of white men, 250 can read, and 500 use enough English
for ordinary conversation. Last year they cultivated 8,000 acres, and
possessed approximately 1,000,000 sheep, 250,000 goats, 100,500 cattle,
1,200 swine, and very considerable herds of horses and ponies.

Prior to January last the reservation, which is in the extreme
northeastern portion of the Territory of Arizona, consisted of lands
set apart for the use of these Indians under the treaty of June 1, 1863
(15 Stat., 667), and subsequent executive orders. On account of the
conditions naturally prevailing in that section, the reservation, as
then constituted, was altogether inadequate for the purpose for which
it was set apart. There was not a sufficient supply of grass or water
within its borders for the flocks and herds of the tribe, and in
consequence more than one-third of the Indians were habitually off the
reservation with their flocks and herds, and were in frequent contention
and strife with whites over pasturage and water.

After most careful inquiry and inspection of the reservation as it
then existed, and of adjacent land by efficient officers in the Indian
service, the Commission of Indian Affairs, with the concurrence of
the Secretary of the Interior, recommended that the limits of the
reservation be extended westward so as to embrace the lands lying
between the Navajo and Moqui Indian reservations on the east and the
Colorado and Little Colorado Rivers and the Grand Canyon Forest Reserve
on the west. This recommendation was supported by a very numerously
signed petition from the white residents of that section, and also by a
letter from the Governor of the Territory of Arizona, in which it was
said:

I understand that a petition has been forwarded asking that the western
limit be fixed at the Little Colorado River, as being better for all
concerned and less liable to cause friction between the Indians and the
whites. I earnestly hope that the prayer of the petitioners be granted,
for the reason that the Little Colorado could be made a natural dividing
line, distinct and well defined, and would extend the grazing territory
of the Navajoes to a very considerable extent without seriously
encroaching upon the interests of white settlers who have their property
in that neighborhood.

I think great care should be exercised in questions of this nature
because of possible serious friction which may occur if the interests of
all concerned are not carefully protected.


The investigation which preceded this recommendation, and upon which it
was in part based, showed that with the boundaries of the reservation
thus extended the Indians would be able to obtain within the limits of
the reservation sufficient grass and water for their flocks and herds,
and the Government would therefore be justified in confining them to the
reservation, thus avoiding the prior contention and friction between
them and the whites.

It appearing that but little aid had been extended to these Indians by
the Government for many years, that they had taken on habits of industry
and husbandry, which entitled them to encouragement, and that it was
neither just nor possible to confine them to the limits of a reservation
which would not sustain their flocks and herds, an order was issued by
me January 8 last, extending the reservation boundaries as recommended.
The Indians have accepted this as an evidence of the good faith of the
Government toward them, and it is now the belief of those charged with
the administration of Indian affairs that further contention and
friction between the Indians and whites will be avoided, if this
arrangement is not disturbed.

The present bill proposes to open to miners and prospectors, and to the
operation of the mining laws, a substantial portion of this reservation,
including a part of the lands covered by the recent order. There has
been no effort to obtain from the Indians a concession of this
character, nor has any reason been presented why, if these lands are to
be taken from them--for that will practically result from this bill, if
it becomes a law, even though not so intended--it should not be done in
pursuance of negotiations had with the Indians as in other instances.

The Indians could not understand how lands given to them in January as
necessary for their use should be taken away without previous notice in
May of the same year. While the Indians are the wards of the Government,
and must submit to that which is deemed for their best interests by the
sovereign guardian, they should, nevertheless, be dealt with in a manner
calculated to give them confidence in the Government and to assist them
in passing through the inevitable transition to a state of civilization
and full citizenship. Believing that due consideration has not been
given to the status and interests of the Indians, I withhold my approval
from the bill.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.



EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, May 12, 1900_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In reply to the resolution of the Senate, dated March 2, 1900, I send
herewith copy of an order to the provost marshal general of Manila,
dated March 8, 1900, and the various endorsements and reports thereon,
whereby it appears that the traffic in wine, beer, and liquor in the
city of Manila is now controlled under a rigidly enforced high-license
system; that the number of places where the liquor is sold has greatly
decreased; that all such places are required to be closed at 8:30 in the
evening on week days and to be kept closed on Sundays, and that the
orderly condition of the city compares favorably with cities of similar
size in the United States.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.



