ises that could not be other than without profit, because the
colonies were the property of the crown, and the prey of caste.

The Spanish nation was forbidden by their government, not of the
people or for the people, to profit by the colonies, and the viceroys,
the captain-generals, and the whole official class were corrupted,
and inefficient in all things, except methods of tyranny to procure
a harvest of gold and silver not from the mines of the metals alone,
but from the industries, whatever they were. The people at large were
allowed no share in their own earnings, beyond a subsistence so scanty
that deep humiliation and grievous hardship were the fateful rewards
of labor.

It was because the colonial policy of Spain impoverished and degraded
the Spaniards at home, through the injustice, greed and profligacy
of those abroad, that the huge structure, once so great an imposition
upon mankind, a rotten fabric so gilt that the inherent weakness was
disguised, has finally fallen into universal and irretrievable ruin.

It is well Spain should retain the Canaries and the Balearic group,
for they are as Spanish as any peninsular province, and legitimately
belong therefore to the kingdom. The application of this principle
excludes Spain from the Philippines, and their des- [NOTE: gap in
original] been committed by the failure of war to our hands. There
is no nation that will dispute our peaceable possession of the
Philippines. Any other nation's proprietorship will be challenged.
Our authoritative presence in the islands will be a guarantee of peace.
Any other assertion of supremacy will be the signal for war. Our
assumption of sovereignty over the islands would quickly establish
tranquility. Any other disposition of the burning questions now
smoldering will cause an outburst of the flames of warfare. The
Spaniards in Manila have been transient. They are not rooted in the
soil. They all come and go like Captain-Generals, a mere official
class, with the orders of the Church participating actively in secular
concerns, more active as politicians than as teachers of religion. In
the view of the native population it is as indispensable that the
priests of Spain shall return to their native land as that the soldiers
should go. The deportation of these people would remove classes of
consumers and not affect unfavorably a productive industry, or the
prosperity of a self-sustaining community, and there would be but
rare instances