How did McKinley justify not granting the Philippines their independence?

He thought that the Filipino people were incapable of self government. He believed that:

"1) That we could not give them back to Spain - that would be cowardly and dishonorable;

(2) that we could not turn them over to France or 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"