Task: Read and analyze the following documents, applying your social studies knowledge and skills to write a short essay of two or three paragraphs in which you:


● Describe the historical context surrounding documents 1 and 2

● Analyze Document 2 and explain how audience, or purpose, or bias, or point of view affects this document’s use as a reliable source of evidence


In developing your short essay answer of two or three paragraphs, be sure to keep these explanations in mind:


Describe means “to illustrate something in words or tell about it”


Historical Context refers to “the relevant historical circumstances surrounding or connecting the events, ideas, or developments in these documents”


Analyze means “to examine a document and determine its elements and its relationships”


Explain means “to make plain or understandable; to give reasons for or causes of; to show the logical development or relationship of”


Reliability is determined by how accurate and useful the information found in a source is for a specific purpose

 

Document 1


. . . When I [President McKinley] next realized that the Philippines had dropped into our laps I confess I did not know what to do with them. I sought counsel from all sides—Democrats as well as Republicans—but got little help. At first I thought we would take only Manila; then Luzon; then other islands perhaps also. 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: (1) That we could not give them back to Spain—that would be cowardly and dishonorable; (2) that we could not turn them over to France and Germany— our commercial rivals in the Orient—that would be bad business and discreditable; (3) 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 (4) that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize 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. And then I went to bed, and went to sleep, and slept soundly, and the next morning I sent for the chief engineer of the War Department (our map-maker), and I told him to put the Philippines on the map of the United States (pointing to a large map on the wall of his office), and there they are, and there they will stay while I am President! . . .

Source: General James Rusling, “Interview with President William McKinley,” November 21, 1899, published in The Christian Advocate, January 22, 1903



 

Document 2


In 1900, William Jennings Bryan was the Democratic presidential candidate, running against President William McKinley. The following is an excerpt from one of his stump speeches on the campaign trail.

Imperialism is the policy of an empire. And an empire is a nation composed of different races, living under varying forms of government. A republic cannot be an empire, for a republic rests upon the theory that governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed and colonialism violates this theory. We do not want the Filipinos for citizens. They cannot, without danger to us, share in the government of our nation and moreover, we cannot afford to add another race question to the race questions which we already have. Neither can we hold the Filipinos as subjects even if we could benefit them by doing... Our experiment in colonialism has been unfortunate. Instead of profit, it has brought loss. Instead of strength, it has brought weakness. Instead of glory, it has brought humiliation.


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