喬治‧弗裏斯比‧霍爾 (GEORGE FRISBIE HOAR)

反對帝國主義 Against Imperialism

1898 Rocky Mountain News 上的卡通： 一個自滿的山姆大叔從事帝國主義的事業並在遠方插著旗子

讓我們至少有這些話可說："……我們從先輩手中接過的旗幟完美如初。"

    1895年，古巴的民族主義者發動了反對西班牙的獨立戰爭，美國公眾輿論支援古巴的造反者。1898年2月美國船隻"緬因"號在哈瓦那港被擊沈，加上"黃色報刊"對該事件的誇張和渲染，在美國引起了公憤。4月底美國與西班牙交戰，美國海軍擊潰了在加勒比海和菲律賓的西班牙艦隊。1898年底，西班牙放棄了對古巴的主權，把關島、波多黎各和菲律賓移交給美國管轄。

    美國與西班牙的戰爭在國內引起了關於美國帝國主義野心的激烈爭論；戰爭給美國增加了海外領土，這種爭論更激烈了。最強烈地反對帝國主義的要算是麻省的共和黨議員喬治‧弗裏斯比‧霍爾(1826－1904)。在反對兼併菲律賓的辯論中，霍爾與共和黨決裂。反對帝國主義的一派失敗了。共和黨總統麥金萊認為"拯救"菲律賓人民是美國義不容辭的責任。美國吞併了菲律賓後。派遣了七萬軍隊去鎮壓當地人民的反抗。菲律賓終於在1946年取得獨立。

    霍爾於1902年5月在參議院發表以下演講。

    議員們發表各種政見，談論理想，但他們更注重講求實際效果的政治主張。總統先生，過去4年裏的辯論一直是兩種政見之間的爭論，雙方都提出了許多切實可行的主張，您那一方已經把你們的主張付諸行動，而另一方還在苦苦懇求也讓他們的主張得到採納實行。我們這一方一直堅持一些原則，這些原則是我們革命先輩的理想，從那時一直傳到阿布拉罕‧林肯和查爾斯‧薩姆納時代。這些原則是：人類生而平等；政府的正當權力是經被統治者同意而產生的，正是為了保障這種權力，人們才建立政府；每個民族──這裏指的不是無組織分散的街坊或村落，也不指人民中一部分暫時感到不滿的人，而是指作為一個政治實體的民族──都有權利建立自己的政府，而政府所依據的原則和用以組織其權力的方式，必須使人民認為這樣才最可能保障他們的安全和幸福。遵循這些原則和主張，許多實際上採用的治國方法已經收到了滿意的效果。我們先輩在這些原則的基礎上建立了45個州，使南美洲許多國家也建立了共和制，在西半球消滅了專制君主制度，美國建成了世界上最自由、最強大、最繁榮昌盛的國家。他們使共和製成了世界上最有影響的制度。由於這些原則，美國的星條旗──對熱愛它的人來說美如花朵，對恨它的人來說如流星般恐怖──飄揚在世界各地，維護著和平，並在世界貿易中作為愛好和平的至高無上的權力和主權國的象徵，在世界各友好口岸受到歡迎。

贊成帝國主義的朋友們，你們也有你們的理想與原則，其一是，一旦星條旗在某個地方升起就永遠不應該降下來；其二是，你們不願意與手中拿著武器的民族對話或談判；其三是，可以用金錢購買某國的主權，而該國人民卻不願出售這種主權；其四是，可以用武力奪取某一國家的主權，作為贓物或戰利品。

你們的理想和原則所導致的後果如何呢? 你們浪費了六億美元的財力；斷送了將近一萬美國人的生命──我們最優秀的年輕人的生命；踐踏了外國人民的家園；為了從他們身上得到好處，殺害了無數無辜的人們；你們建立了集中營；你們的將軍滿載著戰利品凱旋而歸，卻留下無數傷病殘瘋的人們在痛苦中呻吟掙扎終其餘生。在許多人的眼中，星條旗成了基督教教堂裏褻瀆的象徵，燒殺搶的標誌。

