Outside the debacle in Wilmington, North Carolina, the 1898 midterm elections mostly went smoothly across the US, although about six men were killed in Texas in individual political quarrels. The Republican Party remained in control of the House and increased their control of state legislatures; in the days before direct election of Senators, it also meant the party would increase its majority in the Senate. This was of paramount importance to McKinley, who needed Senate approval for the peace treaty with Spain. Democrats opposed territorial acquisition but so did some Republicans and it would take a 2/3rds majority to approve the peace treaty. A few dissidents could upset the whole thing.McKinley later claimed he hadn't made his final decision on the Philippines until just before the elections. Although it seemed that popular opinion was in favor of annexation, the president continued to agonize over the matter. He told a group of Methodist ministers that he'd begged the Almighty for advice. McKinley claimed God told him they could not return the islands to Spain, that would be conceding defeat to them. They could not go to one of the other European powers, commercial rivals of the US. They could not be cut loose and allowed independence for the Philippines would surely collapse into anarchy. In the end the only choice was to annex the islands, clothe, and civilize them.Andrew Carnegie especially objected to annexation and feared that it would cost the Republican Party in the next round of national elections in 1900. Perhaps the dreaded William Jennings Bryan might be elected president and bring ruin to America's economy. Carnegie called the White House to warn the president that the Filipinos would surely resist annexation but McKinley had by now made up his mind.
Carnegie, textile tycoon Edward Atkinson, Senator George Hoar, Boston lawyer Moorfield Storey, and other prominent men met to form the Anti-Imperialist League and were joined by prominent intellectuals and bohemians such as William James and Mark Twain, who also criticized imperialism. Twain, who was living in Vienna in 1898, wrote a friend to say that he believed the war against Spain had a noble, humanitarian impulse but territorial acquisition to him amounted to little more than piracy and brigandage. Carnegie offered to buy the Philippines with $20 million of his own money and set them free. George Hoar, who favored annexing Hawaii, opposed taking the Philippines but retained his close friendship with McKinley. Maryland's Democrat Senator Arthur Gorman opposed taking islands "full of darkies."The struggle was a hard one even before the new, more strongly Republican 56th Congress convened in March 1899. Shooting started in the Philippines on February 4 and within 48 hours the outgoing 55th Congress ratified the peace treaty 61-29. The war in the Philippines dragged on for half a decade, longer than the Civil War lasted, and forced the US Army to adopt many of the same brutal tactics the insurgents used. Filipino insurgent leader Emilio Aguliano was finally captured in 1903, putting an end to the fighting but it had been nasty to say the least and led Mark Twain to remark that the stars on Old Glory ought to be replaced with skulls.
Meanwhile, Theodore Roosevelt won election as New York governor on November 8 and Tammany Hall boss Dick Croker lost $20,000 he bet against Roosevelt's victory. Weary and having a migraine from reading all the newspapers, the governor-elect went for a bike ride and came back miraculously refreshed. Roosevelt admitted that 1898 had been a very exhausting year for him and in fact he hadn't had a vacation since before McKinley took office three years ago. Now however, he was enjoying a few months of rest until being sworn in as governor. "I have played it with bull luck this summer," he wrote. "First, to get into the war, then to get out of it, then to get elected. I have worked hard all my life and have never been particularly lucky, but this summer I was lucky and I am enjoying it to the full. I know perfectly well that the luck will not continue and it is not necessary that it should. I am more than contented to be Governor of New York and shall not care if I ever hold another office."
>>16807256what the fuck is wrong with that horse
>>16807256Elephant Elephant Elephant Elephant!
we tried for 50 years afterwards to civilize the Philippines. we failed.
>>16807294Beatstick approaches don't really work. That and a lot of policies that would have helped got cucked such as American farmers screaming about Filipino farms/plantations bring too hard to compete against hampering the agriculture of the island.
>>16807294lal
