The Federalist: Mark Twain, Imperialism, Christmas and Other Random Thoughts

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Mark Twain, Imperialism, Christmas and Other Random Thoughts

Killing For Power and Profit

"Beware the beast Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death."

Cornelius

Planet of the Apes (1968)

By Gary;

The great Rod Serling was never more dead on than when he wrote those words for Planet of the Apes.

Christmas is the season of peace. Jesus, Apes and other random thoughts merged with my reading of Mark Twain's views on the Imperialism of his time.

Back then we went out of our way to murder tens out thousands of people in the Philippines in the name of "freedom" and building an empire.

Nothing changes. Nothing ever will.

The Persians invaded Greece, Rome invaded Gaul . . . . spring forward to see Japan invade China or Iraq invade Iran or Obama bomb Syria and Yemen. It never ends.

Every generation tells themselves lies about the latest "just war". . . . a war that will rapidly be forgotten but will leave a trail of corpses, triple amputees and cities leveled to the ground.

The endless slaughter in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen are only the latest examples of man's insanity. We send in the CIA to arm monsters and then scream "We must go to war" to stop the monsters we and our allies created.

Can The Donald break this cycle?

No way in Hell. Trump's instinct is to hold back and not be the policeman of the world. But Trump is just one 70 year old man who will soon be replaced on the world's stage by the usual warmongers.

I look forward to Christmas, family and this season of peace. At the same time I know that come December 26th the corpses will start to pile up yet again.

Mark Twain
(New York Herald - 10/15/1900)

I left these shores, at Vancouver, a red-hot imperialist. I wanted the American eagle to go screaming into the Pacific. It seemed tiresome and tame for it to content itself with the Rockies. Why not spread its wings over the Philippines, I asked myself? And I thought it would be a real good thing to do.

I said to myself, here are a people who have suffered for three centuries. We can make them as free as ourselves, give them a government and country of their own, put a miniature of the American constitution afloat in the Pacific, start a brand new republic to take its place among the free nations of the world. It seemed to me a great task to which we had addressed ourselves.

But I have thought some more, since then, and I have read carefully the treaty of Paris, and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem.

We have also pledged the power of this country to maintain and protect the abominable system established in the Philippines by the Friars.

It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free, and let them deal with their own domestic questions in their own way. And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land.

Battle of Manila (1899)
Killed by invading American troops. Filipino soldiers dead in
a trench defending their homeland.
.
The people of the Philippines were under the impression they were the
allies of Americans who were there to liberate them from Spain.
They were wrong.
.
In a war lasting over three years some 50,000 Filipino soldiers
and civilians were killed by Americans.
Battle of Manila (1899)

Killing Filipinos for Wanting Freedom
The battle before Caloocan, February 10, 1899 - View from the Chinese church. Maj. Gen. Arthur MacArthur on inner wall, to right of church, battery of Utah Artillery in the middle foreground, the 10th Pennsylvania Volunteers, of MacArthur's division, behind the wall.
.

(Harper's Pictorial History of the War with Spain, Vol. II, published by Harper and Brothers in 1899.)

Battle of Caloocan

Mark Twain
(New York World - London, 10/6/1900)

You ask me about what is called imperialism. Well, I have formed views about that question. I am at the disadvantage of not knowing whether our people are for or against spreading themselves over the face of the globe. I should be sorry if they are, for I don't think that it is wise or a necessary development.

As to China, I quite approve of our Government's action in getting free of that complication. They are withdrawing, I understand, having done what they wanted. That is quite right. We have no more business in China than in any other country that is not ours.

There is the case of the Philippines. I have tried hard, and yet I cannot for the life of me comprehend how we got into that mess. Perhaps we could not have avoided it -- perhaps it was inevitable that we should come to be fighting the natives of those islands -- but I cannot understand it, and have never been able to get at the bottom of the origin of our antagonism to the natives. I thought we should act as their protector -- not try to get them under our heel.

We were to relieve them from Spanish tyranny to enable them to set up a government of their own, and we were to stand by and see that it got a fair trial. It was not to be a government according to our ideas, but a government that represented the feeling of the majority of the Filipinos, a government according to Filipino ideas.

That would have been a worthy mission for the United States. But now -- why, we have got into a mess, a quagmire from which each fresh step renders the difficulty of extrication immensely greater. I'm sure I wish I could see what we were getting out of it, and all it means to us as a nation.

Read More . . . .

1st Nebraska Volunteer Infantry
The First Nebraska Volunteer Infantry was mustered into service on May 9 and 10, 1898 at Lincoln, Nebraska. At the time of muster-in, the unit consisted of fifty-one officers and 983 enlisted men.
.
On May 16, the regiment left Lincoln for San Francisco, where it arrived three days later. The 1st Nebraska was assigned to the Third Independent Brigade or the Philippine Expeditionary Force.

