บท 11: The American Anti-Imperialist League
It's been months since the war in the Philippine Islands started. As the European powers started monitoring events in the archipelago, interest in the events happening in the islands also started to slowly gain traction.
Aguinaldo's proclamation of independence, his rebuke of the United States' invasion of the islands, and the news of the war as a whole slowly made its way from British Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, the British Raj, all the way to Europe and the American continent.
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The Anti-Imperialist League, initially known as the Anti-Imperialist Committee of Correspondence was founded with the objective of stopping the Spanish-American War from warping into a war for colonial spoils. It's first meeting was at the historic Faneuil Hall in Boston organized by Gamaliel Bradford.
This newly established group invited various groups, and humanitarian leaders across the country attempting to put pressure on the government to stop the growing menace of American colonial expansion.
Their movement is based on American ideals of self-government, and non-intervention. These ideals are actually expressed in the U.S declaration of Independence, promoting equality for every person. That every person are endowed unalienable rights including right to Life, Liberty, and pursuit of Happiness.
These ideals are also expressed, in George Washington's Farewell address, where he advocated a policy of good faith and justice towards all nations, and Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address, where he invoked the principles of human equality contained in the Declaration of Independence.
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After losing the fight against the ratification of the Treaty of Paris, they shifted their energy to pressuring the federal government to stop the annexation of the Philippine Islands, and, stopping the Philippine-American war.
New details of the nation's war have already reached American shores, mostly from Europe. The fact that the U.S is waging war against peoples who don't want to be under American rule has slowly spread throughout the nation's large cities, especially in the east coast.
Aguinaldo's proclamation, and letters from the soldiers about the stiff resistance of the locals in the Philippines have been picked up by members of the Anti-Imperialist League, which they used extensively to oppose President McKinley's policy towards the Philippine Islands. In addition, they made it clear that the current war will make other nations see America as a hypocrite, subjugating peoples who wanted freedom while preaching freedom and equality.
Other arguments the league made to the public is that by annexing the Philippines would mean that any event in Asia will inevitably involve the United States in more wars and conflicts. They argue that any European conflict would certainly involve their territories in the Far East thus threatening American neutrality.
The efforts of many of it's members eventually made the group expand into networks of local organizations across the United States, with some of the largest and most influential ones based in some of the largest cities in the nation.
Protests organized by the group grew in number as the months passed by as the group had been actively using the print to show the people that the war isn't just an insurrection by the Tagalogs, it's a full blown conflict against a nation trying to free itself from the shackles of an empire.
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The Anti-Imperialist League had many influential members including writer Samuel Langhorne Clemens, more famously known as Mark Twain.
Twain was an imperialist before the Philippine-American war. He was in favor of the acquisition of the Hawaiian Islands, and the war against Spain. The Spanish-American war, from his standpoint, allowed the United States the opportunity to free the Filipinos who suffered for three centuries and help them create their own government and constitution and start a new republic.
In 1899 however, he reversed course as he came to understand the government didn't intend to free the Filipinos. The Treaty of Paris has become the way for the government to subjugate the people of the Philippines. Instead of saving the Filipinos, the government opted to conquer them instead.
He later created the League's most popular publication, To the Person Sitting in Darkness, which exposes the imperialism behind the Chinese Boxer Uprising, the Boer War, and the Philippine-American War.
In it he criticized the European powers, and the American government for their actions around the world. He also made scathing criticisms against President McKinley, and American missionaries like William Scott Ament, who used religion as a front for imperialism in China.
He denounced the government's policies in Africa, China, and the Philippines. He likewise condemned, in a sarcastic way, the barbaric way that the government spread the Gospel to the natives using the point of a bayonet.
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Another influential member is a cigar maker, and labor union leader, Samuel Gompers. Although his reasons are more racial, and economical rather than moral.
He became an influential voice in the campaign against unrestricted immigration from Europe and Asia as this will mean lowered wages for many employees across America. Immigration of low-wage earners also meant a threat to the jobs of many Americans, and potential cultural conflicts as people from these alien cultures may not be able to easily assimilate in the U.S.
The argument against annexing the Philippines is primarily based on the fears of an influx of low-paid workers from a potential new territory which will threaten the labor market. His group made excellent use of these fears to convince the people affiliated with labor unions to oppose the administration's plan to annex the Philippines.
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The League had many voices who made their ideals, and opinions known throughout the nation, some were like Mark twain who opposed based on grounds that nation's war in the Philippines is un-democratic and what the government is doing is akin to what the European Empires had been doing for centuries.
Another sector of the group made use of letters sent home by soldiers fighting in the Philippines by exposing the horrors of the war occurring in the archipelago. Thousands of young Americans had already died in the nation's imperialist war and they feared thousands more would die if the war isn't stopped.
Others were more concerned about the effects of immigration of racially inferior peoples, or the effects on the agricultural sector once the economy of the islands is integrated into the United States.
The opinions of their members were diverse which should have lowered their chances at gaining popularity among the people, but letters from the soldiers, facts coming in from Europe, and the relentless criticisms of the influential members of the League slowly, but surely put pressure on the administration.
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