American Literature
capable of fully enacting modern civilization.Twain supported American intervention in Cuba because he believed that we had practiced our values
by helping Cubans free themselves from Spain. At first he also supported intervention in the Philippines, but when he realized our intent was "to
subjugate, not to redeem," the Filipinos, he changed his mind. He thought President McKinley's claim that it was America's duty to "civilize and
Christianize" the Filipinos was "hogwash" and "pious hypocrisy," and he was keenly aware of the racism that drove the debates--exemplified by
Pennsylvania's Representative Henry Dickinson Green's declaration that he opposed a citizenship for Filipinos because "We cannot make them
white. We cannot make them like our citizens." Twain also recognized the damage annexation could do to our national reputation. By 1899 Mark
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