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41
The Commoner.
JULY 24, 1903.
"A
- THE KEYSTONE OF THE REPUBLIC -
(Continued from Fago Three)
The king of Prussia, successor to the
great Frederick, was a mere hog in
body as well as in mind, Gustavus of
Sweden and Joseph of Austria were
really crazy, and George of England,
you know, was in a straight waist
coat There remained none, then, but
old Catherine who had been so lately
picked up as not to have lost her com
mon sense."
These were the divine right rulers
whom Jefferson knew; and, if the sage
of Monticello were alive today, he
could still find a large assorc
ment of fools, idiots and luna
tics on European thrones, and,
crossing back home again he
could find in America a newly fledged
lot of shoddy aristocrats who claim
0 the earth upon the smallest measure of
desert, moral or intellectual, which
you Could think possible, even to cli
macteric impudence! &
The fathers would have none of this
artificial aristocracy no shares in a
social and political idiot asylum! They
oven sought to avoid all approach to
ward it. They voted down a propo
rtion to designate the president as
"His Highness," "His Excellency,"
etc, and fixed his title simply as "Mr.
President;" and by that title he was
always known until recently when the
kerosene nobility of America got the
title of "His Excellency" revived and
now promise to make it popular.
The fathers put it into the constitu
tion that the United States should
COrrKJE SENT HKK
Back to the Oouatry.
A young woman of Bradford, Vt.,
made her way to a good position in a
big Boston store and gave it up be
cause of sickness at home, but it all
came out right at last and she tells
the story this way: "Two years ago
I had to leave a position as bookkeep
er in a Boston department store to go
back home to take charge of the old
place as mother's health seemed shat
tered, and what do you suppose proved
to be the cause that forced me to re
turn? "I found her very weak, unable to sit
up all day and with a dizzy feeling if
she tried to move about. She had been
advised to stop coffee drinking, but as
she had used it from childhood it
seemed as though nothing could take
its place. I had settled down to stay
at the farm when one day I got to
thin, .jg over the situation and con
cluded to try an experiment. I got a
package of Postum Coffee. It was not
cooked right the next morning and we
were all disappointed. That was be
cause we had tried to make it like
coffee. Next morning I had Postum
made according to directions and we
were all delighted. In a few days you
should have seen the change in
mother. Since that time we have never
drank coffee and now we all drink
Postum twice a day and sometimes
three times and think it "superior to
coffee.
."The change in mother's health
since she quit coffee and took up Pos
tum has been wonderful. She is once
more able to take the work again,
quite well in fact, with no mqre weak
ness and nervousness, no more sour
stomach, no more trouble of any kind.
To cut a long story short she is now
entirely well ana I am going back to
Boston in a few weeks, thanks to
Postum." Name given by Postum Co.,
Battle Creek, Mivh.
Tee cold Postum with a dash of
lemon is a delightful "cooler" for
worm days.
Snd for particulars bv r"Ml of ex-
tpnslnn nf Httio mi t"ho X7 ftft 00 onrtlrn
contest for 735 money prizes. J
never grant any title to nobility nor
uny American official without the con
Fent of congress, accopt any present,
emolument, oilice or title from any
king, prince, or foreign state. They
did not prohibit Americans from mar
rying titles, because they did not
ioresee the American heiress and her
market possibilities. Neither did they
forbid our citizens to raise funds from
American properties in order to go
over the seas and spend them upon
European palaces. They had no pre
science of our Astors, Beunetts.
Goulds, Carnegies and Vanderbilts,
and if they had they would probably
have been willing to pay the bonus for
the sake of the deal realizing that
"absence makes the heart grow fond
er." They did not forbid ecstatic re
ceptions, parades, military and naval
reviews and processions every time
seme European princeling came into
the country for they could not fore
see that ilunkeyism would ever be
come epidemic here! And they did not
expressly forbid presidential Junket
ing; but President Jefferson set a no
ble precedent in that matter. In 1807
Governor Sullivan of Massachusetts
invited the president to make a tour
through the northern states, and in
reply Jefferson said:
"I confess that I am not reconciled
to the idea of a chief magistrate par
ading himself through the several
states as an object of public gaze and
in quest of an applause which, to he
valuable, should be purely voluntary.