EXECUTIVE MANSION, _May 12, 1900_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In response to a resolution of the Senate of April 11, 1900, reading as
follows:

_Resolved_, That the President be, and is hereby, requested, if not
incompatible with public interest, to inform the Senate whether persons
have been executed in Puerto Rico by the Spanish method of garrote since
he has been governing that country as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and
Navy of the United States; and if so, the President is requested to
inform the Senate why this mode of execution was adopted.


I transmit herewith copies of reports from Brig.-Gen. George W. Davis,
United States Volunteers, military governor of Puerto Rico, which
contain the information called for.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.



EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, May 19, 1900_.

_To the Senate_:

In response to the following resolution of the Senate of April 28, 1900:


_Resolved_, That the President be, and he is hereby requested, if
not incompatible with the public interest, to inform the Senate whether
General Torres, one of the officers of the Philippine army, came to
General Otis with a flag of truce on February 5, 1899, the day after
the fighting commenced between our forces and those of the Filipinos,
and stated to General Otis that General Aguinaldo declared that
fighting had been begun accidentally, and was not authorized by him,
and that Aguinaldo wished to have it stopped, and that to bring about
a conclusion of hostilities he proposed the establishment of a neutral
zone between the two armies of a width that would be agreeable to
General Otis, so that during the peace negotiations there might be no
further danger of conflict between the two armies, and whether General
Otis replied that fighting having once begun, must go on to the grim
end. Was General Otis directed by the Secretary of War to make such an
answer? Did General Otis telegraph the Secretary of War on February 9,
1899, as follows: "Aguinaldo now applies for a cessation of hostilities
and conference. Have declined to answer?" And did General Otis
afterwards reply? Was he directed by the Secretary of War to reply, and
what answer, if any, did he or the Secretary of War make to the
application to cease fighting?

The President is also requested to inform the Senate whether the flag of
the Philippine Republic was ever saluted by Admiral Dewey or any of the
vessels of his fleet at any time since May 1, 1898. "Did Admiral Dewey,
at the request of Aguinaldo, or any officer under him, send the vessels
_Concord_ and _Raleigh_ to Subig Bay to assist Aguinaldo's
forces in the capture of the Spanish garrison at that place? Did said
vessels assist in the capture of the Spanish garrison, and after the
capture did they turn the prisoners thus taken over to the Philippine
forces?"


I herewith transmit a copy of a cable dispatch to General Otis, dated
April 30, 1900, and of his reply, dated May 1, 1900.

General Otis was not directed by the Secretary of War to make such
an answer as is set forth in the resolution, nor were any answers
to communications upon the subject of the cessation of hostilities
prescribed by the Secretary of War to General Otis, but he was left to
exercise in respect thereof his own judgment, based upon his superior
knowledge of the conditions surrounding the troops under his command.

I also transmit a copy of a cable dispatch from General Otis, sent from
Manila February 8, 1899, received in Washington February 9, 1899, being
the same dispatch to which he refers in his reply of May 1, 1900 as
misleading. So far as I am informed, General Otis did not afterwards
reply, except as set forth in his dispatch of May 1, 1900. He was not
directed by the Secretary of War to reply, and no answer was made by him
or the Secretary of War to an application to cease fighting. There
appears to have been no such application.

I further transmit a copy of a letter from the Secretary of the Navy to
Admiral George Dewey, dated May 14, 1900, and a copy of the Admiral's
reply, dated May 17, 1900.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.



EXECUTIVE MANSION, _May 22, 1900_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with
accompanying papers, relative to the status of Chinese persons in the
Philippine Islands.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.



EXECUTIVE MANSION, _May 22, 1900_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith, for the information of Congress, a communication
from the Secretary of Agriculture, forwarding a report on the progress
of the beet-sugar industry in the United States during the year 1899. It
embraces the observations made by a special agent on the various phases
of the beet-sugar industry of the Hawaiian Islands; also the results of
analyses of sugar-beets received by the Department of Agriculture from
the different States and Territories, together with much other
information relating to the sugar industry.

