Post #180750 by freddiefreelance on Fri, Aug 19, 2005 7:50 AM

On 2005-08-18 19:10, tropicalguy wrote:
I meant this as a "PS" to the previous -- sorry. Citing Cleveland doesn't really seem to strengthen your hand here, as this rather bizarre one-termer "took over" the Philippines and instituted the policy of colonizing it, on the basis of his claim that God told him to "Christianize" it (he was apparently unaware that filipinos were already a predominantly Christian people).

The "Christianize" quote comes from William McKinley, who "won" the Spanish American War one year after taking over from Grover Cleveland:

I walked the floor of the White House night after night until midnight; and I am not ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that I went down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and guidance more than one night. And one night late it came to me this way—I don't know how it was, but it came: That we could not give them back to Spain—that would be cowardly and dishonorable; that we could not turn them over to France or Germany—our commercial rivals in the Orient—that would be bad business and discreditable; that we could not leave them to themselves—they were unfit for self-government—and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain's was; and that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and Christianize them, and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow-men for whom Christ also died.

(italics are mine)
The Phillipines was (and still is) a predominantly Catholic nation, and Papists were often looked down on as just one step above Paganism. But the Christianizing of the Fillipinos & sublimation of their Malay-Latino culture were a secondary consideration, listed below keeping them out of the hands of the French & Germans, and this speech was delivered to a group of Methodist Ministers & Missionaries and was probably tailored to their expectations.

So, the fact that he had a personal affinity for the ex-monarch of Hawaii and this influenced his statements with regard to Hawaii is an interesting historical fact, but I don't really think it bolsters your case all that much. Cleveland just isn't all that compelling a source.

OK, now I really am off this thread, for it does get kind of political, let's face it. History - politics - etc. -- thin lines divide them, don't they...

It was more than a personal affinity, he opposed everything about the annexation, and he kept it from coming about until he left office. From Wikipedia:

In 1893, Cleveland appointed former Congressman James Henderson Blount as the Minister to Hawaii to investigate the unauthorized invasion of the Kingdom of Hawaii by U.S. Marines, which resulted in the fake revolution (aka "overthrow") against the government of Queen Liliuokalani by sugar planters and American businessmen. On December 18, 1893, Cleveland made an address to Congress reporting on the findings of Commissioner Blount in which he called the invasion an "act of war, committed with the participation of a diplomatic representative of the United States and without authority of Congress," called for the restoration of the government of Liliuokalani, and withdrew from the Senate the treaty of annexation of Hawaii, which was not submitted again for the remainder of his term.

[/History Wonk] :)