o
shall resolve upon the permanent advantages which we shall ask in
the archipelago, and decide upon the intervention, disposition, and
government of the Philippines." His instructions to the commissioners
actually went farther:

"Avowing unreservedly the purpose which has animated all our effort, and
still solicitous to adhere to it, we cannot be unmindful that, without
any desire or design on our part, the war has brought us new duties and
responsibilities which we must meet and discharge as becomes a great
nation on whose growth and career from the beginning the Ruler of
Nations has plainly written the high command and pledge of civilization.

"Incidental to our tenure in the Philippines is the commercial
opportunity to which American statesmanship cannot be indifferent....
Asking only the open door for ourselves, we are ready to accord the open
door to others.

"In view of what has been stated, the United States cannot accept less
than the cession in full rights and sovereignty of the island of Luzon."

The American commissioners were divided. Day favored the limited terms
of the instructions; Davis, Frye, and Reid wished the whole group of the
Philippines; Gray emphatically protested against taking any part of the
islands. On the 26th of October, Hay telegraphed that the President had
decided that "the cession must be of the whole Archipelago or none."
The Spanish commissioners objected strongly to this new development,
and threatened to break off the negotiations which otherwise were
practically concluded. This outcome would have put the United States in
the unfortunate position of continuing a war which it had begun in the
interests of Cuba for the quite different purpose of securing possession
of the Philippines. The Spanish were probably not without hopes that
under these changed conditions they might be able to bring to their
active assistance that latent sympathy for them which existed so
strongly in Europe. Nor was the basis of the claim of the United States
entirely clear. On the 3d of November the American commissioners cabled
to the President that they were convinced that the occupation of Manila
did not constitute a conquest of the islands as a whole.

By this time, however, the President had decided that the United States
must have the islands. On the 13th of November, Hay telegraphed that the
United States was entitled to an indemnity for the cost of the war. This
argument was not put forward beca