" '
*
.
Conservative * 9
of the dangers now threatening onr na
tional life and which nppenls to every
sentiment of true patriotism and love of
country. Ho said
"And now , friends and countrymen ,
if the wise and learned philosophers of
the older world , the first observers of
nutation and aberration , the discoverers
of maddening ether and invisible plan
ets , the inventors of Congrevo rockets
and Shrapnel shells , should find their
hearts disposed to enquire , what has
America done for mankind ? Let our
answer be this : America , with the
same voice which spoke herself into
existence as a nation , proclaimed to
mankind the inextinguishable rights of
human nature , and the only lawful
foundations of government. America ,
in the assembly of nations , since her
admission among them , has invariably ,
though often fruitlessly , held forth to
them the hand of honest friendship , of
equal freedom , of generous reciprocity.
She has uniformly spoken among them ,
though often to heedless and often to
disdainful ears , the language of equal
liberty , equal justice and equal rights.
She has , in the lapse of nearly half a
century , without a single exception , re
spected the independence of other na
tions , while asserting and maintaining
her own. She has abstained from in
terference in the concerns of others
even when the conflict has been for
principles to which she clings , as to the
last vital drop that visits the heart. She
has seen that probably for centuries to
come , all the contents of that Aceldama ,
the European world , will be contest be
tween inveterate power and emerging
right. Wherever the standard of free
dom and independence has been or shall
be unfurled , there will her heart , her
benedictions , and her prayers be. But
she goes not abroad in search of mon
sters to destroy. She is the well-wisher
to the freedom and independence of all.
She is the champion and vindicator only
of her own. She. will recommend the
general cause , by the countenance of
her voice and the benignant sympathy
of her example. She well knows that by
once enlisting under other banners than
her own , were they even the banners of
foreign independence , she would involve
herself beyond the power of extrication , in
all the wars of interest and intrigue , of
individual avarice , envy and ambition ,
which assume the colors and usurp the
standard of freedom. The fuudauieuta
maxims of her policy would insensibly
change from liberty to force. The
froutlet upon her brows would no longer
beam with the ineffable splendor of free
dom and independence ; but in its steac
would soon be substituted an imperia
diadem , flashing in false and tarnishec
lustro the murky radiance of dominion
and power. She might become the die
tatress of the world ; she would no long
er be the ruler of her own spirit. "
The press dispatches of February 17
report President McKinley as also say
ug ( to the Home Market Club of Bos
on ) that our country hns a mission ,
jet mo quote from an eminent Now
York lawyer of today , Mr. Wheeler H.
Peckham :
"I do , indeed , think that this nation
las a noble mission to mankind and hu
manity. That mission is to show them
low to live. To show that it is possible
o form a vast political organization
vhich shall be just and honest and free ;
11 which the remedy of war shall be
eliminated ; in which controversies shall
bo those of the mind , and in which
mowledge and intellect and benevolence
shall be the arms used ; where the forum
shall not bo the tented field ; where hos-
) itals and ambulances and surgeons and
lurses and suffering and death shall not
) e weapons ; But where the forum
shall bo a court , where great and good
neu shall listen to argument and reason ,
and sho.ll adjudge and decide as right
and justice may appear , and where their
lecisions shall be respected and observed
because they are just. "
We all know that according to Greek
mythology the blue-eyed , fair-haired
goddess , Minerva , the most beautiful of
all Jove's daughters , was the patron saint
or protecting goddess of the Greeks in
their campaign against the Trojans.
She it was who cheered them in their
discomfitures and in their hours of gloom
inspired them with renewed courage to
attempt glorious achievements by heroic
efforts for final victory in the overthrow
of Troy. But when , in the hour of
triumph , the impious Ajax profaned the
temple of liberty Minerva's she called
to her aid all the avenging furies and
lashed the offenders through the world.
For this the army of the Greeks was
decimated ; for this the noble Ulysses
wandered painfully over sea and land
seeking his Argive home ; for this the
brand of impiety was set indelibly upon
the Greeks. Is there no lesson here
for Americans in this their hour of mad
ness ?
In the midst of war and rumors of
war and all its dread accompaniments
and consequences , its disastrous blunders
of policy at home , and savage struggles
in the field , it renders more imperative
the consideration of the truths which ,
despite all the blandishments of tem
poral power and place , were insistently
proclaimed by our Lord and Master
Jesus of Nazareth. What shall it profii
Americans if they gain the whole worlc
and lose their reverence for and loyalty
to the declaration of independence , the
constitution of the United States , and
all the most cherished principles of our
fair fabric of liberty , broadbased on the
immutable principles of the truth as it is
in Jesus ?
Confronted by the war-spirit madness
which has prevailed in the United States
for a year past I would ask every pro
fessiug Christian of whatsoever church
sect or denomination , if he believes that
were the Galilean Himself present , look
ug on at the slaughter of helpless
people , Ho would approve it ? Nay
nore , I ask those ministers of the gospel
vho have been so swift to proclaim the
) enefits and blessings of Christian civil-
zation to follow the triumphs of our
arms , whether , in the face of the wild
outburst of savagery which has charac-
; erized our latest victories , they believe
hat the evangelizing process which has
) een adopted is in keeping with the
pirit of Christ ? Also , whether they be-
tevo that war is any other than what
Bismarck and Sherman have character-
zed it , "Hell on earth 1"
"How long , O Lord ! how long
Shall such n priesthood barter truth away ,
And in Thy name , for robbery and wrong ,
At Thy own niters prny ? "
If the spirit of Christ prevail not in
our civilization , it is of no more worth
; hau the imperial despotism built up and
maintained by Roman legions , and like
t , liable to be overthrown and trampled
n the dust by Goths and vandals in an
other form.
Entertaining the views that these
words indicate , I believe that the inex-
mustible spirit of love and brotherhood ,
which is in Christ Jesus is the
only guide to the just and right
eous settlement of the difficulties in
which our country is now involved ,
and that it should be appealed to in the
leart of every human being who recog
nizes the fact that Christ died that we
might live.
For my own part I cherish a sympathy
for all the dwellers in any land , believ
ing them to be our brethern , in a hu
manitarian sense , if in no other , and not
outside the pale of Christ's redemption
and the- fatherly compassion of the
Almighty.
My opinion is that our coming na
tional campaign will be a strenuous one , Ir
and that the issue will be between
American Democracy broadbased as it
is , on the immutable principles of the
truth as it is in Jesus and Plutocratic
Imperialism , to the exclusion of all
minor questions standards of value ,
currency reform , tariff revision and
everything else apart from a contest for
and against the lust of ambition , power
and pelf. I do not believe that the dem
ocratic heart of America will tolerate
the sordid , vulgar and ignoble spirit of
avarice and vainglory which underlies
the present situation. To use Professor
Markhani's words , the problem of labor
is the sphinx that sits at the threshold
of the twentieth century. And we
must answer its terrible question , or ?
The riddle must be solved. For myself
I have hope and faith.
Amidst the tumult of unmltignblo scorn
The old ancestral cries of moral wrong ,
Hope keeps undimmed the glory of the view ,
"Which once was hers when all our land was
now.
Her ears still catch ono strain that noyer dies ,
Held firm through chance and change of earth
and skies
Her dumb unswerving Faith in good and truo.
THE REIGN OF THE COMMON PEOPLE.
