San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-01-30
NorArA AL PATRloTlo.

| less seIuUlauC6 Vi pdbIlOtIsm Inau Tue
United States. If the present compli.
cations with Chile have demonstrat.
ed nothing else they have made this
fact as plain as day. 1t has been the
rule with this government not to as
sert itself, deprecating all idea of war
and trusting to the sense OF justice in
other government is to right all wronges
This policy has had its reflex influence
In the public mind; and our people,
many of them, have come to regard
any assertion of our dignity as ma.
ton as something actually uncalled
for. There is suspicion that all Is
not as it should be. If there lie any re
sentiment by the government of the
acts of foreign powers, and the ad-
ministration is ceneured therefor as
though they were necessarily at fault.
This no doubt arises in part from the
peculiar condition of politics in this
country, the ''outs' considering it a pc
liticsl duty to condemn the acts of the
Gins" Making due allowance for this,
however, the fact remains that with
all our boosted Americanism we have
but little of that national feeling that
sustains country, right or wrong,
simply because it is our country.
This sentiment works unconscious in-
Jury to US in our dealings with &c :.
eign governments. 1t has done so in
this Chile matter. Added to our pro-
verbal disiuclination to assert our
selves Chile, and Great Britain be.
hind Chile, have had the moral sup
port of no small portion of the Amer
lean press to encourage them in the
belief that they would not be called
to account for their acts, no matter to
what length they might be carried.
In this belief, no matter how errone-
Gus, they have been justified by the
expressions of some of the democratic
journals, even after matters had
reached o crisis and war was immi-
nent. These journals have assumed
that their own government was in
the wrong and the foreign power in
the right, despite the sworn testimo.
ny of our own naval officers and the
eye-witnesses to the murder OF
American sailors by the soldiers
and police of a foreign port.
The American journalist who
will thus give aid aud COM
fort to foreign power, by attempting
to discredit his own government in
the great court of international judg-
ment, is guilty of constructive trea-
son. For his act there is no excuse,
aud for his crime no palliation. The
reasonable intent is there, plainly
inferable from the act. The man
who would betray his government
with his pen is not to be trusted to
defend her with his sword. He has
demonstrated that he considers his
citizenship an unholy thing. He has
advertised his preference for his coun-
try's foes, and notified them of his
hostility to his own government. He
is justly an object of suspicion to bis
fellow citizens, and of con tempt to all
true patriots. He has not known and
does not understand that the seeming
lack of patriotic feeling on the part OF
| Americans is only seeming; that
down deep, beneath the surface rip
Piles of our acquisitiveness, there
| flows an undercurrent of true patriot
ism, pure as our mountain springs
full as the floods of the Mississippi
and resistless as the rapids of the Nj
agara. This ever living current of nat
ional feeling can always be depsndt d
upon to carry the nation in one resist
less movement for the defence of thu
national honor whenever assaulted ,anC
the sneaks at home and our Lonorabl,
enemies abroad will find that thi
patriotic sentiment will never b,
found wanting in the nations extrem
ity. The trouble with Chile has don,
this for US as nation, among othe
things; it has shown how many asse
are parading in lions skins; hog
many who assume to direct the pub
lie mind and to instruct 1t have not
learned the of their personal re
sponsibility to the government tina
, protects and defends them; how man,
Z put country before party and ar,
Americans first and republicans o
democrats afterward. The events O