8 Conservative.
A good man will
A GOOD MAN.
inoro easily grow
better , than a bud man good. Fora rare
frame of good qualities , high built and of
highest need to the public wolf are , admir
able in the abstract and vitalized , by a
striking personality , the present time has
haidly the superior to show of Theodore
Roosevelt. It is our prayer and ad
juration that he grow still better , as ho
steadily grows larger.
First of all , he carries every where the
refreshing certainty , that what ho says
or does ho means ; his own mind will be
in his words , his own spirit in his acts ;
the one will bo truth , the other honesty ,
so far as motive is concerned. No
power in high places or in low , no inter
est or party , no threat or bribe , can
reach his integrity. His concerns appear -
pear to bo all for the public , and his
restless activity ensures their taking
effect. His magnificent courage , princi
ples , leadership and pugnacity , seem to
call in question the Providence that did
not raise him up in time for the Great
War ; before the time of the Little War
we used to remark that ho was one of
the few men of whom wo could be quite
certain without trial that he would be a
military success. Ho attacks the ene
mies of good order , good government
nnd good public morals as if they wore
so many armed foemen in the breach ;
and they have little resource but nick
names and showing his teeth in cartoon ,
as if they had felt them. His achieve
ments are already of importance ; and
they convey the constant suggestion , in
their steady increase , of greater things
to come. That such doing should find
words to match , is nothing strange ; but
it is extraordinary , if not unique , that a
life of such action should spare time and
means for such literary work as he has
accomplished , histories time are the de
light of historians as well as the general
American reader , monuments of re
search which would seem , a marvel at
his ago if his days had been given to
nothing else , and lit up by the style of
all his energy and freshness. A finish
like this is as the capital to a splendid
column. His familiar old habit , we
might add , of informing the public from
week to week that ho is a "republican , "
may be taken as index of the difficul
ties that beset a character which must
be true to itself , in party associations at
the present time.
There is an elevation of the spirit iu
following the career and utterance of
such a citizen ; thence , we feel it the
more if we miss in any such utterance
the notes of veracity and sense. "Faults
of one's quality , " defects that go with
any excellence as its shadow-side , we
are used to expect ; but hero is plain
question of truth and right. We are at
present engaged in a war , one remark
able feature of which is that our people
ple have had nothing to do with ordain
ing it ; another , that its whole execution
is a glaring departure from our princi
ples and practices hitherto ; another ,
that most of those whom wo would
have picked out before as competent
guides of public opinion seem to disap
prove it. Governor Roosevelt has had
much to say of this proceeding ; and
hardly a word , so far as wo have yet
been able to observe , conceived in the
spirit of reason , or controlled by regard
to fact. All objection to this war is
branded as sheer cowardice and dis
grace to the country ; those who remon
strate are "puny , " and anything else
which may stir up mere contempt.
Justin McCarthy says of the English
that , for a really brave people , they are
rather given to calling others cowards ;
and Governor Roosevelt mars his own
bravo record by this headlong abuse.
We find nothing in all his "Philippiiiics"
bu t a "rushing" of the whole subject ,
as one which would not bear rational
discussion ; a hooting as of urchins on
the street ; moral level not perceptible.
Thus men gather mobs , thus they lynch
prisoners , thus they get drunk. We
lose all sight of the guide to all good
work in the world : the spirit of truth
which puts facts as they are , the spirit
of right which puts acts as they ought
to be.
be.We
We are painfully reminded that in all
the books and speeches we have fol
lowed so admiringly , wo can hardly
recall a single expression implying other
than that war is a good thing in
itself. Once indeed he said to our mid
dies that we were a peace-loving na
tion ; which might bo a commendation ,
or it might rise from sloth , or cowardice ,
or nioney-lovo. In his late triumphal
march through the West , he gives out
the welcome announcement that "We
desire above all things peace ; " which in
its context sounds a little like Napoleon
in the later days of his empire , such a
lover of peace that he bitterly censured
his minister for writing a paper to prove
it as if it needed proving.
A moment's reflection , if it be pos
sible to reflect a moment in this martial
hurricane , must show even the speaker
himself what public morals he is teach
ing. Not only all personal judgment
and conscience as applied to national
affairs are at once discarded by the fact
of a foreign squabble , mere adherence
written in their place , but a special prem
ium is offered on all uiisgoverunient and
wickedness in high places. The sug
gestion to rulers is , "Do your will ,
never mind if you break all pledges and
commit every crime ; if you fear any
thing from the people , you need nothing
then but make a war , however wanton ,
on some feeble foe or victim ; all must
forget every scruple and stand by you
thick and thin. " And when this inevit
able natural consequence of the doc
trine thus presents itself , wo are a little
startled to remember how close it comes
to the reality a government bankrupt
in the purposes of its election , plunging
into a war which might blind the people
to its betrayal of their interests. The still ,
small voice which must consider of such
things , may bo lost in the roar of public
throngs , when their applause begins to
sweeten iu the ear ; but it is the voice
which will be heard in the distance ,
when these are still. Our history and
all history is proof of that.
The pendulum swings to its extremes ,
but it averages plumb. In our early
experience all tended to individualism
and disintegration ; a stern experience
was needed to evince a strong govern
ment and an integral nation. Now
the reaction runs so far as practically
to deny all right of private judgment ,
and to make serfs , not indeed of
American bodies , but of American
souls. Wo have not found either the
idea or its enforcement so lovely as
to part with our freedom yet.
It is for the good reputation of this
gifted man , growing now to be a na
tional possession , that we feel con
cerned. The various expressions that
come to him in the course of his crusade ,
have a wild and distracted sound , if wo
stop to listen soberly , as of a man
working off his balance. When we
hear him talk of our people "huddling
within their own borders , " we wonder
what conception this American histor
ian has of our four million square miles ,
only half occupied and far from half
developed ; but united by the finer bonds
with all the world , and in the best
position to do all good by the nobler
ler [ means. When he extols our
struggle with "the savagery in the
islands" of the Philippines , and we con
sider the performance thus far of that
remarkable people , we have to question
his competence for true picturing of
human affairs. While we absorb his
golden promises of perfect honor and
equity to be observed with these natives
once their arms are down , we think how
wise it is to base our record of these vir
tues on the future rather than on the past ;
since , within a year , we had the Span
iards precisely thus unarmed , and gave
them flat dishonesty , expressly pledging
the subject of these very islands as re
served for discussion under treaty , and
at the opening of the treaty assuming
their possession absolutely without dis
cussion. The protestations of the good
we are going to do the conquered , are
little else than those of tyranny and ag
gression always. The hymns to all the
energetic impulses drawn forth by war
appear a strange inversion , since very
clearly such impulses , generally out of
bounds , are the cause of war , rather
than war of them , till it exhausts them ,
ending with peace at almost any price ,
and the carnival of vice that follows far
into its era. But when we hear once
more from those accomplished lips the
old fustian , of the Flag never to come
down , we only rest.
