The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1888-08-04

0
future European possessions before at
taine0 will be out of date. This is GER
tain. We may hasten or retard it, but
il cannot be prevented. We may SO
act as to cause the aggregation of the
people of North America under one
flag TO be DELAYED, TO be accompanied
with friction, even war aud bloodshed.
We may 80 act that when this aggrc-
CATION shall come It will be but mere
foreible conjunction Of adverse aud
hostile peoples, instead of real union.
not only in political but in commercial
and social relations
That the attraction of these peoples
to our flag should be by kindness. By
friendly acts, the natural result Of
Kindred hopes and kindred aspirations
and common interests, is manifestly
wiser and better; better for them and
bettGr for ". The Canadians are al
ready tutored IN soiEgnssrnmant, The
voluntary transfer OF their allegiance
TO the American flag would result in
I
our clear duty, our manifest interests,
that in our intercourse with them,
whilst maintaing fully American rights,
We should not irritata, annoy, or
oppress. Such course win hut the
more strongly attach them to the great
power beyond the seas. to which they
will be certain TO look for protection
and safety. In pursuing this course
we but do the work Of the British
Grown.
Mr.. President, we may have, II is not
unlikely we will have our own
troubles, which may force us to secure
an extension Of our borders, or il not
our borders the extension of our miiu-
ence to the south. We have new con-
ditions in our political, social, and in-
dnstrial life which never before con-
fronted free people, conditions which
might possibly be met with safety for
along time Mt least in an empire, wherein
all the people are subjects, not citizens,
and by the iron hand of unsympathlz-
Ing power, exerted through an imperial
and neutrality-suspicious. arc reduced
to common level, common equality
in political slavery and social degrada-
ton. In such II government the hopes,
the aspirations of the great body of
the people reach not beyond tho sccur-
ing OF personal safety and comfort and
ease coming from the absence of hun
ger. Whether they can be met in
safety in dcmocraticfepubhc, where
In the energies of men are so stimu-
lated by liberty as to cause ceasele.s,
evcr-onduring contest aud rivalry for
that superiority, that coveted lnequal-
ity In wealth, social relations, and in
dividual power and influence, which
are denied In abstract political rights,
and especially when this rivalry Is
intensified by the commingling of
heterogeneous and mutually repellant,
diverse peoples, time alone can deter.
mine, can not, no man can, forsee
the full extent and effect of the dangers
which even now seem to menace us by
the incorporation into the body Of
American citizenship of race patient
docile, inoilensive, peaceful though It
be, who yet are without ancestral apti-
tudes for free institutions, without the
inherited instincts for selfgovernment,
which existing in the Anglo Saxon
race has enabled il to cause progress
and advancement IN free institutions
to be n steady, onward march for more
than millennium.
If 1t shall turn out to be true, as that
distinguished and philosophie states
man, the Senator from Vermont Mr..
Edmundsl. asserted in 1882 when all
vooating the exclusion Of the Chinese
from this country, that homogeneity
in people Is necessary condition Of
success in free institutions, as shown
by all the long reaches of human his
tory from Aristotle TO Webster; If 1t
shall come to pass that Mr. Lincoln
shall be proven TO be right in declaring
that the physical differences between
tho two races are such as TO forever
prevent them from living together in
one community on terms of perfect
equality, then II will also result that
there will be in the future, when no
man can tell, that arrangements viii be
made by the free consent of both races
by which that close contact which
breeds antagonlsms and disorder will
be obviated. Whether that will be by
one means or another, ! do not know.
! do know, however, that one Of the
wisest statesmen who ever lived in this
country, Robert J. Walker, more than
forty years ago, pondering then on the
great problem of African slavery IN
the United States, or, If you please, on
that great crime against human rights
forcsaw that II could not be eternal
And considering what was best for the
white people of the Union, best for the
unfortunate people held In bondage
he looked with hope to the regions
south of us as furnishing a solution OF
the trouble.
As to wheter in the providence OF
God this solution shall ever be de.
manded by the best interests of both
races express here and now no opin
ion. But will say that in my pool
judgment it is the duty of American
, statesmen to commit this country to ne
policy. to no doctrines of public law
which will prevent the American pco
pie of both races, Of all races, from
seeking such outlets rs their necessities
: and their interests may demand for thu
teeming millions of inhabitants which
shall in the great future occupy oul
land. Before such danger, before
such a necessity, if they shall come, al
they may come, all European jurisdic
tions, all supposed European rights OF
this continent must give way. Th'
safety of the Republic must be th'
supreme law.
Mr.. President, am not predicting
events: am not endcayoring with m,
weak and feeble powers to penetrate
into the domain of the unknown and
the unknowable do not pretend t6
forecast the future, but in the face o
possible and natural dangers felt by th'
wisest, reconized by the great Senator
from Vermont, and also by Mr.. Lin
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