10 Conservative *
OOM PAUL AND JKFF DAVIS.
Air. Henry II. Blackwoll Surprised utSoino
of the Uo r Supporters.
To THE EDITOR OP THE CONSERVATIVE :
In the reports of the recent Faneuil
Hall meeting , held to express sympathy
with the Boers , I was surprised to ob
serve the names of several eminent per
sons honorably identified with antislavery -
slavery and religious freedom. Are not
those gentlemen aware that these prin
ciples are a part of the British contention ?
Do they not know that the migration of
the Boers from the Capo Colony was
caused primarily by their opposition to
the emancipation policy of Great
Britain , and that they have established
and maintained negro slavery as a
cherished and permanent institution of
the African republic ?
Are they not aware that , under the
constitution and laws of this so-called
"republic , " no Roman Catholic or Jew
can vote or hold office ? Have they for
gotten that a majority of the resident
population , paying three-fourths of all
the taxes , are excluded from the suf
frage , deprived of the right to bear
arms , and subjected to despotic rule by
a brutal Dutch police ? That the Eng
lish language is proscribed in all legal
proceedings ; that public education is
fettered and free speech and freedom of
the press and meetings like the one at
Fanenil Hall denied ? The suzerainty of
Great Britain , once fully acknowledged
and never relinquished , is ostentatiously
defied. The oppressive taxes , wrung
from a disfranchised majority of the in
habitants of the Transvaal , have for
years been spent in importing arms and
artillery of the latest type in prepara
tion for the expulsion of the British
government , not only from the Trans
vaal , but from all South Africa. The
war , declared not by England but by
the Boers , is being waged on British
territory.
This attempted secession from Great
Britain is , in many respects , parallel
with that of the southern confederacy
from the Union in 18G1 , but is far less
excusable , because in all the English
provinces of South Africa there exists
an absolute political and religious equal
ity of races and of forms of religion.
Irish , English , Americans and Dutch
men , Protestants , Catholics and Jews
therein enjoy equal rights and privi
leges. It is precisely this equality which
Oem Paul is fighting to prevent. Eng
land only asks for her own people in the
Transvaal the same rights and privileges
which Dutchmen enjoy in Cape Colony
and Natal.
The so-called South African Republic
is a republic only in name. It is a nar
row oligarchy , incompatible with civili
zation and progress. It is to be regretted
that prejudice against Great Britain
should lead estimable people to ignore
facts and disregard the fundamental
equities that underlie this lamentable
conflict. HENUT B. BLACKWELL.
Dorchester , Jan. 25 , 1900.
The old hymn
THE PROSPECT.
which sings :
"Where every prospect pleases and only
man is vile , " is brought to mind by the
diabolical fact that , after nearly twenty
centuries of preachment of "peace on
earth and good will to man , " war is
rampant and horrible , among the most
civilized and Christianized people of the
globe.
Before a gnn was fired , before a
human being was killed , diplomacy and
negotiation could
Arbitration. , , , ,
have removed all
the causes of war by means of reason
and compromise. If this be not the
truth then wherein is this generation of
enlightened Christians superior to form
er generations of savage idolaters ? If ,
after all these centuries of alleged civili
zation and mental and moral improve
ment , intelligent nations must settle
their difficulties by making corpses , how
are they better than the barbarians of
ancient times who did the same thing ?
Having just emerged from a corpse
manufacturing tournament between the
men t s of
The united states , fvern
Spain and this
country the administration continues
the Christian business in the Philippine
Islands with unabated vigor. The out
look for a perpetual crop of corpses
among the Filipinos is encouraging.
Those semi-savages do not know the
value to their souls of that "benevolent
assimilation" which we piously propose
for them , with the soothing music of
shot , shell and the shouts of a victorious
soldiery. Stolidly and without excuse
those oriental idolaters reject our
benevolent approaches and spurn our
proffered protection. They are so de
praved that they wickedly prefer liberty
to the changing from Spanish to Ameri
can subjects. They impiously impugn
our title derived from Spain at a cost
of twenty millions of dollars to the
sovereignty of those beautiful and pro
ductive islands which bask in perennial
sunshine and by spontaneity furnish
them their simple subsistence. The
Filipinos seem to have no comprehension
of our disinterested philanthropy. They
will not , with religious humility , admit
the right of Spain to sell them and the
right of the United states to buy them.
But the word is uttered that until they
do submit the killing shall proceed. As
long as the stars glitter and the stripes
curl and wave in "the flag of the free"
blood will [ flow and pain and anguish
abound among the insurgent Filipinos.
The United States is declared the instru
ment of God for exalting the mental
and moral status of those heathen
orientals.
And while this stalwart and glorious
child of the English government is
pushing piety into
Great Urltaln. f. ° .JT ;
the Pacific Archipelago
pelage with powder and bayonet , the
dear old Mother Country is pounding
away in South Africa to correct the
ideas , methods and policies of the Boers.
English cannon and great armies are ,
for the love of God and right , we are
told , endeavoring to teach "peace on
earth" to a lot of Dutch burghers who
are foolish enough to antagonize the
Christian and commercial approaches of
John Bull , the sweetest and most self-
sacrificing missionary of all the
centuries.
"Every prospect pleases and only man
is vile. " The Philippines are tropically
gorgeous and lux-
Sell T > . . .
or liny. . .it . .
uriant with forests ,
flowers and fruits ; but the Filipino is
vile.
vile.South
South Africa is opulent in far reaching
hills which are stuffed with precious
gems and protuberant with swelling
mines of gold. But the Boers are vile
enough to wish to keep them as their
own.
own.Why
Why not buy this second-hand Boer
war of England ? As long as the United
States has gone into the business of
purchasing brio a brae of a bellicose
kind why not buy this South African
curio and have a ' 'pair ? "
Or why not pell out our Philippine
war , even at a discount , and let John
Bull do the goody-goody work of
Christianizing savages everywhere ex
cept in the United States ? And if we
can thus sell out our national interest in
the missionary work among foreign
savages , why not organize a propaganda
of civilization and Christianity for Ken
tucky and send an army of preachers
and prayer-makers to evangelize the
"dark and bloody ground1'
Bubonic plague in Hawaii ; disfranchisement -
chisement of more than half the voters
in Louisiana and the Caroliuas ; civil
war or anarchy threatening in Ken
tucky , "every prospect pleases and only
man is vile. " We are the authorized
evangelists of the earth and the battles
must go on that corpses and anguish ,
agony and desolation may continue to
come to the homes and mothers of the
republic.
THE STRENGTH OF A NATION.
Neither does strength depend on ex
tent of territory , any more than upon
number of population. Take up ycur
maps when you go home this evening
put the cluster of British isles beside the
mass of South Africa , and then consider
whether any race of men need care how
much ground they stand upon. The
strength in the men , and in their unity
and virtue , not in their standing room ;
a little group of wise hearts is better
than a wilderness full of fools , and only
that nation gains true territory which
gains itself. John Buskin.