3年前，當美國士兵在這些島嶼上登陸時，那裏的人民成群結隊地尾隨著他們，把他們看作是救世主，對他們感激涕零。而你們所採取的政綱卻激怒了那裏的人民，把他們變成了與我們不共戴天的敵人，與我們結下了世代冤仇……

有時我想，我們可以在首都豎起一座美國自由紀念碑，在高度上它可以是首都唯一的可與我們所建造的美麗而又樸素的華盛頓紀念碑相似的建築物。我想像我們每一代人帶著獻詞來到這唯一的象徵自由的紀念碑前，列舉他們對自由民主的貢獻。

移民到美洲的英國清教徒和胡格諾派教徒那一代人在紀念碑座前，自豪地說道："我們跨過大海，把自由的火炬帶到了這片土地上，我們開墾荒野，征服土人和野獸，我們以基督教的自由和法律為帝國奠定了基礎。"

下一代人來到紀念碑前說："父輩奠基，我們建造。我們離開了海灘，向荒野進軍，我們蓋起了學校、法院和教堂。"

接著，殖民地時期的一代人走上前說："我們在許多艱苦的戰役中站在英國一邊，幫助壓下法國的氣焰，看到在路易斯堡和魁北克法國敗給了英國。我們在馬提尼克和哈瓦那，佩帶著聖喬治十字勳章歡慶勝利。大海上風暴時起，我們卻熟知它的航線。我們頂酷暑冒嚴寒，劈波斬浪，走南闖北，追捕鯨魚，正如偉大的英國演說家所描述的"我的漁船經受了大海大洋的考驗，狂風暴雨是我辛勞的見證"。

接著美國革命時期的一代人走上前，說道："我們與英國發生了衝突，我們宣佈獨立而且贏得了獨立。我們的獨立宣言以永存的平等正義為基礎，向全世界宣告了這些原則，總有一天全人類都將遵循這些準則。我們使人類的尊嚴得到了保障，為人民贏得了管理自己的權利。我們制定了防範草率欺騙行為的措施來保障人民的權利，我們創建了最高法院和參議院，開天劈地第一回讓人民自治的權利有了保障，我們還建立了各種制度以保障人民永遠享有這種權利。

下一代人說："我們又與英國發生衝突。我們捍衛美國船隻在公海上不受騷擾的權利，就像當年我們的父老創造條件讓美國農民安居樂業那樣，我們讓美國水手走遍天涯海角安全有保障。面對俄、普、奧三國的神聖同盟，我們宣佈了門羅主義的原則。在門羅主義的旗幟下，十六個共和國組成了聯盟，在西半球從五大湖到合恩角，到處都建立了共和國，各國都牢牢地掌握了自己的命運，維護了國家的主權。"

接著下一代人走過來說："我們留下了驚天動地的業績，你們小時候曾見過，你們的父輩曾給你們講過，我們挽救了聯邦，平息了叛亂，解放了奴隸。我們讓所有的奴隸都成了自由人，讓所有的自由人都成了公民，又讓所有的公民都有了選舉權。"

接著走過來的是內戰後在和平建設時期立下豐功偉績的一代人，這偉績中也包含了我們當中不少人的貢獻。他們說："我們守信用，償還了債務。我們帶來了和解安定而不是戰爭。我們促進各國贊成並實踐有關移居國外的規定，我們制定了分給定居移民耕地的制度，讓千百萬移民在北美大草原和平原上安家落戶，建立起強大的州。我們修通了橫貫北美大陸連接東西海岸的鐵路幹線。橡當年我們的先輩宣告美國在政治上獨立那樣，我們宣告美國在製造業方面可以不依賴外國。我們建立起龐大的商業體系，使美國成了地球上最富有、最自由、最強大、最幸福的國家。"

