“Can we not govern colonies?” we are asked. The question is not what we can do, but what we ought to do. This nation can do whatever it desires to do, but it must accept responsibility for what it does. If the Constitution stands in the way, the people can amend the Constitution. I repeat, the nation can do whatever it desires to do, but it can not avoid the natural and legitimate results of its own conduct. The young man upon reaching his majority can do what he pleases. He can disregard the teachings of his parents; he can trample upon all that he has been taught to consider sacred; he can disobey the laws of the state, the laws of society, and the laws of God. He can stamp failure upon his life and make his very existence a curse to his fellow men, and he can bring his father and mother in sorrow to the grave; but he can not annul the sentence, “The wages of sin is death.” And so with the nation. It is of age, and it can do what it pleases; it can spurn the traditions of the past; it can repudiate the principles upon which the nation rests; it can employ force instead of reason; it can substitute might for right; it can conquer weaker people; it can exploit their lands, appropriate their property, and kill their people; but it can not repeal the moral law or escape the punishment decreed for the violation of human rights. “Would we tread in the paths of tyranny, Nor reckon the tyrant’s cost? Who taketh another’s liberty His freedom is also lost. Would we win as the strong have ever won, Make ready to pay the debt, For the God who reigned over Babylon Is the God who is reigning yet.” Some argue that American rule in the Philippine Islands will result in the better education of the Filipinos. Be not deceived. If we expect to maintain a colonial policy, we shall not find it to our advantage to educate the people. The educated Filipinos are now in revolt against us, and the most ignorant ones have made the least resistance to our domination. If we are to govern them without their consent and give them no voice in determining the taxes which they must pay, we dare not educate them, lest they learn to read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States and mock us for our inconsistency. The principal arguments, however, advanced by those who enter upon a defense of imperialism, are: First—That we must improve the present opportunity to become a world power and enter into international politics. Second—That our commercial interests in the Philippine Islands and in the orient make it necessary for us to hold the islands permanently. Third—That the spread of the Christian religion will be facilitated by a colonial policy. Fourth—That there is no honorable retreat from the position which the nation has taken.