of the Filipinos themselves. If after due time the
Filipinos themselves decide that they do not wish to be thus governed,
then I trust that we will leave; but when we do leave it must be
distinctly understood that we retain no protectorate--and above all that
we take part in no joint protectorate--over the islands, and give
them no guarantee, of neutrality or otherwise; that, in short, we
are absolutely quit of responsibility for them, of every kind and
description.

The Filipinos were quite incapable of standing by themselves when we
took possession of the islands, and we had made no promise concerning
them. But we had explicitly promised to leave the island of Cuba,
had explicitly promised that Cuba should be independent. Early in my
administration that promise was redeemed. When the promise was made,
I doubt if there was a single ruler or diplomat in Europe who believed
that it would be kept. As far as I know, the United States was the first
power which, having made such a promise, kept it in letter and spirit.
England was unwise enough to make such a promise when she took Egypt.
It would have been a capital misfortune to have kept the promise,
and England has remained in Egypt for over thirty years, and will
unquestionably remain indefinitely; but though it is necessary for her
to do so, the fact of her doing so has meant the breaking of a positive
promise and has been a real evil. Japan made the same guarantee about
Korea, but as far as can be seen there was never even any thought of
keeping the promise in this case; and Korea, which had shown herself
utterly impotent either for self-government or self-defense, was in
actual fact almost immediately annexed to Japan.

We made the promise to give Cuba independence; and we kept the promise.
Leonard Wood was left in as Governor for two or three years, and evolved
order out of chaos, raising the administration of the island to a level,
moral and material, which it had never before achieved. We also by
treaty gave the Cubans substantial advantages in our markets. Then we
left the island, turning the government over to its own people. After
four or five years a revolution broke out, during my administration, and
we again had to intervene to restore order. We promptly sent thither a
small army of pacification. Under General Barry, order was restored and
kept, and absolute justice done. The American troops were then withdrawn
and the Cubans reestablished in complete posse