George Santayana: William James and Philippines: losing his country by annexing another

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

American writers on peace and against war

George Santayana: Selections on war

William James: Selections on war

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George Santayana
Persons and Places

One afternoon in the autumn of 1898 we were standing in (George Herbert) Palmer’s library after a brief business meeting, and conversation turned on the terms of peace imposed by the United States on Spain after the Cuban war. James was terribly distressed. Addressing himself rather to Palmer, who was evidently enjoying the pleasant rays of the setting sun upon his back, and the general spacious comfort of the library (he then lived in the old President’s house at the corner of Quincy Street), James felt that he had lost his country. Intervention in Cuba might be defended, on account of the perpetual bad government there and the suffering of the natives. But the annexation of the Philippines, what could excuse that? What could be a more shameless betrayal of American principles? What could be a plainer symptom of greed, ambition, corruption, and imperialism?