The Republican journal., 1896-03-05
The Republican lorna! Tnurs1av Morning March s. 1896.

sense and eloquence of plain truth, that
"Washington successfully fought the bat
tie of liberal Englishmen the world over"
''It was Washington success
which changed the whole policy of Eng
land in relation to her colonies" Practi
cally, 'all educated Englishmen in our
day recognize the fact that Washington
was fighting the battle of the English peo-
pie the world over l will take the time
to read you something from an English
school book which is quoted in an article
from the London Spectator, as reprinted
in the Outlook, touching also upon this
very point. 1t is illustrative of how Eng
fish youth are taught to feel toward their
American cousins. 1t is discussion of
the duties OF the British citizen towards
the United States. 1t begins with the
words: eve have dealt with our duties
towards the Empire, we must now say
something about those towards foreign
countries. But before doing so, however,
we must speak of a nation which no right
feeling Englishman will ever call foreign.
That nation is the United States of
America. 1t is peopled by men of our
blood and faith, enjoys in great measure
the same laws as we do, reads the same
Bible and acknowledges, like us, the rule
OF King Shakespeare. Then an account
is given of how America was lost: cat
one time the United States consisted of
English colonies, but about one hundred
and twenty years ago the government
foolisEly tried to interfere with the colo
niSts, and would not allow them to have
control over their own affairs. Accord
ingly the men of the New England on the
other side of the Atlantic determined to
set up for themselves, and after fierce
struggle became Independent. This I'M
happy war for a long time left bitter mem
Dries, but now God be thanked) the Eng
fish on both sides of the Atlantic have
become friends again. Though we must
ever deeply regret that the American
English should have parted from us in
anger, we cannot but feel that their coun-
try has become so vast, that it probably
would have been necessary for them in
any case to establish a separate govern
ment. All then. that we need be sorry for,
is that the two halves of the English speak
ing race did not part in kindness and did
not agree that, in some form or other, they
would acknowledge before the whole world
that their people were brethren and not
strangers. But though the war Of a hun
dred years ago made this acknowledgment
of an essential brotherhood impossible for
many years, there is no reason why in time
to come it should not be accomplished. -
The passage ends with the statement of
how possible it would be for the people of
the British Empire and the United States
to come into such fraternal relations as
would be very different from that between
foreign states, and SO acknowledge their
common origin. Some day this will
doubtless be accomplished. Till it is,
1
child should look forward to the event
and do his best to bring it about. Let us
remember, then, that the United States is
not and never can be in reality a foreign
country, nor an American a foreigner.
They and we are one flesh" Surely we
should be responsive to such an expression
of good will,
Yes, we ought to forget some things
and remember some things After thirty
years of peace we are fast burying the
bitter prejudice and hatred engendered in
our civil war. No longer divided coun-
try, a warning North and South, but a
Union ''now and forever, one and INSOFAR
able, - we protest with stern Indignation
against any tanning of the old flame, any
appeal to sectional distrust ard animosity.
Why, then, keep open these other sores,
however grievous they were at the time,
which We're inflicted more than one hun
dred years ago between two peoples, by
nature as closely bound together as, we
trust, are Northerner and Scutherner in
our own land to- day? If we think with
some passion of that later in jury and cold
ness when we were in sorest need, still it
is to be borne in mind that it was the
wealth and arstocracy of England and not
the masses of English people that were
against the Union. And, any way, Eng
land has expressed her deep repentance
for this other mistake as well. Abraham
Lincoln was just as truly fighting the bat
tie of all liberty loving humanity as was
George Washington ninety years before
him. As for detestable English manners,
that is a comparatively small matter Are
we wholly without fault? To use an ex-
preston of the street and market, ssfresh-
ness is perhaps as characteristic of Amer
lean manners as insolence is of English
manners. 1t is quite significant, too, that
Anglo mania has for sometime been a fash
ionable disease on this continent, as com
mon, indeed, as Anglo phobia threatens
to be.
But to reach our lesson in Christian
ethics. 1t is simply this. Forgiveness of
injury and good feeling between nations
is just as imperative for the promotion of
the moral and spiritual interests of this
world, just as necessary for the extension
of Gods kingdom of righteousness, as the
incubation of kindness and charity and
love between individuals. If we preach
and practice the latter doctrine, to be con-
sistent we must preach and practice the
former. AS Christians we have not bit
more right to hate our neighbor across
the sea than we have to hate our neighbor
next door. To cry for war with anybody
unless some precious moral principle is at
stake, unless we do battle for truth, JUS
tice and God, is immoral and unchristian,
is unalterably opposed both to the letter
and the spirit of the teachings of our
divine Master. He came to teach us to
love our neighbor even as ourself, which
means to help our neighbor and to serve
him, not to fight him. he came to teach
us that neighborhood is as wide as the
world; that humanity is one great kinship.
And his coming was heralded as that of
the Prince of Peace-how much it means.
But one answer, then, have we to these
two questions of that appeal War to de-
eide a controversy between the United
States and Great Britain? Never. The
London Spectator declares that 'war be-
tween England and the United States is
civil war; Consider we'll the awful
meaning of that phrase 'cvil war;" Yet
il * bo1f l,o +Lo