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:
1204
(1) that we could not give [the Philippines] back to Spain - that would
be cowardly and dishonorable;
(2) that we could not turn them over to France and 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 fellowmen for whom Christ also died.

And then I went to bed, and went to sleep and slept soundly.


Please help! I need to know the “say” “mean” and “matter”

Also I need to know “which reason do you think makes the most sense?”

And “which reason do you think makes the least sense?”