Your attention is invited to the recommendation of the Secretary of
Agriculture that 20,000 copies of the report be printed for the use of
the Department, in addition to such number as may be desired for the use
of the Senate and House of Representatives.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.



EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, May 26, 1900_.

_To the Senate_:

I transmit herewith, in answer to the resolution of the Senate of May
22, 1900, a report from the Secretary of State showing that the consul
of the United States at Pretoria was directed on May 8, 1900, to forward
copies of the constitutions of the South African Republic and the Orange
Free State by return mail. Translations thereof will be communicated to
the Senate at the earliest practicable date.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.



EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, June 2, 1900_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit herewith, in further reply to the resolution of the Senate of
April 10, 1900, having reference to Senate Document No. 336, Fifty-sixth
Congress, first session, a further report from the Secretary of State,
showing the places of residence of experts, clerks, officers, and
employees of the Commission of the United States to the Paris Exposition
of 1900, as well as the items of expenditures of the Commission for the
months of January, February, and March, 1900, amounting to $211,583.25.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.



EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, June 6, 1900_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In further response to the resolution of the Senate of January 17, 1900,
requesting, among other things, information tending to throw light upon
the conduct and events of the insurrection against the authority of the
United States in the Philippine Islands, I transmit herewith a
correspondence between the Secretary of War and the officers of the
Second Division of the Eighth Army Corps.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.



EXECUTIVE MANSION, _December 3, 1900_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

At the outgoing of the old and the incoming of the new century you begin
the last session of the Fifty-sixth Congress with evidences on every
hand of individual and national prosperity and with proof of the growing
strength and increasing power for good of Republican institutions. Your
countrymen will join with you in felicitation that American liberty is
more firmly established than ever before, and that love for it and the
determination to preserve it are more universal than at any former
period of our history.

The Republic was never so strong, because never so strongly intrenched
in the hearts of the people as now. The Constitution, with few
amendments, exists as it left the hands of its authors. The additions
which have been made to it proclaim larger freedom and more extended
citizenship. Popular government has demonstrated in its one hundred and
twenty-four years of trial here its stability and security, and its
efficiency as the best instrument of national development and the best
safeguard to human rights.

When the Sixth Congress assembled in November, 1800, the population
of the United States was 5,308,483. It is now 76,304,799. Then we had
sixteen States. Now we have forty-five. Then our territory consisted
of 909,050 square miles. It is now 3,846,595 square miles. Education,
religion, and morality have kept pace with our advancement in other
directions, and while extending its power the Government has adhered to
its foundation principles and abated none of them in dealing with our
new peoples and possessions. A nation so preserved and blessed gives
reverent thanks to God and invokes His guidance and the continuance of
His care and favor.

In our foreign intercourse the dominant question has been the treatment
of the Chinese problem. Apart from this our relations with the powers
have been happy.

The recent troubles in China spring from the antiforeign agitation which
for the past three years has gained strength in the northern provinces.
Their origin lies deep in the character of the Chinese races and in the
traditions of their Government. The Taiping rebellion and the opening of
Chinese ports to foreign trade and settlement disturbed alike the
homogeneity and the seclusion of China.

Meanwhile foreign activity made itself felt in all quarters, not alone
on the coast, but along the great river arteries and in the remoter
districts, carrying new ideas and introducing new associations among a
primitive people which had pursued for centuries a national policy of
isolation.

The telegraph and the railway spreading over their land, the steamers
plying on their waterways, the merchant and the missionary penetrating
year by year farther to the interior, became to the Chinese mind types
of an alien invasion, changing the course of their national life and
fraught with vague forebodings of disaster to their beliefs and their
self-control.

For several years before the present troubles all the resources of
foreign diplomacy, backed by moral demonstrations of the physical
force of fleets and arms, have been needed to secure due respect for
the treaty rights of foreigners and to obtain satisfaction from the
responsible authorities for the sporadic outrages upon the persons and
property of unoffending sojourners, which from time to time occurred at
widely separated points in the northern provinces, as in the case of the
outbreaks in Sze-chuen and Shan-tung.