現在輪到我們這一代人了，我們該說些什麼呢? 我們是否能躋身於這光榮的行列呢? 我們是否要在碑上刻下"我們廢除了獨立宣言，改變了門羅主義，將經被統治者同意的永存的平等和正義的原則改為殘忍的自私自利的原則。我們摧毀了亞洲唯一的共和國，對亞洲唯一信奉基督教的民族發動了戰爭，把原先正義的戰爭轉化成了可恥的非正義的戰爭。我們玷污了星條旗，在戰爭中背信棄義，逼迫手無寸鐵的人們招供，殘殺兒童，設立集中營，踐踏外國領土，破壞了一個民族對自由的嚮往。"

不，總統先生，我們決不能這樣說。更好的政綱應被採納，一個偉大民族的歷史發展是緩慢的，事情還沒有發展到不可挽救的地步。

讓我們至少有這些話可說："我們也堅持了先輩們的原則，我們解放了古巴，使古巴掙脫了西班牙的長期統治，我們歡迎古巴加入到世界民族大家庭中來，我們在勝利面前保持謙虛謹慎，為人類樹立了從未有過的榜樣。……我們行軍經過殘酷野蠻懷有敵意的國家，既沒有被激怒也不圖報復，我們以善報惡，以德報怨，我們使美國在東方得到像在西方一樣的愛戴。我們忠於菲律賓人民，忠於我們自己的歷史，我們沒有玷污國家的名譽，我們從先輩手中接過的旗幟完美如初。"[全場熱烈的掌聲]

Gentlemen talk about sentimentalities, about idealism. They like practical statesmanship better. But, Mr. President, this whole debate for the last four years has been a debate between two kinds of sentimentality. There has been practical statesmanship in plenty on both sides. Your side have carried their sentimentalities and ideals out in your practical statesmanship. The other side have tried and begged to be allowed to carry theirs out in practical statesmanship also. On one side have been sentimentalities. They were the ideals of the fathers of the revolutionary time, and from their day down till the day of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Sumner was over. The sentimentalities were that all men in political right were created equal; that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and are instituted to secure that equality; that every people－not every scattering neighborhood or settlement without organic life, not every portion of a people who may be temporarily discontented, but the political being that we call a people－has the right to institute a government for itself and to lay its foundation on such principles and organize its powders in such form as to it and not to any other people shall seem most likely to effect its safety and happiness. Now, a good deal of practical statesmanship has followed from these ideals and sentimentalities. They have built forty-five states on firm foundations. They have covered South America with republics. They have kept despotism out of the Western Hemisphere. They have made the United States the freest, strongest, richest of the nations of the world. They have made the word "republic" a name to conjure by the round world over. By their virtue the American flag－beautiful as a flower to those who love it; terrible as a meteor to those who hate it－floats everywhere over peaceful seas, and is welcomed everywhere in friendly ports as the emblem of peaceful supremacy and sovereignty in the commerce of the world. . . .

      You also, my imperialistic friends, have had your ideals and your sentimentalities. One is that the flag shall never be hauled down where it has once floated. Another is that you will not talk or reason with a people with arms in their hands. Another is that sovereignty over an unwilling people may be bought with gold. And another is that sovereignty may be got by force of arms, as the booty of battle or the spoils of victory.

     What has been the practical statesmanship which comes from your ideals and your sentimentalities? You have wasted six hundred millions of treasure. You have sacrificed nearly ten thousand American lives－the flower of our youth. You have devastated provinces. You have slain uncounted thousands of the people you desire to benefit. You have established reconcentration camps. Your generals are coming home from their harvest, bringing their sheaves with them, in the shape of other thousands of sick and wounded and insane to drag out their miserable lives, wrecked in body and mind. You make the American flag in the eyes of a numerous people the emblem of sacrilege in Christian churches, and of the burning of human dwellings, and of the horror of the water torture ....

    Your practical statesmanship has succeeded in converting a people who three years ago were ready to kiss the hem of the garment of the American and to welcome him as a liberator, who thronged after your men when they landed on those islands with benediction and gratitude, into sullen and irreconcilable enemies, possessed of a hatred which centuries cannot eradicate. ...

     I have sometimes fancied that we might erect here in the capital of the country a column to American Liberty which alone might rival in height the beautiful and simple shaft which we have erected to the fame of the Father of the Country. I can fancy each generation bringing its inscription, which should recite its own contribution to the great structure of which the column should be but the symbol.

