Conservative. 11
I10AK EXPLAINS HIS OPPOSITION TO
JJKYAN.
Ill response to the request of THE
CONSERVATIVE , Senator Hoar gave this
paper the following lucid exposition of
his views :
"Mr Bryan brp put his case with great
power and with great dexterity. Many
good men , the first time they read it ,
will be much impressed by it ; but they
will like it less on more careful consid
eration.
"His defense of his course in procur
ing the ratification of the treaty by
which the Philippine islands were ac
quired from Spain is exceedingly weak
and lame. It will not bear examination
for a moment. The senate was the
strong fortress , the "West Point of the
opponents of imperialism. The treaty
by which the people of the Philippine
islands were purchased and the faith of
the country was pledged to pay twenty
million dollars for sovereignty over ten
millions of unwilling subjects , and by
which on the faith of the country it was
further pledged that congress and not
the people themselves should determine
what disposal should be made of them ,
required the vote of two-thirds of the
senate for ratification. The opinion of
senators enough of far more than one-
third of the senate against it , was well
known and freely expressed. In this
condition of things , Mr. Bryan was not
content with a mere opinion. He put
forth all his power as a great party
leader , the last candidate of his party
for the presidency and then reasonably
sure to be the next candidate , to secure
the ratification of the treaty. Not con
tent with writing letters , he came to
Washington in person to overcome the
reluctance of his followers. Seventeen
of them voted for the treaty of whom
only four or five at most had been pre
viously known to be in its favor. He
now says that he thought the war would
go on ; that there was a doubt whether
Spain would have ratified a treaty if it
had been amended by inserting in it a
provision like that relative to Onba. It
was perfectly well known then , as it is
now , from documents that had been
made public and had been sent in to the
senate , that Spain was compelled to do
whatever the United States exacted of
her , and that her commissioners ex
pressly so declared. A change would
have been agreed to in two days upon a
request by our government communi
cated to her across the ocean by cable.
Mr. .Bryan says he thought that a reso
lution like that offered by Mr. Bacon
would be passed afterward , which would
do as well. But every man who knows
anything about the constitution knows
that by the constitution a treaty becomes -
comes the law of the laud. It is the law
of strongest obligation , because congress
not only declares it to be the law of the
land , but pledget the faith of the gov
ernment and the people. Such a resolu
tion passed by the senate would have
been the merest and idlest mockery ,
without the assent of the house of rep
resentatives and the president , neither
of which could be obtained.
Conduct Ulco iv Triiltor'H.
"I said the senate was to the oppo
nents of imperialism what West Point
was to our fathers in the Revolution.
Mr. Bryan's conduct is as if some
general in the Revolutionary army , a
great leader of the people like Washing
ton or Greene , had given up West Point
o the British and had induced the
continental congress to declare that
King George was our lawful sovereign
and the British parliament our lawful
legislature , on the plea that he wanted
to stop the war , and expected afterward
to get some votes through one or the
other house of British parliament grant
ing us independence. The war with
Spain was over ; we had no title , as
President McKinley declared again and
again , to anything in the Philippines
but the city of Manila. At that point
in came Mr. Bryan and got all that were
needed of his followers to force through
the senate a treaty which made lawful
our ownership of the whole of the Phil
ippines and pledged the faith of the
country that we should pay for them
and that congress thereafter should
legislate for them , and , according to
many high constitutional authorities ,
made it the duty of the president to
reduce them to submission. That act
was itself a declaration of war upon the
people of the Philippines , and the strife
which had been but an accidental out
break , which Agninaldo disclaimed and
disowned , became war. And for that
war Mr. Bryan is more responsible than
any other single parson since the treaty
left the hands of the president.
' 'I did in humble
myself , my way
everything in my power to prevent the
treaty. I do not understand that any
opponent of imperialism charges me
with failing to do my full duty as a
senator , both by vote and speech. I did
it at the cost of what was as dear to me
as my life the approval and sympathy
'of ' men who had been my friends and
political companions for more than 80
years. Everything I tried to do was
brought to naught by the action taken
by .Mr. Bryan , an action taken against
the remonstrance of the wisest leaders
in his own party.
"He is not to get the reward of this
conduct , if I can help it , I do not give
him my confidence in this matter.
"No the anti-imperialism of Mr.
Bryan and that of his party is but a
mask it is a mask to cover the things
they have had most at heart from the
beginning it is a mask to cover their
purpose to establish the free coinage of
silver , a mask to cover their purpose to
overthrow the banking system , a mask
to cover an attack on the supreme
court. "
AN IMPKRIAt . .
WAG Kit. monarch in America
is "anti-im
ca , an -
perialist" who , according to the Omaha
World-Herald , bet twenty thousand
dollars on August a 1,1000 , that Bryan
is to be elected president of the United
States. That amount is to "the plain
people , " to the "poor man" an imperial
fortune. Oroker wagers it because he
IOVCB honesty in administration the
"thrifty" honesty of Tammany. Some
other plutocrat , however , bets fifty
thousand dollars against Crokor's twen
ty that Bryan cannot bo elected. The
imperator of Tammany loves his own
kind even to extravagant wngerp. He
is a martyr to Byanarchy and Reform
all Tammanyites are with him in the
glorious cause.
CONSENT. It has been philanthropically -
anthropically 8ng >
gested , in view of the mistakes , bungles
and botches which Governor Poynter has
made in his attempts to select a govern
ment for the "feeble-minded institute"
at Beatrice , that the inmates be allowed
to select and elect their own superinten
dents. They could not &how more
genuine feeblemindedness in their choice
than Gov. Poynter has developed in the
many selections he has made. "The
consent of the governed" is essential , it
seems , in an institution for Nebraska
idiots so long as the state in controlled
by journeymen office hunters and office
holders of fusion.
Wh ° n
NO DANGER.
war closed in
many good citizens believed that the
republic would perish and a military
despotism take its place. But the hun
dreds of thousands of soldiers quietly
disbanded and returned to their homes
and the pursuits of peace. At that time
in New York City there was published
regularly a periodical called "The Im
perialist. " It was well edited and well
advertised but did not "fill a long felt
want" and so died after a brief life of
comparatively few months. There was
no danger of a military usurpation of
the government of the United States in
1865 , and there is none now in 1900.
THE FKEMONT MYTH.
John Brown and Captain Fremont did
not trot in the same class , and the Path
finder would probably have been very
ill pleased with a comparison between
them , and yet they are alike in one re
spect. The travels of both are over long
ago , but their souls are still marching on.
Fremont penetrated to some remote
places in the body , but his name , having
taken up the task independently , is still
taking possession of places that its
owner never thought of reaching. THE
CONSERVATIVE baa called attention to a
number of instances of this phenomen
on , and will continue to do so as long as
. Cv.'ii