Mount McKinley

Mckinley may not have said that:

“In 1903, an elderly supporter named James F. Rusling recalled that in 1899, McKinley had said to a religious delegation:

“ The truth is I didn’t want the Philippines, and when they came to us as a gift from the gods, I did not know what to do with them… I sought counsel from all sides – Democrats as well as Republicans – but got little help. I thought first 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 to 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 or 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. ”
The question is whether McKinley said any such thing as is italicized in point #4, especially regarding “Christianize” the natives, or whether Rusling added it. McKinley was a religious person but no on other observer or reporter heard McKinley say God told him to do anything. McKinley never used the term “Christianize” (and indeed it was rarely used by anyone in 1898). McKinley operated a highly effective publicity bureau in the White House and he gave hundreds of interviews to reporters, and hundreds of public speeches to promote his Philippines policy. Yet no authentic speech or newspaper report contains anything like the purported words or sentiment. The man who supposedly remembered it—an American Civil War veteran—had written a book on the war that was full of exaggeration. A highly specific quote from memory years after the event is unlikely enough—especially when the quote uses words like “Christianize” that were never used by McKinley. The conclusion of historians such as Lewis Gould is that, although it is possible this quote is legitimate (certainly McKinley expressed most of these sentiments generally), it is unlikely that he spoke these specific words, or that he said the uplift and civilize and Christianize them, part at all.[24]

A hot issue in the Philippines at the time was the influx of Protestant missionaries into the Philippines and Catholic opposition to them. McKinley was a cautious politician and I doubt if he would have said anything to put himself in the middle of that fight. McKinley was noted for his appointment of Catholics to Federal positions and in 1896 actively sought out Catholic votes.