1900 ANTI-IMPERIALISM ADDRESS by GEORGE S. BOUTWELL - RARE ORIGINAL PAMPHLET For Sale

We are offering the original pamphlet "Address by Hon. George S. Boutwell", with the heading "Bryan or Imperialism", delivered at the National Liberty Congress of Anti-Imperialists at Indianapolis, Ind. August 15-16, 1900. Published by the New England Anti-Imperialist League. 1900.(5" x 7 3/4"; 20 pages) **NOTE** - William Jennings Bryan was the Democratic candidate for the presidency in 1900 running against Republican incumbent President William McKinley. Bryan opposed American imperialism - the expansion of a nation's power through colonization and/or military force (which of course, was the reason America fought the Revolutionary War against the colonization of America by Great Britain). [Bryan opposed America's annexation of the Philippines, after the Spanish American War, arguing that imperialism only benefited a tiny group of contractors and officials while hurting everyday American workers and farmers through high taxes and large standing armies]
George S. Boutwell (1818-1905) was an U.S. Republican politician - who served as Secretary of Treasury under President Ulysses S. Grant, 20th governor of Massachusetts, U.S senator and representative from Massachusetts, and as the first Commissioner of Internal Revenue under President Abraham Lincoln.In his address, Boutwell reads a letter from Thomas Jones, an American soldier in the Philippines, just days before the official end of the Spanish American War. Sixty soldiers, with the writer of the letter among them, were ordered to a house where it was believed a Filipino general lived, and upon their arrival discovered a wedding ceremony in progress. The men were ordered to charge the group, and they fired upon men, women and children, killing both the bride and groom. Boutwell states that President McKinley had assured America that there is peace in the Philippines, and that "our sixty-thousand men are engaged in police duty only". Boutwell states that McKinley's desire and actions for control over the islands was in direct violation of the Treaty of Paris signed after the war, the terms of which had been put forth by McKinley, and "it is our duty to overthrow the administration of which he is the head".
Boutwell stated that President McKinley had complete control over his cabinet and Congress, and that only what McKinley had put forth was accomplished, without opposition from anyone. "He is the mastermind, not only of his cabinet, but of the Congress of the United States". Boutwell also said that although a resolution passed by Congress in April 1898 had stated that America would not exercise control over Cuba, leaving the government of the island to its people, it also stated that Cuban properties would be subject to a high level of U.S. taxation, even though the people had become impoverished after the Cuban revolution. Cuba was forced to prepare a constitution that stated that Cuba's foreign relations were to be managed by the American government; and that the United States would have veto power over Cuba's legislation, power over Cuba's treasury, and control of the fortifications at the Port of Havana and other places on the island.**NOTE** - we have covered only some of what is in the first half of George S. Boutwell's address - there is much, much more than we could possibly write.
We will end with this:The last couple of pages are an "Address to the Voters of the United States" by the Liberty Congress, most of which we did not include, and some of which we have paraphrased for the sake of brevity. "For the first time in our country's history the President has undertaken to subjugate a foreign people and to rule them by despotic power". He has imposed taxation without representation upon the people of the Philippines. "We believe in the Declaration of Independence. We believe in the Constitution, which gives the President and Congress certain limited powers. The President and Congress claim for themselves authority to govern the Territories of the United States without constitutional restraint." "The President's policy, which has slaughtered thousands of them and laid waste to their country has turned the Filipinos from warm friends into bitter enemies. In the next election, every person who votes to re-elect him is also responsible for every drop of blood that is shed."William Jennings Bryan lost the 1900 presidential election to William Mckinley, and President McKinley was assassinated in September 1901 by a Polish American steel worker who viewed the president as a corrupt leader and an enemy of the working class.

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