Tom Platform of the American Anti-Imperialist League
We hold that the policy known as imperialism is hostile to
liberty and tends toward militarism, an evil from which it has been
our glory to be free. We regret that it has become necessary in the
land of Washington and Lincoln to reaffirm that all men, of whatever
race or color, are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
We maintain that governments derive their just powers from the
consent of the governed. We insist that the subjugation of any people
is "criminal aggression" and open disloyalty to the distinctive princi-
ples of our government.
We earnestly condemn the policy of the present national admin-
istration in the Philippines. It seeks to extinguish the spirit of 1776
in those islands. We deplore the sacrifice of our soldiers and sailors.
whose bravery deserves admiration even in an unjust war. We
denounce the slaughter of the Filipinos as a needless horror. We
protest against the extension of American sovereignty by Spanish
methods.
We demand the immediate cessation of the war against liberty,
begun by Spain and continued by us. We urge that Congress be
promptly convened to announce to the Filipinos our purpose to
concede to them the independence for which they have so long
fought and which of right is theirs.
The United States have always protested against the doctrine
of international law which permits the subjugation of the weak by
the strong. A self-governing state cannot accept sovereignty over
an unwilling people. The United States cannot act upon the ancient
heresy that might makes right.
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