     The generation of the Puritan and the Pilgrim and the Huguenot claims the place of honor at the base. "I brought the torch of Freedom across the sea. I cleared the forest. I subdued the savage and the wild beast. I laid in Christian liberty and law the foundations of empire."

     The next generation says: "What my fathers founded I builded. I left the seashore to penetrate the wilderness. I planted schools and colleges and courts and churches."

     Then comes the generation of the great colonial day: "I stood by the side of England on  many a hard-fought field. I helped humble the  power of France. I saw the lilies go down before  the lion at Louisburg and Quebec. I carried the  cross of St. George in triumph in Martinique and  the Havana. I knew the stormy pathways of the  ocean. I followed the whale from the Arctic to  the Antarctic seas, among tumbling mountains  of ice and under equinoctial heat, as the great  English orator said, 'No sea not vexed by my  fisheries; no climate not witness to my toils.' " 

    Then comes the generation of the revolutionary time: "I encountered the power of England. I declared and won the independence of  my country. I placed that declaration on the  eternal principles of justice and righteousness  which all mankind have read, and on which all  mankind will one day stand. I affirmed the dignity of human nature and the right of the people  to govern themselves. I devised the securities  against popular haste and delusion which made  that right secure. I created the supreme court  md the Senate. For the first time in history I  made the right of the people to govern themselves safe, and established institutions for that  end which will endure forever."

      The next generation says: "I encountered England again. I vindicated the right of an American ship to sail the seas the wide world over without molestation. I made the American sailor as safe at the ends of the earth as my fathers had made the American farmer safe in his home. I proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine in the face of the Holy Alliance, under which sixteen republics have joined the family of nations. I filled the Western Hemisphere -with republics from the Lakes to Cape Horn, each controlling its own destiny in safety and in honor."

     Then comes the next generation: "I did the mighty deeds which in your younger years you saw and which your fathers told. I saved the Union. I put down the rebellion. I freed the slave. I made of every slave a freeman, and of  every freeman a citizen, and of every citizen a  voter."

     Then comes another who did the great work  in peace, in which so many of you had an honorable share: "I kept the faith. I paid the debt. I  brought in conciliation and peace instead of  war. I secured in the practice of nations the great doctrine of expatriation. I devised the  homestead system. I covered the prairie and the plain with happy homes and with mighty states.  I crossed the continent and joined together the seas with my great railroads. I declared the manufacturing independence of America, as my fathers affirmed its political independence. I built up our vast domestic commerce. I made my country the richest, freest, strongest, happiest  people on the face of the earth."

      And now what have we to say? What have we to say? Are we to have a place in that honorable company? Must we engrave on that column: "We repealed the Declaration of  Independence. We changed the Monroe Doctrine from a doctrine of eternal righteousness  and justice, resting on the consent of the governed, to a doctrine of brutal selfishness, looking  only to our own advantage. We crushed the only  republic in Asia. We made war on the only  Christian people in the East. We converted a  war of glory to a war of shame. We vulgarized the American flag. We introduced perfidy into the practice of war. We inflicted torture on unarmed men to extort confession. We put children to death. We established reconcentrado camps. We devastated provinces. We baffled the aspirations of a people for liberty."

     No, Mr. President. Never! Never! Other and better counsels will yet prevail. The hours are long in the life of a great people. The irrevocable step is not yet taken. 

    Let us at least have this to say: "We, too, have kept the faith of the fathers. We took Cuba by the hand. We delivered her from her age-long bondage. We welcomed her to the family of nations. We set mankind an example never beheld before of moderation in victory. We led hesitating and halting Europe to the deliverance of their beleaguered ambassadors in China. We marched through a hostile country－a country cruel and barbarous－without anger or revenge. We returned benefit for injury, and pity for cruelty. We made the name of America beloved in the East as in the West. We kept faith with the Philippine people. We kept faith with our own history. We kept our national honor unsullied. The flag which we received without a rent we handed down without a stain." [Applause on the floor and in the galleries.]