The Treaty of Paris, ending the Spanish–American War in 1898, gave the United States possession of the Philippines. Insurgency among the Filipinos grew, and American legislators were soon at odds over how to address the problem. As chair of the Standing Committee on the Philippines and the Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations, Henry Cabot Lodge advocated a militant foreign policy that was based on the premise that the United States was a great power and should always act as such. In his 1900 Speech on the Retention of the Philippine Islands, he portrayed an American destiny that would soon encompass mastery of the entire Pacific.