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ANTI-IAII'ERIAI.ISM.
- . .
Address by Chairman .1. Sterling Morton
at tlio Aiiti-Impuriiillst MuetitiK in
Chicago , Tuesday Oct. 17 , 1899.
Each day is a page and every year a
chapter in that vast volume of Time
called a Century. In our generation the
final pages of the concluding chapter of
the nineteenth century are written.
After more than eighteen hundred
years of Christianity , of intellectual
growth , and of a constantly improving
civilization , in which the tender kind
ness and loving teachings of the gentle
Nazarene have been thrown like light
into the uttermost parts of the earth , we
witness the most phenomenal paradox in
governments which the race has ever ex
perienced. The mailed hand of a great
empire , directed by the benevolent mind
of the Czar of Russia , inscribes peace on
earth and good will to man across the
closing pages of the nineteenth century ,
as its earnest and sincere aspiration.
The government of Russia , a govern-
meut with the largest standing army in
the world , declares for disarmament and
proposes universal peace. But tlie great
republic of the United States , founded
by Washington , Hamilton , Franklin ,
Jefferson , and their compatriots , declares
for war , conquest , subjugation and an
nexation. Russia would be the peace
maker ; the United States the war-
maker. In all history there is not an
other so striking and inexplicable an
antithesis. Never before in the annals
of the world have been recorded two
such departures by established govern-
meuts from the revered principles , poli
cies and the cherished traditions of their
founders. Imperialism turns from war
and conquest to exalt peace ; but demo
cracy seemingly drifts towards despotism
and would hold conquered peoples as
subjects and their domains as provinces.
Under these circumstances this assem
bly of citizens has been convoked. They
have come together to take counsel , not
as partisans to promote the power of a
political organization , but as American
citizens , as patriots to promote the wel
fare of their countrymen and to advise
for the better establishment and safer
perpetuation of this government by the
people.
They have the right to thus peaceably
assembly , aud , without taunt or dis
paragement of those who may differ
with them , to make solemn inquiry as to
what is the best course for this republic
when , as now , there may come danger
to its most vital principles through the
subversion of either its legislative or its
executive powers.
That there are thousands of patriotic
citizens of the United States who don't
believe that it is wise to acquire distant ,
insular domains and attempt to make
them a part of this republic , no one can
doubt. The phrase "United States"
originally distinctly conveyed the idea
of a government made up of severaj
separate states which were erected out
of contiguous or adjacent territory.
There could never have been created a
federal government of the United States
out of separated islands like those in the
Gulf of Mexico and those in the Pacific
Archipelago. And the question now is :
Can the United States absorb , assimilate
and control such islands and govern
them aud their millions of people , and
maintain a republican form of govern
ment ? Can the United States continue
and stand upon the consent of part of
the governed and upon the subjugation
of the other part ?
Article VI of the Constitution of the
United States says :
"This Constitution , and the laws of
the United States which shall be made
in pursuance thereof ; and all treaties
made , or which shall be made , under
the authority of the United States , shall
be the supreme law of the laud ; and the
judges in every state shall be bound
thereby , anything in the constitution or
laws of any state to the contrary not
withstanding. "
The treaty of Paris which gave the
United States sovereignty over the
Philippine islands is therefore to be ob
served and obeyed "as the supreme law
of the land. " It is obeyed by those who
protested against its ratification. And
it ought to be almost revered by all
those who with intense fervor advocated
its passage by the senate.
The preamble of the Constitution says :
"We , the people of the United States.
in order to form a more perfect union ,
establish justice , insure domestic tran
quillity , provide for the common de
fense , promote the general welfare , aud
secure the blessings of liberty to our
selves and our posterity , do ordain and
establish this Constitution for the
United States of America.
To acquire insular territory in the
Pacific Ocean , inhabited by from eight
millions to ten millions of people of an
other race , who live under a tropical
sun is not "to form a more perfect
union. " To take these Filipinos by
force of arms and benevolently assimi
late them , is not "to establish justice. "
It is not "to insure domestic tranquil
lity. " It is not "to provide for" but to
imperil "the common defense. " It is not
"to promote the general welfare. " It
will not tend "to secure the blessings of
liberty to ourselves and our posterity. "
And yet for these purposes our fore
fathers "ordained and established this
Constitution for the United States of
America. "
We are assembled here for the pur
pose of avoiding dangers to the sacred
instrument and the institutions which
it has established and fostered. In the
language of Victor Hugo :
"The nineteenth century glorifies the
eighteenth. The eighteenth proposed ,
the nineteenth concludes. And my last
word shall be , tranquil but inflexible , of
peace and progress. This day force is
called violence. It begins to be judged.
War is arraigned. Civilization , upon
complaint of the human race , orders the
trial , and draws up the great criminal
indictment of conquerors and captains.
This witness , History , is summoned.
The reality appears. Factitious brilliancy
is dissipated. In mauy cases the hero is
a species of assassin. The peoples be
gin to comprehend that increasing the
magnitude of a crime can not be its dim
inution ; that if to kill is a crime , to
kill much can not be an extenuating
circumstance ; that if to steal is a shame ,
to invade can not bo a glory. The
peoples begin to comprehend that homi
cide is homicide , that bloodshed is blood
shed ; that it serves nothing to call one's
self Caesar or Napoleon , and that in the
eyes of the eternal God the figure of a
murderer is not changed because instead
of a gallow's cap there is placed upon
his head an emperor's crown. War is
not good. It is not useful to make
corpses. No , oh mothers who surround
me , it can not be that war , the robber ,
should continue to take from you your
sons. No , it can not be that women
should bear children in pain , that men
should be born , that people should plow
and sow , that the farmer should fertilize
the fields and the workmen enrich the
city , that industry should produce mar
vels , that genius should produce prodi
gies , that the vast human activity
should , in presence of the starry sky ,
multiply efforts and creations , all to re
sult in that frightful international ex
position which is called a battlefield.
"Let us stop the effusion of human
blood. Let the eighteenth century come
to the help of the nineteenth. The
philosophers , our predecessors , are the
apostles of the true. Let us invoke
those illustrious shades. Let them
before monarchies meditate wars , pro
claim the right of man to life , the right
of conscience to liberty , the sovereignty
of reason , the holiness of labor , the
beneficence of peace ; and since Night
issues from the thrones , let the Light
come from the tombs. "
FREIGHT RATES. .
ical society of Ne
braska will convene in January , 1900 , at
the University in Lincoln. Early
methods of transportation from the
Missouri river to the mountains and the
cost thereof , together with rates from
St. Louis by river to Sioux City , and
intermediate points , will be fully dis
cussed and illustrated.
THE CONSERVATIVE has just been
permitted to read an article for that
occasion , upon the topic of transporta
tion , from William Fulton , Esq. , of Kan
sas City. Mr. Fulton is a gentleman of
exceptionally good memory and great
felicity for facts and figures. The paper
which hehas kindly prepared , for the
state historical society is exceedingly .
" " '
interesting and very yaluable. ,