4 Conservative *
THE SINGING RIVER.
Sweet melodies are echoing
Through mists of joy and tears ,
They come again , iigain repeat
The songs that time endears ,
That sound through distant years.
And over with their voices dim
One song rings o'er and o'er ,
The song the little river sang
To homes beside its shore ,
In days that are no more.
The winding , curving river's flow
That came from out the west
With roselit waves and golden tinge
Of sunset on its breast ,
And sang in twilight's rest.
It parted where an island stood
With somber fringe of pine
And toward the north and toward the south
It sung at day's decline.
With singing ran each line
To join in rippling near the wall
Where stood the convent gray ,
And mingle with the quiet tones
Of nuns who knelt to pray
To God at close of day ,
Below the bridges in the town
It softly murmured by
And joined the mothers' evening song
Of tender lullaby ,
W hile darker grow the sky ,
Beneath the stars reflected light
Its voice grow bold at night.
The fishermen sang o'er their nets
And toiled in changeful light
Where flamelit shores were bright.
And with them sang the river low
Above its bed of stone ,
Then swept between the vineyards dark
With gentle , plaintive tone ,
And , shadowed , sang alone.
Now evermore the river flows
From westward to the sea ,
The rippling , singing river calls
With sighing or with glee
From out the years to me.
MAUY FUKNCH MOHTON.
JUDGE HAUMON'S SPEECH.
We present to our readers herewith
the text of the remarkable speech de
livered Ex-United States
by - Attorney-
general Judson Harmon at the first
-M dinner given in honor of Hon. "William
H. Taft , in Cincinnati , March 5th :
* n 'r "If yon had met to approve the
mm JU-\ general course of the government with
Y I respect to the Philippines , I should not
be hero. For a hundred years we had
to content ourselves with words of
sympathy for peoples struggling , as we
once struggled , for freedom and inde
pendence. Here for the first time an
opportunity came to help in such a
struggle without breaking our settled
policy. We joined ranks with the native
patriots against a common enemy.
Whether any one made , or was author
ized to make , promises to them is of no
'
* * !
consequence. Our history and principles
are a perpetual promise ; and no one will
deny that when the Filipinos joined
forces with us they believed , and we
knew they believed , that success would
inenn the fulfilment of their hopes. We
should have resented a request for a
promise that we would not do beyond
the seas what we had pledged ourselves
not to do at our own shores. No Ameri
can can truly say that during the strug
gle he had any other idea. If anybody
then assumed to sit in judgment on the
fitness of others to have rights which we
hold to be inalienable , nobody dreamed
of questioning the fitness for freedom
and independence of men who , to gain
them , had risked their lives , their for
tunes , and their sacred honor.
"When we came to terms of peace , it
was our duty to put an end to the claims
of the King of Spain. As to all the ter
ritory except a few square miles , these
were the barest of pretensions , but his
need and others' greed might make a
speculative asset of them to the injury
of our allies. This was the only possible
justification for the direction to our
commissioners to purchase those claims ,
and we naturally expected some declara
tion of trust. So did our allies. But it
soon turned out that instead of buying
off the King of Spain , the government
had bought him out and proposed to
realize on the investment , treating our
late comrades in arms to a mere change
of masters.
"Our only real war followed a war
which a word would have avoided , if
our government had been willing to say
it , and whose victories roused no gladness
in our people , like those over Spain.
The government got absolutely nothing
by the treaty with Spain except color of
title to a small part of the territory , and
consequent color of right to make war
on the inhabitants without action by
congress. Whatever it now holds ( save
what it got by treaty with the Sultan of
Sulu ) it has acquired by conquest from
them , and not otherwise , and it is still
engaged in perfecting and extending
such conquest.
"We now hear the usual plea of the
doers of doubtful things the deed is
done , it is too late to discuss it. True ,
we are responsible for what the govern
ment has done. It has committed us to
present ownership of what lawyers call
legal title to the Philippines , and no
citizen has a right to shirk his share of
the responsibility for whatever such
ownership involves. But the people
have not spoken on the great questions
which lie behind this. They have
authorized no one to speak for them.
Are we to keep and rule as our own
lauds which plainly can never be taken
into our Union of American states , or
shall we declare and perform the trust
for the inhabitants of those lands which
is implied by every consideration of
principle and good faith ? Nothing the
government has done or may do can
foreclose that issue. No consideration
which bears on it can be brushed aside.
"It is never too late to retrace a mis
step , to right or undo a wrong. This is
not the time or place to discuss this
issue. But if the people shall decide
that no nation is good enough to rule
another nation without that other's con
sent ; if they shall remember what it
cost us to cast out the heresy that the
great principles of liberty did not apply
to black men and shall refuse to re-
embrace it as to brown ones ; if they
shall conclude that this country can not
long exist part vassal and part free , as
they found it could not part slave and
part free then there will be no difficulty
in doing what we ought to have done in
the beginning : leave the Filipinos to
manage their own affairs and serve
notice on the world that they are under
our protection. That issue may be set
tled BOOU. It may take long. As it
involves right and wrong , it will never
be settled until it is settled right. In
the meantime there are certain duties
for which we have been made respon
sible. One is to provide a government
for the people of those islands. How
ever strongly he may disapprove the
course which has led to this necessity ,
no citizen has a right to withhold his
aid and support.
"The situation is very peculiar. On
the ratification of the treaty , whatever
territory in fact belonged to Spain be
came territory of the United States.
The military authority of the president
ceased. Our constitution and laws ex
tended there , and it became his duty to
enforce them. As to the territory con
quered from the natives , there has been
no treaty because the government has
refused to recognize their dominion.
The president's military authority ,
therefore , strictly speaking , still pre
vails , and under it he might make regu
lations having the present force of law.
But as the government has chosen to
refer the title to all the territory it holds
to the treaty with Spain , the president
must treat it all alike as part of our
national domain and none of it as
enemy's country.
"Congress has failed to act in the
matter , so the president is compelled to
continue as a de facto government that
which he had established under his
military power. It is either that or
anarchy. His right to make regulations
in the nature of laws is subject to grave
doubt , but his right and duty to provide
agencies for enforcing the laws are
clear.
' 'He has decided to act through a civil
commission. He has chosen our friend
and neighbor as the head of that com
mission , and I am here to join you in
approving that decision and that choice ,
and in wishing Judge Taft God speed
on his journey by land and by sea , and
success in the most novel and important
work that has fallen to any man of his
generation.
"If these people had come under oar
rule of their own free will , we might
well leave them to take their chances as
we do ourselves. But we have cast out
