e by reason of my respect
for the gentlemen identified with the league, but I do not think
I can appropriately or consistently accept the position,
especially since I learn through the press that the league
adopted at its recent meeting certain resolutions to which I
cannot assent.... I may add that, while I fully recognize the
injustice and even absurdity of those charges of 'disloyalty'
which have been of late freely made against some members of the
league, and also that many honorable and patriotic men do not
feel as I do on this subject, I am personally unwilling to take
part in an agitation which may have some tendency to cause a
public enemy to persist in armed resistance, or may be, at least,
plausibly represented as having this tendency. There can be no
doubt that, as a matter of fact, the country is at war with
Aguinaldo and his followers. I profoundly regret this fact;...
but it is a fact, nevertheless, and, as such, must weigh in
determining my conduct as a citizen....

"CHARLES JEROME BONAPARTE.

"BALTIMORE,
"May 25, 1899."

Neither shall I discuss, here and now, the wisdom of all the steps that
have led to the present situation. For good or ill, the war was fought.
Its results are upon us. With the ratification of the Peace of Paris,
our Continental Republic has stretched its wings over the West Indies
and the East. It is a fact and not a theory that confronts us. We are
actually and now responsible, not merely to the inhabitants and to our
own people, but, in International Law, to the commerce, the travel, the
civilization of the world, for the preservation of order and the
protection of life and property in Cuba, in Porto Rico, in Guam, and in
the Philippine Archipelago, including that recent haunt of piracy, the
Sulus. Shall we quit ourselves like men in the discharge of this
immediate duty; or shall we fall to quarreling with each other like
boys as to whether such a duty is a good or a bad thing for the
country, and as to who got it fastened upon us? There may have been a
time for disputes about the wisdom of resisting the stamp tax, but it
was not just after Bunker Hill. There may have been a time for hot
debate about some mistakes in the antislavery agitation, but not just
after Sumter and Bull Run. Furthermore, it is as well to remember that
you can never grind with the water that ha