Posting of antiforeign placards became a daily occurrence, which the
repeated reprobation of the Imperial power failed to check or punish.
These inflammatory appeals to the ignorance and superstition of the
masses, mendacious and absurd in their accusations and deeply hostile
in their spirit, could not but work cumulative harm. They aimed at no
particular class of foreigners; they were impartial in attacking
everything foreign.

An outbreak in Shan-tung, in which German missionaries were slain, was
the too natural result of these malevolent teachings. The posting of
seditious placards, exhorting to the utter destruction of foreigners and
of every foreign thing, continued unrebuked. Hostile demonstrations
toward the stranger gained strength by organization.

The sect, commonly styled the Boxers, developed greatly in the provinces
north of the Yang-Tse, and with the collusion of many notable officials,
including some in the immediate councils of the Throne itself, became
alarmingly aggressive. No foreigner's life, outside of the protected
treaty ports, was safe. No foreign interest was secure from spoliation.

The diplomatic representatives of the powers in Peking strove in vain
to check this movement. Protest was followed by demand and demand by
renewed protest, to be met with perfunctory edicts from the Palace and
evasive and futile assurances from the Tsung-li Yamen. The circle of the
Boxer influence narrowed about Peking, and while nominally stigmatized
as seditious, it was felt that its spirit pervaded the capital itself,
that the Imperial forces were imbued with its doctrines, and that the
immediate counselors of the Empress Dowager were in full sympathy with
the antiforeign movement.

The increasing gravity of the conditions in China and the imminence of
peril to our own diversified interests in the Empire, as well as to
those of all the other treaty governments, were soon appreciated by this
Government, causing it profound solicitude. The United States from the
earliest days of foreign intercourse with China had followed a policy of
peace, omitting no occasions to testify good will, to further the
extension of lawful trade, to respect the sovereignty of its Government,
and to insure by all legitimate and kindly but earnest means the fullest
measure of protection for the lives and property of our law-abiding
citizens and for the exercise of their beneficent callings among the
Chinese people.

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Various - "The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 41, August 19, 1897"

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Roy Greenslade: Michael Wolff on Rupert Murdoch - he loves gossip
Articles published by guardian.co.uk Books

President Obama teams up with one of Marvel's greatest heroes, reports Alison Flood

Here's Michael Wolff, still doing the rounds promoting his Rupert Murdoch biography, The man who owns the news. This interview with Jon Stewart is fun. It starts off with Wolff saying: "You wanna start a rumour, tell Rupert. He's the biggest gossip I've ever met." And there's an amusing pay-off too. (Via Comedy Central/The E&P Pub)

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Murder One closing so did we commit this crime?

Barack Obama is teaming up with Spider-Man in a new comic from Marvel, which will see the future president exchanging a fist-bump with Peter Parker's alter ego.

The five-page story takes place in Washington DC on inauguration day, when one of Spidey's oldest enemies, the Chameleon, attempts to stop Obama's swearing-in ceremony. Fortunately, Peter Parker is covering the event as a photographer, and jumps in to save the day.

"Ya hear that, Chameleon? The president-elect here just appointed me ... secretary of shuttin' you up," Spider-Man says as he thwacks the Chameleon in the face. "I hope this doesn't ruin the inauguration for you," he tells Obama, as the Chameleon is led away by security officials. "Honestly, I'm more upset by the Chameleon's shockingly deficient understanding of the electoral process," Obama replies.

Spidey then cedes the limelight to Obama. "This is your day, after all, and I know it wouldn't look good to be seen palling around with me," he says, in a nod to Sarah Palin's comment that the then presidential candidate had been "palling around with terrorists".

The story, written by Zeb Wells and illustrated by Todd Nauck and Frank D'Armata, will appear as a bonus feature in Amazing Spider-Man 583, which goes on sale on 14 January.

"When we heard that president-elect Obama is a collector of Spider-Man comics, we knew that these two historic figures had to meet in our comics' Marvel Universe," said Marvel's editor-in-chief Joe Quesada. "A Spider-Man fan moving into the Oval Office is an event that must be commemorated in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man."

In October, graphic novel biographies of Obama and his then rival John McCain were published by IDW. April will see Michelle Obama appearing in the Female Force comic book series.

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