“ Resolved, That the question of imperialism overshadows in importance all other public questions; that the approval or disapproval of the imperialistic policy pursued by the present Administration should be the supreme issue in the coming National election, and that all American citizens having the good name and the best interests of our country and the integrity and perpetuity of our free institutions at heart should unite in an earnest effort to secure the condemnation of that policy, and the sternest possible rebuke of its authors and promoters by a decisive popular vote. ”

“ If, as some assume, the President is a weak man and under the influence of bad advisers, then, manifestly, his rule in office ought not to be extended. If the President's policy is a bad policy, it is immaterial whether the policy originated with the President or with advisers by whom he has been misled. ”

“ I have always believed that the republic of Washington and Lincoln should and would always recognize it as the first and highest responsibility to give to the world an example of good faith and perfect justice in the recognition of the rights of others, be they ever so humble. ”

“ Has any one from the President along the line of imperialists taken upon himself the responsibility of the assertion that the condition of the United States, or its fortunes present or prospective, have been improved by the acquisition of a paper title to the Philippine Islands?
“There are supporters of the Administration who are not content with the possession of the Philippines, but who advocate a warlike undertaking to extend our trade into China.
“Russia has gained more in the last five years by peaceful means than England has gained by war in the closing quarter of this century. ”

“ We destroyed by force the Government the Filipinos had set up — a very respectable Government, as all competent witnesses testify — a far better Government than the insurgent Cubans ever had. We carried death and devastation into the towns and villages of our late allies. We killed many, many thousands of them, and still go on killing them at the rate of 1,000 to 1,500 a month, for no other reason than that, as we call it, they refuse to submit to our sovereignty ”

“ But the Filipinos had a stronger claim on us than the Cubans. They acted most efficiently as our allies. We permitted them to believe that in fighting on the same side with us they were fighting for their own independence. ”

“ It is not too much to say that the recent disclosures in Cuba have advertised our disgrace in that respect to the whole world more glaringly than it had ever been advertised before. Nor can we flatter ourselves with the belief that the Cuban instance is an isolated one. ”

“ America has caught the land-grabbing disease from England. The speeches of the President indicate that he is going to ask us to vote for what we know is wrong and that he will adopt various pretexts to conceal his own wrongdoing. ”

“ Nothing more brutal could have occurred than the assassination of twenty-four Filipinos last March after one of our officers had been killed. [Cheers and hisses.]
“There will be an inquiry, investigation, scrutiny upon the question of the fitness of President McKinley for his office.
PRESIDENT'S RESPONSIBILITY.
“There are those who admit the badness of the President's policy and who yet exonerate the President. If the President is a man of ability, as I think he is, then he alone is responsible for his policy. ”

“ The party must be overthrown, and in its downfall the dictatorship will disappear, and in a quadrennial period, or in a decade, the party, regenerated, may come again to the head of affairs in the Republic. ”

“ O'Farrel, the last speaker, found his audience already aroused to a state of enthusiasm. He said in part:
“The thing that McKinley is doing has a religious side to it. There are 7,000,000 Catholics in the Philippines, and the Friars there own 20,000,000 acres of land. McKinley wants to restore it to them. ”