The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-12-23


 spirit among the youth of our land, In | the words of William Everett at the Jay treaty oommemoration exercises: We shall in less than a week be cele- brating all over this country the birth of the Savior of mankind From hun dred thousand churches next Wednes- day will be repeated the angelic song Peace on earth good will towards men, Do we propose to renouuce our Chris tianity and llsten not to Christian an- gel, but to the demon yelling, War on earth, i'll will toward men? Let no man who still holds to his Christian profess sion dare to enter house of prayer next Wednesday, or ask his children to dance in glee round a tree resplend- ent With the gifts of Christ's birthday, | If he is giving the lie to his Masters religion by seeking national honor and the elevation of humanity in the hor- rors cruelties, crimes of war. In the name of Him, my Lord and Master the Prince of Peace, I call on all who are His votaries to make their voices heard against that which in all ages of the world has proved boundless evil and which our nation is too mighty too glorious, too civilized, to sanction for what? A dispute over boundary line, which, in matter of fact, is dis pute over a gold field.
 Had the present speaker lived in the slavery days he would have loaned his voice and his body and soul to the righteous war against slavery But may his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth-and his arms drop palsied at his sides--ere he speak or act for a war on the basis proposed. Rather may both tongue and arm work to put down this internal idea of war, which l is showing it's head among us.
 l It seems to me that nations, as well as individuals, sometimes lose their heads. Tn 1775 the jingoes of Great Britain were clamorous for war with their American colonies. Then the wis est statesman of that age, if not of English history Edmund Burke, deliv- cred in parliament his famous speech on "CQnciliation With America He said;
 The proposition is peace. Not peace through the medium of war; not peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of l intricate and endless negotiations; not peace to arise out of universal discord, | fomented from principle, in all parts of the empire; not peace to depend on the judicial determination of perplex- ing questions, or the precise marking the shadowy boundaries of a complex government It is simple peace; sought in its natural course and in it's ordi- nary haunts. It is peace sought in the spirit of peace; and laid in principles purely pacific.
 But the jingoes voted down the states man; and war which they provoked ended in the dismembermept of the British empire, and the instigation of i feelings of bitterness between the mother country and her child which even yet, after almost a century and a quarter, are not wholly allayed. Eng land al first lost her head, and then | lost daughter!
 Then in the summer of 1795 this coun- try lost her head! All over the coun- try there was a sharp spasm of po- l litiaal frenzy because hundreds of Am erican vessels had been seized by the British, then at war with France. War like proceedings were moved in con gress. In this crisis Washington kept | his head and saved his country We had no army, no navy; the finances were still disordered; it was but ten years after the close of the war with England in 17S3; war would have been madness; and yet 1t was imminent.
 To avert it Washington took hazar- dous step, but a wise one. He dis I patched John Jay, chief justice of the supreme court, an envoy extraordinary to negotiate a new treaty with Eng land. The treaty was concluded anN signed. But what a. mad frenzy swept I the country upon hearing of it!, Jay's brother-in-law, Livingston, and Alex ander Hamilton, who spoke in favor of 1t, were both stoned, so that the blood flowed down their faces. Jay was guil- lotined in etfigy; the British flag was trailed in the mud; and in Massachu- setts a placard was paraded about the street, with this inscriptions: Damn John Jay, Damn every one that won't damn John Jay!! Damn every one that won't put lights in his windows and sit up all night damning John Jayr' Even Washington was called a politi- cal hypocmte like Ceasar, his impeach- ment was called for; he was a despot, as great as Louis XVI, or as the omni- potent director of a serag glio.
 The countly-ths nation had lost its head But Washington kept his! The newspapers howled war--the orators screamed Amerieanism, and vigorous foreign policy. But Washington was Isteady = self-poised - reflective. The madness of luhe country spent itself. The nation regained its head The cyclone quickly passed. And to crown 1t all, the legislature that had damned John Jay in 1795 for negotiating the treaty in 1796, the year following, by vote of two to one, declared John Jay, in the discharge of his varied arduous and important trusts, invariab- ly able, honest and patriotic.
 Thus, friends nations lose their heads as well as individuals. At such tines- O! for good leaders,! O! for men like Washington and John Jayt o! fol statesmen! Men of poise, balance, self control! To-day. 1t is not the nation that has lost it's head. but it's leaders tits newspapers! And what we want is leaders and papers who shall seeh