House and was created by a delayed provision in the Organic Act of On July 30, , he won election decisively. After serving just one term in the Philippine assembly, Quezon looked nearly 9, miles away for his next political challenge.
In the Philippines began sending two Resident Commissioners to the U. The assembly and the commission selected one candidate each, which the opposite chamber then had to ratify. It is not entirely clear why Quezon wanted the position in Washington—one biographer has conjectured that Quezon wanted to be the hero who brought independence to the Philippines— but in he sought the Resident Commissioner seat occupied by Nacionalista Pablo Ocampo.
Quezon arrived in Washington, DC, in December wearing a thick fur overcoat to protect him from the early winter chill and took up residence at the Champlain Apartment House, a new building at the corner of 14th and K Streets in Northwest. Publicly, he toed the party line on immediate independence, but, privately, he believed his territory should wait for independence for at least a generation.
In the fall of , the policy differences between Legarda and Quezon and, consequently, between the Philippine commission and the assembly threw their re-election into chaos. Because Legarda opposed immediate independence, the assembly refused to certify his nomination. The bill also lengthened the general term of service for Filipino Resident Commissioners to four years and raised their office budgets to match those of the rest of Congress. It was not until the fall of that the assembly and the commission reached a deal.
In November Quezon recommended Manuel Earnshaw, a conservative industrialist with little political experience, as a replacement for Legarda, who wanted to retire from politics anyway.
With the commission on board, Quezon was re-elected to another term. As a result of his carefully crafted compromise, Quezon enjoyed a smooth re-election to the 63rd and 64th Congresses — Throughout the first decade of the 20th century, American corporations looking to open outposts in the Philippines had been stifled by a law preventing them from buying land in large enough quantities to open commercial farms. But when the insular government bought a huge tract that had once belonged to the Catholic Church and was then unable to sell it directly to Filipino farmers, the American Sugar Refining Corporation, which had a stranglehold on sugar refining in the States, quickly snapped up the vacant property.
Democrats cried foul, criticizing the William H. Taft administration for approving the sale, and began considering ways to clamp down on deals with U. In Washington Quezon called out Democrats for timing their criticism to coincide with the upcoming presidential election, but he joined the chorus opposing the sale of additional friar lands.
He argued in favor of a bill that would place the friar lands under the same size restrictions put on the sale of other public lands. Quezon, however, was not as worried about the Taft administration as he was about the party faithful in Manila. Hoping to shore up his standing back home before the upcoming election, he anxiously looked for a way to put an independence bill on the floor of the House.
Early in his push, Quezon reportedly formed a close partnership with Democrat Cyrus Cline of Indiana. Cline had studied the situation in the Philippines and believed he could make independence a reality. Quezon was so frequently in Mr.
Jones of Virginia, who chaired the Insular Affairs Committee. Jones was a consistent supporter of Philippine independence, but he was ill and worked slowly and methodically to build consensus on the issue within his committee. Looking for a way to hasten the independence process in order to give his party a campaign issue, Quezon put together his own proposal H. The bill, which Jones put his name on after party leaders gave it the go-ahead, set an independence date eight years later and provided for the creation of a Philippine senate.
Over the summer of , however, Wilson walked back his opposition, giving Quezon the opening he needed. The Philippine commission had become so unpopular, Quezon said, that simply creating a territorial senate would buy the federal government time to deal with the question of independence.
As tariff issues ate up much of the legislative calendar in , Quezon counseled patience back home. He worked the angles in Washington to influence territorial appointments and lobbied for changes to the Philippine commission.
Quezon was worth many votes. Quezon and Harrison disagreed on one key issue, however: the urgency of independence. Stanley observed. In one conversation after another, Quezon leaned on McIntyre at the Insular Bureau for support, knowing full well that Harrison would fight back.
Quezon sought similar assurances from the President, and after meeting with Wilson in early , the Resident Commissioner believed he had at least the conditional support of the White House. Wilson was not comfortable setting a date for independence and was more or less content to step back and wait to see how things played out, according to the Washington Post. When Quezon gave the new bill to Chairman Jones, he ran into some familiar problems. Jones continued to drag his feet, and House Democrats pivoted to other issues as the elections neared.
Earnshaw, meanwhile, went home to the Philippines to rally support for the bill. Republicans moved to table the legislation, but Quezon fought them point by point, arguing that the looming threat of a world war made Philippine autonomy more important than ever. When the bill came up for general debate two days later, Republicans ripped into the Insular Affairs Committee for marking it up behind closed doors.
Quezon responded forcefully. Quezon gave a full-throated defense of the bill on the floor a few days later, telling the House that the self-government provisions would allow the Philippines to prepare for independence. Quezon dutifully monitored the bill during amendments: countering mischaracterizations, opposing certain suggestions, and defending others.
The core of the bill bolstering home rule in the Philippines made it through unchanged, but a handful of legislators threatened to kill the measure unless the Senate reworked the independence clause in the preamble. Quezon hustled to iron out a deal, but the 63rd Congress closed without a solution. Senate leaders placed it on the legislative calendar a day later S. For Quezon, however, the bill remained a huge political gamble.
He told the Senate Committee on the Philippines that it was not ideal, but the measure was about as good as he thought he could win. Looking to distance themselves from earlier GOP policies toward the Philippines, Senate Democrats, with the support of President Wilson, approved the change in a close vote in early February.
If he backed the amendment, Stanley observed, the Philippines would likely become independent quicker than originally planned. But that threatened to bring a host of troublesome issues with it, including widespread financial problems that could derail the future of the Philippines. Quezon ended up supporting the Clarke amendment, and when the bill went back to the House, Chairman Jones begrudgingly brought the Senate version to the floor on May 1, Debate that day lasted nearly 13 hours.
Assuming that this version of the bill would again die in the Senate, Quezon was crushed. What is the use? The action of the House tonight makes the fight for independence harder. I notice not a single Republican voted for the Clarke amendment. They had it all figured out in advance. You knew its comedy—its tragedy. You had honorable and distinguished cast in the great drama that gave it fame in every land beneath the sun and place in Some works transcend simple records to become fine works of literary craftsmanship.
Some, and this book is one of them, possess the ability First published in , this fascinating book explores the role that Rasputin played in the downfall of the Russian Empire and the revolution of Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin - was a Russian mystic and holy man famous for his familiarity with the family of Tsar Nicholas II. He was The Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Vol. He traveled with Ernie Pyle and illustrated "This is my war. History Introduction. My highlights. Table of contents.
The English Empire, — Westward Expansion, The Great Depression, Answer Key.
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