ZLdU.
Conservative * v i
the burden of taxation be increased , not
only , like the peasant of Europe , will he
be horn with a heavy debt about his
neck and will stagger with an armed
soldier upon his back , but his dignity
will be dishonored and his manhood dis
crowned by the act of his own govern
ment.
The senator from Connecticut himself
acted on a different doctrine within six
mouths. Ho resolved , "That the people
of Cuba are , and of right ought to bo ,
free and independent. " I am sure he is
now incapable of resorting to the poor
subterfuge that the right to be free and
independent belongs to them by reason
of any special conditions , because they
are white men , or because they are
Americans , or because they are Chris
tians , and does not appertain to every
people the world over. The senator
and those who think with him commit
ted themselves to this doctrine as the
right of other people not only to free
dom , but to independence , and they
went to war for it. "Will they attack it
now ?
I do not agree , Mr. President , that
the lesson of our first hundred years is
that the Declaration of Independence
and the constitution are a failure , and
that America is to begin the twentieth
century where Spain began the sixteenth.
The Monroe doctrine is gone. Every
European nation , every European al
liance , has the right to acquire dominion
in this hemisphere when we acquire it
in the other. The senator's doctrine put
anywhere in practice will make of our
beloved country a cheap-jack country ,
raking after the cart for the leavings of
European tyranny.
It may be that in some storm and
tempest of popular delusion a cloud may
for the moment cover the great truths
of our Declaration. I have within the
compass of my own life encountered
such a storm and tempest more than
once. In 1850 , after the passage of the
compromise measure , the great contest
for the freedom of the vast territory
between the Mississippi and the Pacific
seemed hopelessly lost. Senate and people
ple , courts and state legislatures seemed
all bowing in assent to the overthrow of
the great principles of the Declaration.
But after a few short years the cloud
and storm passed by , and the eternal
constellation shone out unmoved and
unshaken in its glory in the sky.
I remember when the great political
party swept over the North , electing in
my own state every member of the legis
lature but twoevery member of congress ,
every member of the state government ,
based on the docrine of denying the ap
plication of these truths to citizens of
foreign birth. But again the delusion
passed by , and the eternal truths shone
out. I have seen like movements of
popular error and delusion in more re
cent years. So far God has given me
strength to withstand them in my hum
ble fashion. But they wore overthrown
and brought to naught , not by any hu
man strength , but becaiise the otorna
providence of God is on the side of free
dom.
Our fathers dreaded a standing army ;
but the senator's doctrine , put in prac
tice anywhere , now or hereafter , ren
ders necessary a standing army , to be
reinforced by a powerful navy. Our
fathers denounced the subjection of any
people whose judges wore appointed or
whose salaries were paid by a foreign
power ; but the senator's doctrine re
quires us to send to a foreign people
judges , not of their own selection , ap
pointed and paid by us. The senator's
doctrine , whenever it shall be put in
practice , will entail upon us a national
debt larger than any now existing on the
face of the earth , larger than any over
known in history. Our fathers dreaded
the national tax-gatherer ; but the doc
trine of the senator from Connecticut , if
it be adopted , is sure to make our na
tional tax-gatherer the most familiar
visitant to every American homo.
Our fathers respected above all the
dignity of labor and rights of human na
ture. The one thing created by God a lit
tle lower than the angels was a man. And
they meant to send abroad the American
flag bearing upon its folds , invisible per
haps to the bodily eye , but visible to the
spiritual discernment , the legend of the
dignity of pure manhood. That legend ,
that charter , that fundamental truth , is
written in the opening sentences of the
great declaration , and now the senator
from Connecticut would repeal them.
He would repeal the great charter of our
covenant. No longer , as the flag floats
over distant seas , shall it bear on its
folds to the downtrodden and oppressed
among men the glad tidings that there
is at least one spot where that beautiful
dream is a living reality. The poor
Malay , the poor African , the downtrod
den workman of Europe will exclaim ,
as ho reads this new doctrine : "Good
God ! Is there not one place loft on
earth where in right of my manhood I
can stand up and be a man ? " Will you
disregard every lesson of experience ?
No tropical colony was ever yet success
fully administered without a system of
contract labor strictly administered and
enforced by the government. I will not
speak of the thirteenth amendment. In
our parliamentary practice amendments
fall with the original bill. This amend
ment will fall with the original consti
tution.
Mr. President , this spasm of folly and
delusion also , in my judgment , will
surely pass by. Whether it pass by erne
no , I thank God I have done my duty ,
and that I have adhered to the great doc
trines of righteousness and freedom ,
which I learned from my fathers and in
whose service my life has been spent.
More than usual interest was mani
fested in Mr. Hoar's utterances. His
declaration of purpose to oppose the rat
ification of the peace treaty created n
profound sensation. Ho was accorded
the unusual compliment of careful at
tention throughout his speech by every
senator at the capitol.
It is not under-
- that the On-
f-d
bans wore over in
Missouri , but they seem to reqxiire a
good deal of showing in sanitary matters.
Fortunately our hired men in charge are
men of resources. In the city of Santi
ago , whore a good start has been made ,
a person who makes a sewer of the
streets after it has once been explained
to him that that is not the United States
way , is publicly horsewhipped on the
spot. It is not likely that this is by
orders from Washington , but one may
suppose that it will prove speedily effec
tive.
THK JUJL.ING . "KING OFVA M ,
ST11KKT. "
His name is Roswell Pottibone Flower ,
the peer of a long line of American
financiers who have won that royal place
by their own unaided abilities in the
higher walks of business. Governor
Flower is a plain , practical , strong man
without frill or furbelow , and is none
the worse for being rich and ambitious.
At the ripe ago of sixty-four , stout of
build , bluff and hearty in manner , ho is
a manly typo of the better qualities of
American manhood. The governor en
joys a personal popularity which is sim
ply unbounded in the imperial state of
New York. But in his native county of
Jefferson he is best known and most
loved.
MaxO'Rell , in
TIIKNKW
RELIGION. the current num
ber of The North
American Review , speaks of the coming
new religion "The Religion of Christ. " i
And by way of illustrating what this
new religion will teach , ho tells a touch
ing story of the pleasures of poverty in
the case of a cheerful , happy-looking
old woman in Edinburgh who sold sweets
to the children of the Cowgate , a squalid
spot in the Scottish capital. Her whole
stock amounted to no more than a
couple of shillings , and she once told
O'Rell that when at the end of a day
she had made six or eight pence she was
quite satisfied. * * *
"Seldom was a child who could not
afford to pay her allowed to pass that
basket of those pink and rose candies
without receiving one for love. At her
funeral "hundreds of barefooted little
boys and girls in rags followed their departed -
parted friend down the Cowgato. "
And the genial Frenchman says :
"When that old woman arrived at the
gates of Heaven , there were more angels
to meet her and take her to the throne
of the Almighty than there would bo
for the arrival of all the dukes in Chris-
tendom. "
