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Azaria Banks Period 3 Morrison Swift

Morrison Swift, by all means, wasn’t the most popular man in the late 1800’s. In 1899, Swift published his prominent book, Imperialism and Liberty. In this lengthy analysis he pieced together events leading up to the Philippine-American war, reasoning behind it, and lies within it. Morrison was strongly against Imperialism and had a lot of reason to be, considering his in-depth knowledge of this quandary. His thoughts and opinion on Imperialism is the only important thing he left behind. He spoke of the selfish leaders, the fabricated promises, and the influence it had back home. The first point Swift brought up in his novel was the “hard and selfish imperialist politician”, Charles Denby. Denby is quoted saying “Commerce, not politics, is king.” He also believes that “the manufacturer and the merchant dictate to diplomacy and control elections.” And when it comes to the Philippines specifically, he states that as the winners of the Spanish-American war we have every right to conquer the Philippines. These quotes show how selfish Denby really was. All he truly cared about was being the best and ranking the highest within the nations. He further proves this scenario by saying “We are taking our proper rank among the nations of the world. We are after the greatest markets now existing in the world.” Denby, however, sees opportunity in not annexing China, but instead letting them build up their success and then engaging in free trade. He states that this is for our own interests, and not theirs. Denby was among the many men who felt this way, and these types of people were beginning to influence the President.

President Mckinley tried his hardest to watch what he said and keep peace within America. He wasn’t an honest man, and he wasn’t known to keep his word. He gave few proclamations in which he stated such promises like when we have done our job in the Philippines we will “leave the government and control of the island to its people.” He also declared, “I speak not of forcible annexation, because that is not to be thought of and under our code of morality that would be criminal aggression.” Despite these reassuring vows, a year later the president created a new proclamation to the Filipinos announcing that as a result of our win “the future control, disposition, and government of the Philippine Islands are ceded to the United States.” In addition, our military will be expanding into their city, harbor, and bay of Manila. As soon as this reached the people of the Philippines, rage and disorder surfaced. People felt it was their right to rebel; they did not want to be conquered, especially after they helped the Americans in our previous war with Spain. The President attempted to calm the confusion by guaranteeing security and safety from them, their property, private rights and relations. He also proclaimed “we come, not as invaders, or conquerors, but as friends, to protect the natives in their homes, in their employment, and in their personal and religious rights.” Swift’s biggest problem with this is if he promised all of these things, than why did 4,000 people get killed on February 5th? What happened to forcible annexation being against our code of morality? Why did he later state that he suddenly agrees that we should Christianize the Philippines? The president, the one who is in charge of our nations decision-making can’t even decide on what his own decision is; McKinley contradicts himself. The American people didn’t even get a vote in this decision, they honestly didn’t even have their own viewpoint except knowing it was wrong.

In the 1800’s, being wealthy automatically puts you in a high social status. But, unlike today, in this time, a wealthy person controls a lot more, including press. Yellow Journalism was very popular in the late 1800’s early 1900’s. Yellow Journalism is the exaggeration of stories and events in the newspaper. It also was the viewpoint and opinion of the wealthier folks, with the label of the peoples’. It was very common for wealthy people to be in favor of Imperialism. They knew it would increase money, give us more territory, and if anything, it wouldn’t negatively affect them like it would the middle and lower class. When the press would print a paper that was said to express how “the people” felt, it influenced the real “people”. As Morrison stated, “the public opinion is never really expressed and therefore never really formed.” They began to believe in the press and abide by it. So much so that after putting in a section on Sundays for “compact little sermonlets,” people felt relieved to “rescued” from the “Sabbath labor of walking to church.” Morrison felt that if you can see the nation going from seizing others lands and slaughtering their people to stopping our own nation from a simple yet significant act like going to church, than the immorality in this all should be more than evident.

Swift, Morrison I.. //Imperialism and liberty//. Los Angeles: Ronbroke Press, 1899. Print.