The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-07-03

policy should be founded on the high
est morality and justice. 1t is idle to
expect that a foreign policy of this kind
can be maintained by our country unless
the subject can be withdrawn from the
field of party politics. He contended
that questions relating to external affairs
should be judged on their own merits,
and not upon party grounds. But for
the maintenance of a more effectual
foreign policy it is not enough that it
should be just and well considered, and
that we should be united in support of
it at home. We must likewise be
known to be strong enough to enforce
it. What makes law a controlling
force in civilized society is not so much
the justice of its conclusions as the
consciousness that the power of govern
ment stands behind them. That coun-
try is most likely to enjoy the blessings
of peace which is in a condition to be
most formidable in war.
OF the invincible power of our coun-
try upon its own soil there can be no
question. AT home we may safely
defy the world in arms, and by land we
shall never be attacked. If we are
ever so unfortunate as to be involved
in war with any country great enough
to 90 by the sea, the issue must be de-
termined upon the sea and not upon
the shore. We have no naval force
that can cope with that of any such ma
ton, or that could stand up at all be-
fore the great war-ships and powerful
artillery of the present time. Naval
strength has become at this day the
right arm of diplomacy, and the most
important element in large and critical
foreign relations. Moral power is an
excellent thing, but there are times
when it is of small avail to be right if
we are, likewise, impotent. Conclud-
ing this branch of his subject, Mr..
Phelps said:
| at would propose, therefore, as one of the
| first steps toward such an international at
titude as it seems to me our country should
assume, and having assumed, maintain, that
a naval force should be created that should
leave us nothing to fear from collision with
any other naval power in the world. For
| this no country has such facilities-an over
| flowing treasury, a sea-coast extensive
enough to afford ship-yards for the world,
inventive and mechanical genius and in
dustry unsurpassed, a highly-educated and
well-selected body of naval officers, PEG.
pie to whom seafaring is the gift of nature
more than to any other people except those
of their own race. Better to expend the
whole surplus in the treasury, which is de
moralizing the country and debauehing its
politics, to create a ship-yard in every por
and to employ thousands of men in build
ing ships and thousands more in sailing
them, until our ancient prestige on the ocear
is restored, than to remain in the condition
where our only means of asserting disputed
rights or defending ourselves against attacl
is the soft answer that turneth away wrath
OF course it is easy enough to misunder
stand these suggestions. Nothing in tn
world is easier than to misunderstood, ex
cept to misrepresent. The one is natural t.
the dull man; the other is the most conven
lent weapon of the dishonest one. 1t is cas-
to say that aproposal to put nation in "a con
dition for self-defense is to propose caree
of war and bloodshed and aggression. Blu
saying so does not make it so. That man
a fool if there be such man at the presen
day, who does not know that war is tn
- - Il -,
most destructive to all the best interests {
humanity. To avoid the possibilities
war is the first object of all foreign rels
+ tons; to cultivate with other nations tn
free intercourse, the amenities and tn
, courtesies that are the fruits of peace is tn
second"
. Another point touched upon was tn
position of our representatives. abroad
4 "Of the three grades in diplomat
g. rank which the usage of nations ha
established - ambassadors, minister
> plenipotentiary and ministers res
o dent-the first is universally regarde
o as the proper representative from or
% first-class power to another" II
showed that in this regard we are col
4 sidered a second-class power by foreig
:. nations. Our representatives shou
. be men of rank and properly nance
j. and we in turn would be honored lik
wise by other nations.
" At home," said the orator, in Co
clusion, I" the flag hangs idly fro
many a staff and serves to mark maj
a mean and ignoble thing. We off
os pass it by without regard. 1t is whit
" it rises, solitary and brilliant, again
of some far-off foreign sky that it touch
D. the heart of the American wander
e. with new emotion and larger sen
of of all it stands for. 1t is then
W. smiles TO see its splendors fly 1t
az then he feels of how much account
ms is-that wherever it is seen among t
r. nations of the earth, wherever it fiot
al on any sea or hore, it should still !