51st Iowa Volunteers at breakfast in San Fernando, Philippines.
PHOTO was taken in 1899.

The Filipino soldiers in dark uniforms were former members of the Spanish Army who had defected to the Philippine Republican Army.
Filipino American War.com

Filipino army officers under General Juan Cailles

Fallen Filipinos in a trench on the north bank of the Bagbag River
Filipino American War.com

20th Kansas Volunteers lining up for dinner at San Fernando, Philippines.
PHOTO was taken in May 1899.
Filipino American War.com

3 comments:

Anonymous said...: Things are thought diferent ways after time goes by .
Mark Twain words of wisdom sound reasonable , but as if nothing can be done , if we downsize all opinions as the same , as some history and social studies do , we cannot engage on anything if we may thought to act wrong after a while .Freeze out on afraid of doing wrong .
As so nobody will fight the nazis , or the huns of Atila , or the russians in finland , or the spanish in the philippines ...
Some thing must be aknowledge doh ... for our own safeguard .
Twain thing of an ideal world , where we all may live in peace , peoples side by side . But as inequality runs on all societies , happiness is perceived ofden as owning things ... so people fight to own things ... in all of our societies ... in the process they deshumanize themselfes ...
Example : as iphones are gadgets of luxury and plenty that all of us want to have , some exploiters in home made mining in third world countries , give miners a hard time and work conditions to find those strange and rare metals that are needed to make batteries for those gadgets ...
Greed are all over the world , and , unfortunly , thats are running the world ... all the countries , all the peoples ... is a shame , but in the process, theft , and plunder are been legitimized as something with a other name as freedom , or Independence ...
Must go down deep in our mind to find the right path . Twain thing forward , but that does bring him any solution .
If americans stain out of the philippines to help philippinos fight the colonial spain ,they say , the germans , the british , or the japanese will came to do the same .
Power runs deep in Humans . Sometimes in a shamefull way .; December 20, 2016 at 3:17 AM
Gary said...: The Philippine solution was simple.

#1) Don't MURDER 50,000 of them to make the nation a U.S. colony against the will of their people.

#2) From day one we should have helped them become an independent nation under their own leaders and laws but under U.S. protection from Japan and Europe.

Everyone always brings up Hitler. But the fact of the matter is Hitler was a creation of British and French Imperialism looking to crush the German people into poverty after WWI.

Also the European Imperialists did not wait one second to steal German colonies in Africa and steal Turkish lands in the Middle East in order to set up their own colonies.

World War I was a massive clusterfuck of the corrupt Imperialist Elites and ruling dynasties. Their collective insanity gave us death on an industrial scale along with Fascism and Communism.; December 20, 2016 at 9:09 AM
Anonymous said...: Philippinnes
What was the way of those times ?
What country got Independence from major world powers ? Bulgaria , a ancient nation under foreign ocupation , or Greece years before ... they may have a change to rise up as a country ... but the Philippines ?
They are a european colony without economic sustainability ... but you right ... from day one ... as we now believe must be ...
Hitler not a creation of that ... is a creation of Versailles , the overburden of debt ... and foremost the depression in the US that push Weimar republic to an abiss ... if not so , he goes as a bafoon and those short pants nazi bunch of then ...
Sure they did grop those lands from the defeated powers in WWI ... who in that time could deliver that ? the natives ? do you see Lawrence ? the way tribes fought in damascus for power in the city , as he cannot deliver sense in then , as they got bore with that ... and run to the desert , ... for the pleasure of colonial allemby british general ...
Those natives in the pacific , or in africa west germany territories , or in the east africa ... who do you think in those days can run things ?
Colonial rule a unfortunate one , if a shame ...
WWI real a stupid thing that bring fascism and communism thats true .; December 22, 2016 at 3:10 AM

Thomas Pinckney, Federalist

Commissioned as captain in the 1st South Carolina Regiment of the Continental Army. After seeing much action, he became an aide-de-camp to General Horatio Gates. He was captured by the British at the disastrous Battle of Camden in 1780. After recovering from his wounds, he was released in a prisoner exchange. In 1781 he fought under Lafayette in Virginia. Appointed by President George Washington to be the U.S. minister to Great Britain served as Envoy Extraordinary to Spain. The Federalist Party made him a candidate in the 1796 presidential election as the intended running-mate of John Adams. Served as Congressman and Governor of South Carolina. Served as a major general in the Army during the War of 1812.

