The Philippine Islands | Page 8

Holy Cross.

The civilization of the world is but the outcome of wars, and probably
as long as the world lasts the ultimate appeal in all questions will be
made to force, notwithstanding Peace Conferences. The hope of ever
extinguishing warfare is as meagre as the advantage such a state of
things would be. The idea of totally suppressing martial instinct in the
whole civilized community is as hopeless as the effort to convert all the
human race to one religious system. Moreover, the common good
derived from war generally exceeds the losses it inflicts on individuals;
nor is war an isolated instance of the few suffering for the good of the
many. "Salus populi suprema lex." "Nearly every step in the world's
progress has been reached by warfare. In modern times the peace of
Europe is only maintained by the equality of power to coerce by force.
Liberty in England, gained first by an exhibition of force, would have
been lost but for bloodshed. The great American Republic owes its
existence and the preservation of its unity to this inevitable means, and
neither arbitration, moral persuasion, nor sentimental argument would
ever have exchanged Philippine monastic oppression for freedom of
thought and liberal institutions.
The right of conquest is admissible when it is exercised for the
advancement of civilization, and the conqueror not only takes upon
himself, but carries out, the moral obligation to improve the condition
of the subjected peoples and render them happier. How far the
Spaniards of each generation fulfilled that obligation may be judged
from these pages, the works of Mr. W. H. Prescott, the writings of
Padre de las Casas, and other chroniclers of Spanish colonial
achievements. The happiest colony is that which yearns for nothing at
the hands of the mother country; the most durable bonds are those
engendered by gratitude and contentment. Such bonds can never be
created by religious teaching alone, unaccompanied by the twofold
inseparable conditions of moral and material improvement. There are
colonies wherein equal justice, moral example, and constant care for
the welfare of the people have riveted European dominion without the
dispensable adjunct of an enforced State religion. The reader will judge
the merits of that civilization which the Spaniards engrafted on the
races they subdued; for as mankind has no philosophical criterion of
truth, it is a matter of opinion where the unpolluted fountain of the

truest modern civilization is to be found. It is claimed by China and by
Europe, and the whole universe is schismatic on the subject. When
Japan was only known to the world as a nation of artists, Europe called
her barbarous; when she had killed fifty thousand Russians in
Manchuria, she was proclaimed to be highly civilized. There are even
some who regard the adoption of European dress and the utterance of a
few phrases in a foreign tongue as signs of civilization. And there is a
Continental nation, proud of its culture, whose sense of military honour,
dignity, and discipline involves inhuman brutality of the lowest degree.
Juan de la Concepcion, [1] who wrote in the eighteenth century, bases
the Spaniards' right to conquest solely on the religious theory. He
affirms that the Spanish kings inherited a divine right to these Islands,
their dominion being directly prophesied in Isaiah xviii. He assures us
that this title from Heaven was confirmed by apostolic authority, [2]
and by "the many manifest miracles with which God, the Virgin, and
the Saints, as auxiliaries of our arms, demonstrated its unquestionable
justice." Saint Augustine, he states, considered it a sin to doubt the
justice of war which God determines; but, let it be remembered, the
same savant insisted that the world was flat, and that the sun hid every
night behind a mountain!
An apology for conquest cannot be rightly based upon the sole desire to
spread any particular religion, more especially when we treat of
Christianity, the benign radiance of which was overshadowed by that
debasing institution the Inquisition, which sought out the brightest
intellects only to destroy them. But whether conversion by coercion be
justifiable or not, one is bound to acknowledge that all the urbanity of
the Filipinos of to-day is due to Spanish training, which has raised
millions from obscurity to a relative condition of culture. The fatal
defect in the Spanish system was the futile endeavour to stem the tide
of modern methods and influences.
The government of the Archipelago alone was no mean task.
A group of islands inhabited by several heathen races--surrounded by a
sea exposed to typhoons, pirates, and Christian-hating
Mussulmans--had to be ruled by a handful of Europeans with

inadequate funds, bad ships, and scant war material. For nearly two
centuries the financial administration was a chaos, and military
organization hardly existed. Local enterprise was disregarded and
discouraged so