That was no ordinary occasion, that midsummer session of the Senate Committee in 1902. It was a case of the powerful of the earth discussing a question of ethics, even as they do in Boston. The nation had been intoxicated in 1898 with the pride of power--power revealed to it by the Spanish War; and in a spirit thus mellowed had taken the Philippines as a sort of political foreign mission, forgetting the injunction of the Fathers to keep Church and State separate, but not forgetting the possible profits of trade with the saved. A long war with the prospective saved had followed, developing many barbarities avenged in kind, and the breezes from the South Seas were suggesting the aroma of shambles. "How did we get into all this mess, anyhow?" said the people. "Let us pause, and consider." Hear the still small voice of a nation's conscience mingling with demagogic nonsense perpetrated by potent, grave, and reverend Senators: Admiral Dewey: "I do not think it makes any difference what my opinion is on these things." Senator Patterson: "There is no man whose opinion goes farther with the country than yours does, Admiral, and therefore I think you ought to be very prudent in expressing your views." Senator Beveridge (Acting Chairman): "The Chairman will not permit any member to lecture Admiral Dewey on his prudence or imprudence." This of course would read well to "Mary of the Vine-clad Cottage" out in Indiana, whose four-year-old boy was named George Dewey--, or to her counterpart up in Vermont who might name her next boy after the brilliant and distinguished Acting Chairman, in token of her choice for the Presidency. Senator Patterson: "I was not lecturing him." Senator Beveridge: "Yes; you said he ought to be prudent." Senator Patterson: "And I think it was well enough to suggest those things." [23] Thawed into theorizing by these indubitably genuine evidences of a nation's high regard, the man of action tried to help the nation out. He said he had used the Filipinos as the Federal troops used the negroes in the Civil War. Senator Patterson struck this suggestion amidships and sunk it with the remark that the negroes were expecting freedom. Admiral Dewey had said "The Filipinos were slaves too" and considered him their liberator. [24] But he never did elaborate on the new definition of freedom which had followed in the wake of his ships to Manila, viz., that Freedom does not necessarily mean freedom from alien domination, but only a change of masters deemed by the new master beneficial to the "slave." Apropos of why he accepted Aguinaldo's help, the Admiral also said: I was waiting for troops to arrive, and I felt sure the Filipinos could not take Manila, and I thought that the closer they invested the city the easier it would be when our troops arrived to march in. The Filipinos were our friends, assisting us; they were doing our work. [25]