Excerpt from Government of the Philippines: Speech of Hon. Richard F. Pettigrew, of South Dakota, in the Senate of the United States, Monday, June 4, and Tuesday, June 5, 1900 What page in history gives an account of a more noble and determined effort to secure their independence than that written by the Filipinos? I say, Mr. President, that if we had not taken title from Spain, she could not have recovered the islands. Crip pled, her fleet destroyed, bankrupt, Spain had not the power to reconquer the Philippines, and if we had simply left them out of the treaty to-day they would be free and independent; today they would be administering the quiet and the peaceful government which we found after the destruction of the Spanish fleet; to-day a republic would exist there founded upon our Constitution and our Declaration of Independence. I say Spa-ih could not have re conquered the islands; that they would have been free and inde pendent, and for proof of that I read from Document 62, page 369. This is a hearing before the Paris peace commission. The wit ness is General Merritt, fresh from the Philippines, fresh from the capture of Manila. The query was put to him by Mr. Gray, one of the commissioners: Suppose by final treaty with Spain we should abandon Luzon and all the Philippines, exacting such terms and conditions and guaranties as we should think necessary, and abandon them entirely, reserving only a coaling station, perhaps, what do you think they would do about it? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.