repress the spirit
of revenge and resolve to live in peace and quietude with your Spanish
neighbors, respecting their rights of persons and property, as you
desire to have your own respected.

"In this way, and in this way only, can you show yourselves to be worthy
of the great destiny which has overtaken you, and which, let us hope, is
to speedily clothe your island with sovereignty as a member of the great
continental Republic.

"Thus, and thus only, can we become fellow citizens indeed in perpetual
enjoyment of our common and inestimable heritage as citizens of the
freest, richest and most powerful nation in the world." The Hon. A. H.
Green speaks as follows of the present condition of Porto Rico:

"The problems that force themselves upon the attention at the outset are
those of government and of finance. The first question that naturally
arises is, what shall be done with these possessions? How shall they,
with their unassimilated populations, be cared for? The presence of a
military force will doubtless be an immediate necessity. It should be
administered in the mildest form, unless riot and disorder otherwise
require, and be controlled by officers humane and intelligent, inclined
to encourage at the earliest practical time the inauguration of a civil
rule which shall gradually and as rapidly as may be found wise invite an
official participation of representatives of the indigenous populations.
Can this be done? Let the doubting and the timid recall what has been
done, and is now doing toward improving the conditions of the peoples of
the East and ask themselves whether America is not likely to be equally
successful in caring for those whose destinies she has assumed to
direct; whether it is not her duty to enforce order and to keep the
peace among peoples who by her acts have been left disorganized and
defenseless, a prey to the internecine strifes of barbarous chiefs and
to the intrigues of roaming banditti? And have not experiences in
assimilating Spanish territories hitherto successfully annexed or
conquered proved abundantly our ability to do all this?

"It is natural enough that conservative minds should adhere to the
traditions of the past, but times are changed, and the wisest of our
forefathers were not able to foresee what the workings of centuries
might effect. The atrocities to which the inhabitants of Cuba have been
subjected in the past two or more years aroused the indignation of the
civilized wo