Henry Lee III, Federalist

Major General "Light-Horse Harry" Lee fought at the battles of Paulus Hook, Guilford Court House, Eutaw Springs, Yorktown and the Whiskey Rebellion. Federalist Congressman from Virginia, Governor of Virginia. Father of Robert E. Lee. In 1812 Lee was attacked by a Jeffersonian mob of Democratic-Republicans while defending a Federalist newspaper from attack. Lee and the other Federalists were beaten and tortured by the mob over the next three hours. Lee was left partially blinded after hot wax was poured into his eyes. The men were left for dead. All were severely injured, and one Federalist, General James Lingan, died.

Frederick Frelinghuysen, Federalist

In the War of Independence he served in the New Jersey militia as an artillery captain, seeing action at Trenton and Monmouth. Attained the rank of colonel. Member of the Continental Congress. Served in the New Jersey General Assembly. Member of the New Jersey convention that ratified the United States Constitution in 1787. President George Washington appointed him as brigadier general in the United States Army for the 1790 campaign against the western Indians. Commissioned major general in the New Jersey militia in 1794, during the Whiskey Rebellion. Elected to the United States Senate.

Stephen Van Rensselaer, Federalist

Van Rensselaer served in the New York Assembly and Senate. He served as the Federalist Lt. Governor under John Jay. In 1786, Van Rensselaer was made a major of the militia. As a Major General in the War of 1812 he led an army in an invasion of Canada and fought at the Battle of Queenston Heights. In 1813 Van Rensselaer was the Federalist candidate for Governor of New York earning 48% of the vote. A shift of only 1,800 votes would have made him Governor. In 1822 he was elected to Congress as a Federalist serving until 1829.

WILLIAM PATERSON, Federalist

James Hillhouse, Federalist

Hillhouse served as captain in Governor's Foot Guards in the Revolutionary War. He was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives, Congressman from Connecticut at-large, 1791–96, and a Federalist Party U. S. Senator from Connecticut, 1796–1810. He was the anti-slavery leader of the Congress in the early days of the Republic. After the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, Hillhouse fought to bar the importation of slaves into the Louisiana Territory. "I consider slavery as a serious evil," he proclaimed, "and wish to check it wherever I have authority." Two of Hillhouse's amendments restricting slavery passed the Congress and were signed into law.

Oliver Ellsworth, Federalist

In 1777 he was chosen as one of Connecticut's representatives in the Continental Congress. Served at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia as a delegate from Connecticut. On June 20, 1787 he proposed the use of the name the United States to identify the nation under the authority of the Constitution. United States Senator from Connecticut. Ellsworth was the principal exponent in the Senate of Alexander Hamilton's economic program. In 1796 Ellsworth was appointed by President George Washington to be Chief Justice of the United States. Served as United States Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of France. Ellsworth was a candidate in the 1796 United States Presidential election, receiving eleven votes in the electoral college.

Robert Goodloe Harper, Federalist

At the age of fifteen, Harper joined a volunteer corps of Cavalry and served in the American Revolutionary Army. Harper was elected as a Federalist Congressman from South Carolina (1795 - 1801). In 1798 at a dinner in Philadelphia honoring John Marshall, a group of U.S. Congressmen were discussing a recent demand made by the government of France. French vessels had been plundering US ships in a piratical manner. French foreign minister Talleyrand said the attacks would be stopped if the US paid him $250,000 and gave France 50,000 pounds sterling and a $100 million loan. As toasts were made, Harper sent his own defiant reply to the French with this toast: “Millions for defense but not one cent for tribute.” Harper served in the War of 1812, attaining the rank of major general. He moved to Maryland and was elected as a Federalist to the US Senate. He was an unsuccessful Federalist candidate for Vice President in the 1816 election. He also received one electoral vote for Vice President in the 1820 election.

Jacob Read, Federalist

Alexander Contee Hanson, Federalist

Member of the Maryland House of Delegates. Editor of the "Federal Republican", a Federalist Party newspaper in Baltimore. Four days after the beginning of the War of 1812 a mob of pro-war Democrat-Republicans destroyed his newspaper office. The paper moved to another building where Hanson was joined by a group of armed allies. When that building was besieged by another mob, Hanson and his group fired, killing two. Hanson and his group surrendered to the militia and were escorted to jail. That evening yet another mob stormed the jail. Hanson was beaten and left for dead. Hanson was elected as a Federalist to Congress in 1812 and 1814. In 1816 he was elected as a Federalist to represent Maryland in the U.S. Senate until his death in 1819 at the age of 33.

