The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-12-30

AFNeM2NS resident In cur cities for the definite and personal uaruuons, which else might seem incra dible, When men into whose soul the iron has entered tell Us, 'I knew all those people who were killed in that vlllage", "I knew JAaJ pastor, and another and another; l have not heard from my wife and children, n,-God knows"-it is enough. The man who cannot yet apprehend the fact that the greatest crime of modern history is now being committed before the eyes Uf the Christian pow CTS, would be able to remain insensate to any evidence of human woe, unless he himself was in torment among the damned.
 Our church histories preserve the ac- count of the Diocletian persecution az one of the most extensive in the Ro- man empire The windows of the churches and the art galleries of Europe are resplendent with the glory of the martyrs of the primitive church. But even the sober estimates of those in the best position to know Of the num- bers murdered or massacred, since Eng | land assumed protection of the Chris | tlan populations of Turkey,-thlrty thousand, according to the estimate some time since of our minister in Tur- key, fifty thousand according to the estimate now of others, Then accounts indicate that this modern persecution l surpasses in extent, as it outdoes in cruelties, any persecution known in the ancient church; and Christian confess ors as steadfast, and martyrs, whom l this past year out of great tribulations before the throne of their God. Many of these might have saved their lives, if they would have abjured their faith; but they would not.
 l turn next to the facts which con. cern our governmental relations with the Turkish empire. We have no spe- cal treaties with Turkey. But for some fifty or more years the Turkish | government has allowed our citizens and missionaries to reside in it's prov inces, to hold property, and to conduct their business with the right ordinarily allowed among civilized nations In | thirty only of the principal cities of Asiatic Turkey, there are now resident two hundred and fifty Americans, in-
 
 many other Americans and naturalzed Americans throughout the Turkish em- pire pursuing commercial occupation, l concerning whom there are no statis- tics. The American Board alone holds in trust over two million and a half l dollars of property for the, use of their various educational. medical, mission ary and publishing enterprises. Some l of your money is held in this trust. Many of the contributions of your fath- CTS are invested in it. Yet some of this property has been destroyed; the houses of American citizens in Turkey have been burned over their heads; though some have been shot at, thus far their lives have been spared; but for the attack upon American property held in Harpoot no participants or instigat- ors of the crime have been as yet pun ished, none have been arrested, and ! no reparation has as yet been secured. Furthermore congress at it's last sas- 1 sion appointed C0nsuls for some in- terior points to look after our vested interests; but, as the president notes in | his message, these consuls have been detained in Constantinople and their eXequators have not been granted. The protection allowed by the wiles of the 1 Turk to our missionaries has not been a protection in lawful liberty, but a precarous guard over their half burn ed homes.
 THE RULING PRINCIPLE.
 Passing from the facts, upon which I have merely touched, to the prin- ciples involved, two governmental rights at least, may be safely asserted 1 as recognized in the common law of nations. The late President Woolsey is sufficient authority among us for the recognition of the right of interference of enc nation with another in rare anG exceptional cases for the sake of re- ligion and humanity. Were any other authority needed than that of this cautious yet firm scholar, I might cite the more impassioned utterance of MT. Gladstone on the eighty-fifth anniversary Of his birth.
 He said: And do not let me be told that one nation has no authority ever another. Every nation, and indeed, every human being, has authority cn behalf of humanity and justice" If the statesman who represented Eng lands conscience were now protecting Armenia, instead of the noble Lord whom Bismarck is alleged to have char acteTized "as a man of wood painted to look like a man of iyon," then Ameri- cas- only and rtunate duty might have been long before this to have made the Welkin ring with her applause of Eng land for sacrificing once more cOmmer- cialism to honor and winning the bless ing of the maker of peace for another oppressed race of mankind.
 Another principle which is admitted by all nations is the right of one cOun- try to maintain the claims of its citi- zens in another country. by protest, re- tortiOn, or, if necessary, by war. When the property of English citizens was de- stroyed in China, and English mission aries murdered, Lord Salisbury did not hesitate to send an ultimatum, which secured the punishment Of the perpet- rators of the crime. America has the same rights, and the same respOnsibili- ties in Turkey. When Austria once in- timated that an agent of this govern ment was a spy, Daniel Webster, then our secretary of state, did not hesitate to assure the court of Austria that had fhay- .trna ted him as s1Ich ''f he SDiI,if Of