ity for
which we have been striving. We had four long years of adversity, which
taught us some lessons which will never be unlearned and which will be
valuable in guiding our future action. We have not only been successful
in our financial and business affairs, but have been successful in a war
with a foreign power, which has added great glory to American arms and a
new chapter to American history.

I do not know why in the year 1899 this republic has unexpectedly had
placed before it mighty problems which it must face and meet. They have
come and are here and they could not be kept away. Many who were
impatient for the conflict a year ago, apparently heedless of its larger
results, are the first to cry out against the far-reaching consequences
of their own act. Those of us who dreaded war most and whose every
effort was directed to prevent it, had fears of new and grave problems
which might follow its inauguration.

The evolution of events which no man could control has brought these
problems upon us. Certain it is that they have not come through any
fault on our own part, but as a high obligation, and we meet them with
clear conscience and unselfish purpose, and with good heart resolve to
undertake their solution.

War was declared in April, 1898, with practical unanimity by the
Congress, and, once upon us, was sustained by like unanimity among the
people. There had been many who had tried to avert it, as, on the other
hand, there were many who would have precipitated it at an earlier date.
In its prosecution and conclusion the great majority of our countrymen
of every section believed they were fighting in a just cause, and at
home or at sea or in the field they had part in its glorious triumphs.
It was the war of an undivided nation. Every great act in its progress,
from Manila to Santiago, from Guam to Porto Rico, met universal and
hearty commendation. The protocol commanded the practically unanimous
approval of the American people. It was welcomed by every lover of peace
beneath the flag. [Applause.]

The Philippines, like Cuba and Porto Rico, were intrusted to our hands
by the war, and to that great trust, under the providence of God and in
the name of human progress and civilization, we are committed. It is a
trust we have not sought; it is a trust from which we will not flinch.
The American people will hold up the hands of their servants at home to
whom they commit its execution, while Dewey and Otis and th