William Bingham, Federalist

As a merchant he brought full loads of munitions & guns for the war. Served as a diplomat for Congress to France. Bingham marshaled the Second Troop of Philadelphia Light Horse. He served in the Continental Congress, 1st Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, State Senator, and US Senator. Federalists agreed to hold preliminary votings at the Bingham Estate before propositions were brought before Congress publicly, thus creating unanimity among party lines. Alexander Hamilton sought Bingham as his mentor in managing taxes, tariffs, and in constructing a national bank.

Ezekiel Whitman, Federalist

Whitman practiced law in New Gloucester, Maine and in Portland, Maine (both communities a district of Massachusetts until 1820). In 1808 Whitman was elected as a Federalist Congressman from Massachusetts and served one term. In 1816 he was again elected as a Federalist to the US House serving from 1817 to 1821. In 1819 he was a delegate to the convention that prepared the constitution which led to Maine's statehood. In 1820 he was elected as a Federalist Congressman from the new state of Maine serving until 1822. Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Court from 1841 to 1848.

David Cobb, Federalist

Cobb studied medicine in Boston and practiced in Taunton, Massachusetts. He was a member of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in 1775; lieutenant colonel of Jackson’s regiment in 1777 and 1778, serving in Rhode Island and New Jersey; was aide-de-camp on the staff of General George Washington; appointed major general of militia in 1786. Fought in the New York and New Jersey Campaign, the Battles of Springfield, Monmouth, Rhode Island and Shay's Rebellion. He served the Federalist Party as Lt. Governor of Massachusetts, President of the State Senate and Congressman.

Josiah Parker, Federalist

In 1775 Parker enlisted in the Continental Army. He was commissioned a major in the 5th Virginia Regiment in 1776 and became its colonel in 1778. His regiment served in Virginia under General Charles Lee and was transferred to George Washington. The regiment thereafter saw action at the Battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth and the Siege of Charleston. During Cornwallis's Virginia campaign in 1781, the notorious Colonel Tarleton ransacked his home. He was elected to the First US Congress from Virginia serving for twelve years.

William Stephens Smith, Federalist

Smith married Abigail "Nabby" Adams, the daughter of President John Adams, and so was a brother-in-law of President John Quincy Adams, and an uncle of Charles Francis Adams. Served in the Revolutionary Army as aide-de-camp to General John Sullivan. Fought in the Battle of Long Island, was wounded at Harlem Heights, Battle of White Plains, was promoted to lieutenant colonel at the Battle of Trenton, fought at the Battle of Monmouth and Newport. He was on the staff of General Lafayette, became an adjutant in the Corps of Light Infantry, then transferred to the staff of George Washington. Elected as a Federalist Congressman from New York.

Oliver Wolcott, Jr., Federalist

John Rutledge, Jr., Federalist

Rutledge served as Congressman from South Carolina. A passionate Federalist, he supported Aaron Burr against Jefferson, founding the Charleston Courier (predecessor of the Post and Courier) to support his causes. Joining the South Carolina Militia in 1799, Rutledge served as commander of the Twenty-eighth Regiment in the War of 1812. He subsequently commanded the Seventh Brigade from 1816 until his death. Rutledge's life was fraught with controversy. Catching his wife (mother to his nine children) in a "clandestine visit" with Dr. Horace Senter, Rutledge challenged him to a duel, fatally wounding the doctor.

John Sergeant, Federalist

Member of the Pennsylvania state house of representatives 1808-1810; elected as a Federalist to Congress and served from 1815, to 1823. Sergeant was a strong backer of Henry Clay's American System and the Second Bank of the United States, and even traveled to Europe to negotiate loans to the Bank. He was a strong opponent of slavery who voted against the Missouri Compromise. In 1826 he was an envoy to the Panama Congress. Elected to Congress as an Adams candidate 1827 to 1829. Failing re-election he became legal counsel to the Bank of the United States. Sergeant was the Vice Presidential running mate in Henry Clay's campaign on the National Republican ticket in 1832. Elected as a Whig to Congress serving from 1837 to 1841.

John Laurance, Federalist

Philip Barton Key, Federalist

Key had been a Loyalist in the American Revolution. He served in the Maryland Loyalists Battalion as a captain. Key fought with the British Army from 1777 to 1781, until he was captured by the Spanish in Pensacola, Florida with the rest of his battalion. After the war he served as Mayor of Annapolis & member of the Maryland House of Delegates. Appointed a Federal Judge by John Adams. He was a Counsel to Justice Samuel Chase during Chase's Jefferson ordered impeachment show-trial in 1805. Elected as a Federalist to Congress from Maryland (1807 - 1813). Francis Scott Key was his nephew.