ve given up my rights, that I have been reduced to the
part of a slave, without voice or dignity.

"I don't want Spain to lose this beautiful empire, these eight
millions of patient and submissive subjects, who live on hopes and
delusions, but neither do I wish to soil my hands in their barbarous
exploitation. I don't wish it ever to be said that, the slave-trade
abolished, Spain has continued to cloak it with her banner and
perfect it under a wealth of specious institutions. No, to be great
Spain does not have to be a tyrant, Spain is sufficient unto herself,
Spain was greater when she had only her own territory, wrested from
the clutches of the Moor. I too am a Spaniard, but before being a
Spaniard I am a man, and before Spain and above Spain is her honor,
the lofty principles of morality, the eternal principles of immutable
justice! Ah, you are surprised that I think thus, because you have no
idea of the grandeur of the Spanish name, no, you haven't any idea of
it, you identify it with persons and interests. To you the Spaniard may
be a pirate, he may be a murderer, a hypocrite, a cheat, anything,
just so he keep what he has--but to me the Spaniard should lose
everything, empire, power, wealth, everything, before his honor! Ah,
my dear sir, we protest when we read that might is placed before right,
yet we applaud when in practise we see might play the hypocrite in
not only perverting right but even in using it as a tool in order to
gain control. For the very reason that I love Spain, I'm speaking now,
and I defy your frown!

"I don't wish that the coming ages accuse Spain of being the stepmother
of the nations, the vampire of races, the tyrant of small islands,
since it would be a horrible mockery of the noble principles of our
ancient kings. How are we carrying out their sacred legacy? They
promised to these islands protection and justice, and we are playing
with the lives and liberties of the inhabitants; they promised
civilization, and^we are curtailing it, fearful that they may aspire
to a nobler existence; they promised them light, and we cover their
eyes that they may not witness our orgies; they promised to teach them
virtue and we are encouraging their vice. Instead of peace, wealth,
and justice, confusion reigns, commerce languishes, and skepticism
is fostered among the masses.

"Let us put ourselves in the place of the Filipinos and ask ourselves
what we would do in their place. Ah, in your silence I rea