I had rather acquire silent good will
by a faithful discharge of my duties
than owe expressions of it to my put
ling myself in tho way of receiving
them!"
Could he have anticipated the time
when a president would tour the
country in special trains providf-d by
great corporations with all expenses
paid by them; when a president wp
be wined, dined, feted and flattered in
a great regal progress by the very
men who would profit most by the
I.rc-sidential favor could he have
foreseen these things his opinions, no
doubt, would have been still more
pronounced!
My friends, these things may seem,
under hasty consideration, to be trifles
light as air; but let me remind you
that it has ever been trifles, the min
ute, insidious innovations of many
years, that have in the past corroded
and undermined the foundations of re
publics, giving us no pronounced sign
until the superstructure, itself, was
ready to topple into ruins; and it was
a knowledge of this fact that made
our fathers fence their great postulate
of equality even in matters apparently
trifling. Theirs was a great, wise and
benign jealousy; and, on this great
day, we can do no better thing than
to covenant with each other anew
that we will oppose with all our pow
eiv every approach of the false, fool
ish and un-American spirit of aris
tocracy either In matter or form.
But let us consider the doctrine of
equality in another relation.
The fathers pronounced for the
equality of citizenship in respect of
military service.
They were opposed to a separate
military class in the republic. They
dreaded the establishment of a pro
fessional soldiery! They knew from
their reading and their experience
what woes wait upon a country where
every adult civilian is compelled to
carry a soldier on his back! They
knew that a standing army always
finally means war; that war means
debt; that debt means the separation
of the people into bread-winners and
bondholders; and that the'equilibrlum
of society once unsettled by the erec
tion of a military class fiends towards a
further dislocation.
Hence they wero, ono and all, op
posed to standing armies. It was one
of the complaints against King Georgo
put into the Declaration of Indepen
dence that he maintained standing
armies among usf Joseph Warren,
tho hero of Bunker Hill, thundered
againBt it In an oration, delivered in
1772, in which with classic force and
elegance, ho pointed out tho r.eces
p-ary antagonism between militarism
and popular liberty. Josiah Qulncy in
a masterly review of the subject,
emitted in 1774, and in which ho
brought under review the whole his
tory of military nations, ancient and
modern, showed how inevitably fixed,
military establishments ever tend to
ward the ruin of both civic freedom
and moral -civilization. Jefferson op
posed professional soldiery eany and
late; and, in many of his letters, ex
pressed his regret that an express dec
laration against standing armies had
not been put into tho constitution;
and Washington, after having spent
eight years In the saddle as the com
mander of the American armies, and
other eight years In the president's
chair shaping tho functions of our new
government, put Into his majestic
Farewell Address a solemn admoni
tion against overgrown military es
tablishments "which," he said "un
der nny form of government are in
auspicious to liberty, and wjiich arc
to be regarded as particularly hostile
to republican liberty."
There is scare.. one of the groat
subjects which the fathers debated
upon which they wero so heartily
agreed as they wore In their opposi
tion to militarism. Franklin was op
posed to a standing army, John Dick
inson, Stephen Hopkins, Benjamin
Rush, John Hancock, both cf the
Adams, and Indeed nearly every one of
the most distinguished of the revolu
tionary leaders lifted their voices to
warn posterity against the creation of
a distinctly military class within the
boundaries of the republic; and so em
phatic and serious was this convic
tion that Washington and Jefferson
both opposed tho perpetuation of the
Order of Cincinnatus a fraternal or
ganization of the old revolutionary sol
diers formed after the war.
