The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1896-01-30

W. u. Howell. ON the Presidents Message.
From Harpers Weekly.
In common with the rest Of the
American people was greatly stirred
the other day in reading the Presi-
dents message concerning the Ven
ezuela boundary dispute. | did not
like his having four relative pronOuns
in one sentence towards the close Of
his message, and upon the whole the
literature struck me as turgid and
clumsy; but ! accounted for that by
the excitement he must have been in
when he wrote it, and felt n respOn
siye thrill, which | took to be pat
riOtic emotion as | read it. ! recalled
the behavior of several disagreeable
English people ! had met ut different
times; felt a resurgence Of the indig-
nation which the treacherOus attitude
Of Great Britain during our civil war
reused in us all; I remembered the in
juries done us by that power during
our colonial and revolutionary period;
and | was glad that We were about to
extirpate, extinguish, and exterminate
her in behalf of a sister republic Oh
the northwest or the northeast shoulder
Of the South American continent. |
have not n map. by me, but the precise
geographical position Of Venezuela
does not matter, and it never did.
The Monroe doctrine itself does not
matter for the purposes of the present
inquiry except as the occasion of the
patriotic emotion which | experienced,
and which ! should like to examine a
little in light of reason. In the light
Of reason any passion shows to dis
advantage; love itself is a little ridic-
ulous; and perhaps we shall not be
altogether proud of the patriotic
emotion il we look at il calmly. We
shall find it, perhaps, neither so gen.
er0us nor so beautiful rs we imagined
it to be-, when it first vibrated through
US. | myself, for instance, as soon as
grasped the notion of England's re-
fusing to let US fin the boundary be-
tween Guiana and Venezuela, pictured
her reduced by land and by sea to the
last extremity through the proves of
our army and navy: her commerce
swept away, her manufactures destroy
ed, her forces beaten, her battle-ships
sunk, and the grass growing in the
streets before tn, VlIi 4of the London
newspapers which had noticed my
books unfavorably. At the same time,
while figured all this so dramatically,
personally in the difficult and perhaps
dangerous work. imagined it done,
so Tar rs 1 descended to detail at all,
bya lot of poor fellows who would
still, in the vast majority, be poor
fellows after their glorious work was
accomplished; who would be rewarded
with the lowest wages, and would not
be allowed &C. strike, or to profit by the
eight-hour rule established in the other
departments of the government SER
vice; and who would be severally for
COTTON, if it may be supposed they
were ever severally remembered, with
in year after they had Inundated the
proudest empire of the earth.
The whole affair, as it brilliant " and
prosperously shaped itself in ,my mi nd,
was TO be delegated, and when it was
brought to a triumphant close L was to
enjoy the honor and glory of it,. may
have been more than commonly selfish
in my expectation, but |, do not think
so. think that the process was much
the same in the minds of all the COM
Portable people who experienced the
same patriotic emotion. They did raot
formulate it, and have only just now
formulated it; but what they truly inn
agined was their own exemption. from
All VIc eOTTOW anu suffering OF tine
possible war, and the devotion. Of the
sort of people who have mostly in all
ages of the world been butcheued for
every cause, good or bad.
What | chiefly object to, i'm our pa
triOtic emotion, however. was not ths
it was so selfish, but that it WAS so r.,
sensate, so stupid. 1t took NO accOu n,
of things infinitely more precious tt al
national HONOR such as humanity
civilization, and
"the long result of time
which must suffer in conflict between
peoples, like the English and tho
Americans. For the sake of havino
our ships beat their ships, our poor fel.
lows slaughter their poor fellows, W,
were all willing, Tor one detestable in.
slant at least, to have the rising bope.
of mankind dashed, and the sense o
human brotherhood blunted in III,
hearts OF the foremost peoples of tn
world.