BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The framing, contents and ratification of the treaty of 1898 are well described in Chadwick, Latané and Olcott. The treaty itself is conveniently found in William MacDonald, Documentary Source Book of American History (new ed., 1916).
On imperialism: L.A. Coolidge, An Old-Fashioned Senator, O.H. Plat (1910); G.F. Hoar, Autobiography of Seventy Years, contains a strong argument against imperialism; A.C. Coolidge, United States as a World Power (1916).
The best accounts of the election of 1900 are in Stanwood, Croly and
Latané.
The island possessions have given rise to a considerable body of special volumes of a high order. Especially useful are: (Cuba), Elihu Hoot, Military and Colonial Policy of the United States (1916), by McKinley's Secretary of War; L.A. Coolidge, O.H. Platt (1910); A.G. Robinson, Cuba and the Intervention (1905); C.E. Magoon, Republic of Cuba (1908), by the provisional governor during the second intervention. (Porto Rico), W.F. Willoughby, Territories and Dependencies of the United States (1905), by a former treasurer of Porto Rico; L.S. Rowe, United States and Porto Rico (1904). The most complete work on the Philippines is D.C. Worcester, Philippines: Past and Present (2 vols., 1914), by a member of the Commission; the valuable report of Commissioner Taft is in Report of the Philippine Commission, 1907, part 3, printed also as Senate Document 200, 60th Congress, 1st session, vol. 7, (Serial Number 5240).
The legal and constitutional aspects of imperialism are best followed in the Harvard Law Review, vols. XII, XIII; W.W. Willoughby, Constitutional Law of the United States (2 vols., 1910); C.F. Randolph, The Law and Policy of Annexation (1901); the "insular cases" are in United States Reports, vol. 182, pp. 1, 244.
The most complete account of affairs in China is P.H. Clements, The Boxer Rebellion (1915); J.B. Moore, Digest, vol. V (1906), is useful, as always; J.W. Foster, American Diplomacy in the Orient (1903), is clear and concise; W.R. Thayer, John Hay (2 vols., 1915), is disappointing.
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[1] The American commissioners were W.R. Day, Secretary of State; Whitelaw Reid, editor of the New York Tribune; and Senators C.K. Davis, W.P. Frye and George Gray. Senator Hoar remonstrated with McKinley for placing senators on such commissions as this, on the ground that the independence of the Senate was thereby lessened when the question of ratifying the treaty came before that body. He declared that McKinley admitted that the practice was wrong. Cf. Autobiography, II, 46-51.
[2] Of the President's party, T.B. Reed, the powerful Speaker of the House, retired from public life for personal reasons and because of his dissent from the imperialist policy of his party. McCall, Reed, 237-8.
[3] Under the provisions of the Foraker Act only fifteen per cent. of the usual duties were to be paid on goods passing between the island and the United States, and since July 25, 1901, complete free trade has existed.
[4] The Philippine group is about 7,000 miles southwest of San Francisco; the chief island, Luzon, is almost exactly the size of Ohio, 40,000 sq. miles; the largest city, Manila, contained over 250,000 people at the time of the American occupation.
[5] It was on the occasion of despatching troops to avenge the death of Von Ketteler, the German minister, that the Emperor gave instructions to "give no quarter and to (act) so like Huns that for a thousand years to come no Chinese would dare to look a German in the face."