The substitute wliich they offered
for a standing army was a well or
dered militia, a citizen soldiery. They
believed that an army composed of
citizens whose courage and patience
would be stimulated and sustained by
thoughts of the cradles, hearths and
altars of prayer at home would not
only make the noblest, but the most
capable army that could possibly bo
mustered under the flag; and the com
mentary of a century and a quarter of
national life and the examples of five
great wars have proven abundantly
that their views were correct For I
eay here, without fear of contradic
tion, that the American volunteer is
by far the bravest and most efficient
type of soldier known to the annals
of mankind. With perhaps fifteen mil
lions of our men capable of military
pervice and always quick to respond
to the call of the country we can
have no sort of need for anything but
a skeleton army to occupy our arsen
als and forts and train ofllcers for pos
sible exigencies. That was the
thought of the fathers cautious, in
deed, but still sufficient for every sit
uation known to our history, then or
since!
And we are moving away from that
safe conception! I do not say that
our present army Is sufficiently num
erous, or so mercenary as to be im
mediately dangerous to our liberties;
tut there are other circumstances
which are not so reassuring. We are
getting the passion for arms! We
are swelling with the military vanity
that marks the old world! We have
gone into the conquest business. We
have erected a carpet-bag-bayonet
government over cloven millions of
brown men far beyond our boundar
ies; and, today, wo are whispering
diplomatic arrangements with other
and monarchical governments which
at any tlmo may precipitate us into a
huge war in far off China! We aro
carrying a big club, but wo arc not
speaking softly. On the contrary, wo
aro swaggering both ridiculously and
oangorouBly and almost everywhere
in official circles, at least, we arc
abandoning tho prudonco and dignity
of tho fathers for the childish vanity
and petulance of a military nation.
We can defer discussion of Filipino
liberty, if necessary, but the question
of our own liberty is beginning to be
importunate! We have repudiated the
Declaration of Independence for tho
cake of conquest, and wo havo sus
pended In part tho authority of tho
constitution for tho sake of carpet-bag
government and every intelligent
person who Is not already Infected
with tho present rngo of militarism
must occasionally question If there bo
a stopping place and where It is!
"Ah," answers tho spirit of com
mercialism, "but our wars and threats
of war aro for tho purpose of extend
ing American commerce. Our armies
make for us open doors and give us
access to great fields of business which
prophesy unmeasured profit."
Whose profit? What share will the
American common have In the con
quest and spoliation of foreign peo
ples? Why, ray friends, the story of
such adventures is so old that It has
lecomo tedious through familiarity1
Always and ever the common people
do the fighting and foot tho bills; and
tho army contractors and privilege
grabbers do the res.. No nation given
to militarism can possibly preserve
nny substantial equality among Its
citizens. The rise of tho profcHBlonal
soldier means a corresponding sub
sidence of the plain citizen. The sol
dier has the glory, the citizen pays the
fiddler!
In 181G Jefferson said In a letter
to Crawford:
"No earthly consideration could in
duce my consent to contract such a
debt as England has by her wars for
commerce, to reduce our citizens, by
taxes, to such wretchedness as that,
laboring sixteen of the twenty-four
hours, they arc still unable to afford
themselves bread or barely to earn
as much oatmeal or potatoes as will
keep soul and body together. And all
this to feed the avidity of a few mil
lionaire merchants and to keep up
one thousand ships of war for the pro
tection df their commercial specula
tions!" That was the policy and condition
of England a hundred years ago and
that Is the policy and condition of
England today! Wars In India, China,
Afghanistan, Egypt and So"uth Africa,
while the British plutocrat gets richer
and the British democrat gets poorer!
Yet our American torles boast of tho
British conquests and dependent col
onies and describe that policy as some
thing to be emulated by the American
reople; and would fain hurry us into
the English business of snatchlncr ter
ritory. The policy is so obviously im
moral and injurious that we might
hope that the people of this country
would reject it without debate were it
not for that streak of insanity in tho
average community which always cre
ates an irrational stampede at the
flutter of a flag or the pounding of a.
drum!
As It Is we mufjt argue, we must re
(Contlnued on Page 13.)
Gen. Chas. Dick,
Ohio's famous Congressman, writes:
".Ther is no remedy so efficient for
headache as Dr. Miles' Anti-Pain Pills
Dure and prevent. Sold and guaranteed by
all drupRista, No opiates. Non-laxatlva.
Wever sold in bulk. 25doses25 ccnta.
Dr. Mhjcs Mdical Co., Elkhart, lad.
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