The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1889-01-12
How Un-Amsrican Democratic Sena-
tors May Invite a War.

Monroe Doctrine in its application to
the Panama Canal revealed the ex-
tent of the decline of the Southern
Democracy of to-day from the De-
mocracy that was represented by Mr..
Folks great Secretary of State, Will
liam L. Marcy, anG Buchannan's at
least eqally great secretary of State.
Judge Jeremiah S. Black.
Had either of those stanch defend
ers been present in the Senate Cham
Der on Saturday he would have been
shocked by the attitude assumed by
Southern Democratic Senators to-
ward a joint resolution which in the
most temperate manner asserts the
doctrine that has been maintained
for nearly seventy years by the best
American statesmen of both parties.
Mr.. Vest, of Missouri, had the au-
dacity to insinuate that the Edmunds
resolution was in the interest of a
Nicaragua Canal route, and was in
stantly rebuked by Mr.. Edmunds,
who denied the imputation and made
the strongest of arguments for the
need and urgency of the resolution
when he said that "the honor and
candor of the United States required
formal and friendly reaffirmstion
of the American doctrine on the SUBJ
ject before the friendly Republic of
France had been drawn into an off,
cial support of the De Lesseps scheme
at Panama, so that the French Coy
erument could not afterward say to
the Government of the United States,
You sat silent and acquiesced in our
engaging in this enterprise, and you
ought not now to complain"
This statement covered the whole
ground, and should have prevented
factious and unpatriotic opposition,
but it did not prevent another Dem
ocratic Senator, Mr.. Regan, of Texas
from putting irrelevant and absurd
questions, intended to throw doubt
on the sincerity of Mr.. Edmunds
and of his resolution and another
Democratic Senator, Mr.. Gray. of
Delaware, furnished material for
French remCnstrance against the
carrying out of our traditional and
settled policy. Another Democratic
Senator, Mr.. Call. of Florida, was
base enough to suggest that the Ed
munds resolution meant war if it
meant anything, and asked the alb
surd question - from An American
standpoint: "What right had the
Congress of the United States to say
that the people of Columbia should
not accept the aid of a foreign gov.
eminent for the construction of the
Panama Canal? Such an assump-
ton would be in the face of the Dec
laration of Independence. which
asserted the right of every people to
establish its own government and to
manage its own affairs"
By such an opposition did the
Democratic side of the Senate reveal
its un-Americanism and its depart.
ure from the most patriotic traditions
of the Democratic administrations.
Not a single Democratic Senator
sank partisanship in patriotism and
stood up for the assertion OF the doc
trine for whose maintenance even
President Polk would have risked a
war.
This is the most striking disclosure
that has been made since the Demo-
cratic decentralization that naturally
followed the election of man so de-
ficient in patriotic instincts as CIeve-
land began to be felt in National
affairs. During the whole of an ear
nest Senatorial! debate not one Dem
crat rose to the level of an occasion
that should have appealed to the pa
triotism of every Senator. John
Sherman. in the most delicate but
effectual way, presented the nature
of the emergency, and condemned
partisanship so destitute of honor
able lineage, when he said that "if
the American Congress was to allow
the old Democratic idea to be de.
parted from THAT no foreign govern
ment should exercise domination or
power on this continent} it would
abandon all the safeguards of the fu-
ture. What the Committee on For.
eign Relations objected to was that
any European government whether
republican or MonarchicaD should
step in and have control and power
over the canal. That was all that
there was in the resolution and he
did not think that its passage would
have a friendly influence for the
French Government was evidently
hesitating about the matter"
Yet even the terrible arraignment
of the Democratic opposition that is
implied in this passionIess, but ear
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