John Hay wrote to Andrew Carnegie on the 22d of August: "I am not allowed to say in my present fix (ministerial responsibility) how much I agree with you.

The only question in my mind is how far it is now POSSIBLE for us to withdraw from the Philippines.
I am rather thankful it is not given to me to solve that momentous question." On the 5th of September, he wrote to John Bigelow: "I fear you are right about the Philippines, and I hope the Lord will be good to us poor devils who have to take care of them.

I marvel at your suggesting that we pay for them.

I should have expected no less of your probity; but how many except those educated by you in the school of morals and diplomacy would agree with you?
Where did I pass you on the road of life?
You used to be a little my senior [twenty-one years]; now you are ages younger and stronger than I am.

And yet I am going to be Secretary of State for a little while." Not all those who advocated the retention of the Philippines did so reluctantly or under the pressure of a feeling of necessity.