The Portland daily press., 1892-05-31


vast portion of the continent which we
control, SO far in the future as human
| eye can look.
The crowning act of the life of Wash
ington was his prompt laying aside OF
the sword at the close of the Revolution.
The grim-visaged Jackson, when he
became President of the United States,
and during the whole tenure of his Office
| as such, governed his relations with for
eign nations with so conciliatory course
as to invoke the censure of his opponents
on that account.
The great chieftain Grant, as President
of the United States, gave to the world
the greatest example of peace in history
in the tribunal that sat at Geneva; and
the present President, himself a disting-
.uished general, has referred to another
great tribunal of arbitration the irritat-
ing and dangerous question in which we
are involved with our neighbors across
the sea.
The hireling soldier of despotism
makes his conquest only the basis Of a
more bloody conquest; but the free sol
dier of the republic reverses the old
maxim, and in time OF war prepares for
peace.
Within the recollection of many who
UAC uOlC, bliO Vi uOI PldCulCO VI ouOlllllS
was encouraged and sustained by large
portions of the civilized world, and was
generally tolerated and recognized.
Almost within my own recollection,
the father of your distinguished COM
rade, General Cilley, was slaughtered on
the field of Bladensburg, and the country
looked on in horror, not at the system,
but at the means by which he was un-
justly forced into the contest and his life
unjustly taken.
In Great Britain this system first re-
ceived the condemnation of the public.
1t was driven into the army; but in 1914
the articles of war provided that, not only
any officer who took part and encouraged
duelling, but ann officer who failed to
discourage it, should be cashiered; and
they also laid down the great principle
that to give and accept an apology for a
fancied wrong was honorable.
While itdid not attract so much atten-
ton as some other facts, yet it is true
that the Rebellion and the event of that
war seem to have crushed out the cruel
system on this part of the continent be-
longing to us; and today, while no slave
exists wherever the Anglo-Saxon Ian
guage is spoken-and it is spoken wher-
ever the sun shines-that twin relic OF
barbarism, the system of duelling, has
also disappeared wherever that
tongue, is used. The assassin re-
mains; the vendetta remains; the ruffian
remains; the oppressor remains; and they
will remain perhaps so long as human
ist, Just so long will the tribunals of ius-
tice, and when the tribunals of justice
fail the nations must forfeit human life
But as there are those here who have
seen this system stamped out, so be-
lieve there are those here who will live
to see those who encourage wars like
those which have cursed Europe for the
last 25 years, or those who would en-
courage a general war with the nations
south of us, or between us and the ma
tions across the water, regarded with
the same horror with which we today re-
gard those who encouraged the sacrifice
of human life in duelling. Applause
With reference to the nations south of
us. both on this continent and on the
continent of South America, we owe
peculiar duty. We have said to the
world-and we have said justly and prop
erly-that we will tolerate no interfer-
ence from powers across the water with
these great continents; applauseF but
when we say that, we cannot fold our
arms and add that we are not our broth
er's keeper! When we take the position
that no nation outside of this continent
shall interfere, we assume duty and a
great duty.
Unfortunately, in the nations south of
us, internal dissensions and foreign wars
have turned back the tide of civiliza-
tion.
We, ourselves, in the course of our
history, have 4S times referred our CON
troversies to tribunals of arbitration, and
twice during the last 10 years, with
great wisdom and in the love of peace.
the administration at Washington has
urged the people south of us to lay down
their arms and settle their controversies
in the same way in which we have set
tied so many of ours.
1t does not become our policy to inter
vene by armed force, or by force of any
sort, in the affairs of those nations. They
are sensitive and intolerant of anything
like interference by force or otherwise.
We can only perform our duties to them
by maintaining friendly intercourse, and
by exhibiting the benefits which grow
from system OF peace insisted on and
pursued year in and year out, and line
OF relations with foreign governments
based on the principles laid down in the
inaugural address of Abraham Lincoln:
Malice towards none, charity for all.
frmness in the right as God gives us to
see the right" Applause.
We are all taught as children from that
immortal document, the Declaration of
Independence, that life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness are our inalienable
rights.
The whole system of the common law
of England seems to be devoted to the
protection of human life. BY the law,
the life of no man, no matter how wretch
ed, no matter how guilty, can be for
feited unless the, forms of the law are
complied with in all the minutest parti-
culars; and, while the mills of the Gods
grind slowly, and while we cannot fore
see much of the future, and while the
time of universal peace must be for us
indefinitely postponed, let us all use our
efforts, be they small or be they great,
towards advancing that period when the
life Of a human being shall be as sacred
in the court of nations as it is in the
courts of the common law; and NAV YOU.
members of the Grand Army of the
Republic, when you relate to your chill
dren and to your children's children the
hardships which you have borne, and the
brilliant deeds in which Won have taken