School Begins, Puck's 1899 lesson that new territories need not consent

School Begins, Louis Dalrymple's Puck centerfold of 25 January 1899, draws Uncle Sam teaching new pupils labelled Philippines, Hawaii, Porto Rico and Cuba under a blackboard that says the United States "must govern its new territories with or without their consent until they can govern themselves."

The classroom

Content note: the cartoon draws racial caricatures of Filipino, Hawaiian, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Black, Native American and Chinese children. They are described here, not reproduced in words.

Uncle Sam stands at the front of a schoolroom. In the front row sit four new pupils wearing sashes for Philippines, Hawaii, Porto Rico and Cuba; the archive describes them as drawn ragged and sullen. Older pupils behind them hold books marked Texas and California. A hand-lettered sign at upper left and a blackboard at upper right carry the lesson.

[hand-lettered sign, upper left] THE CONQUERED STATES REFUSED THEIR CONSENT TO BE GOVERNED; BUT THE UNION WAS PRESERVED WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT.

[blackboard, upper right] THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED IS A GOOD THING IN THEORY, BUT VERY RARE IN FACT.

ENGLAND HAS GOVERNED HER COLONIES WHETHER THEY CONSENTED OR NOT. BY NOT WAITING FOR THEIR CONSENT SHE HAS GREATLY ADVANCED THE WORLD'S CIVILIZATION.

THE U.S. MUST GOVERN ITS NEW TERRITORIES WITH OR WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT UNTIL THEY CAN GOVERN THEMSELVES.

[...]

SCHOOL BEGINS.

Uncle Sam (to his new class in Civilization).— Now, [illegible], you've got to learn these lessons whether you want to or not! But just take a look at the class ahead of you, and remember that, in a little while, you will feel as glad to be here as they are!

The argument on the wall

The archive tags the cartoon for name-calling and glittering generalities. The generality is "Civilization," the subject Uncle Sam is teaching, which is never defined and always assumed. The name-calling is in the drawing: the new subjects are pictured as children, and children do not get a vote.

What makes this cartoon worth reading closely is that it states the argument out loud. The blackboard does not pretend the Philippines consented. It says consent is "a good thing in theory, but very rare in fact," and it cites England's colonies as the model. That is a plain rejection of government by consent, and it is the wrong answer. A republic founded on the consent of the governed cannot make an exception for people it has decided are not ready, and then reserve to itself the judgment of when they are.

The sign about the Union is a sharper move. It points to the "conquered states" and the preserved Union to say consent was set aside once, so it can be set aside again. That treats a war fought to keep states in the Union as the same thing as ruling distant peoples who were never part of it. The cartoon does not argue the comparison; it simply hangs it on the wall.

Related on this site

In April 1899 Judge printed Victor Gillam's "White Man's Burden", with Uncle Sam and John Bull hauling colonial peoples uphill. In 1902 a New York Evening Journal cartoon quoted General Jacob H. Smith's order to "kill every one over ten". The benevolent assimilation case study covers the war the classroom picture leaves out.