Delaware gazette and state journal., 1896-01-23
JlNGOISM GONE DAFT.

-
Surprising Extent of the Resolution said
TO Have Boen Prepared by the Foreign
Relations Committee of the United states
Senate.
New York World, Jan. 1sth.
II the resolution affirming and OK
tending the Monroe doctrine said to
have been agreed to by the Senate
committee shall be adopted by Con-
gress it will be an evidence that reason
and common sense no longer control
the legislative body. 1t denies the
right of any European power to
acquire any territory on this continent
or the islands djacent thereto, 'seither
by force, purchase, cession, occupa-
tion, pledge, colonization or protection
whether under unfounded protensions
of right, under the guise of boundary
disputes or otherwise" and declares
Enthusiastically ''that any such attempt
will be regarded as a manifestation OF
an unfriendly disposition upon which
this government cannot look with in
difference.
/. The resolution is uncalled for.
For more than 10 years the United
States have grown and prospered, their
institutions each year more secure and
the other American States in this
hemisphere at the same time steadily
progressing towards independent repub-
licanism, under the doctrine as at first
laid down. Two of the early Congresses
refused formally to define its applica-
tion and limitations. What was sui1i-
cient for the fathers is adequate for us,
III. The resolution borrows and in
vites trouble.
1t is therefore piece Of superlative
folly. We have troubles enough Of our
own without seeking them 1000 miles
away. What can bo said of the sanity
of Senate which leaves a yawning
deficit in tho revenues untouched,
which refuses to pass bill forbidding
secret bond sales and fixing a lower
rate of interest, which leaves the
public prey to trusts and monopolies.
and assumes to saddle upon the United
States not a protectorate merely but a
dictatorship over Central and South
America
III. The resolution is based upon a
false pretense.
1t assumes that any extension of the
boundary of European colony on this
continent, even though 1000 miles
away and made by agreement with the
independent State concerned, is dan
gerous to the peace and safety of the
United States'' Nothing could be
more preposterous than this. The whole
trend of government is towards democ-
racy England is far more likely to be-
come a republic within 80 years, as
France has already done, than this
country is to be menaced by monarch
ism. IL the colonies or dependencies
of constitutional monarchy could
really threaten the 'tpeace and safety"
of the Union, the danger would come
from our Northern frontier, along
which stretch British possessions larger
in area than the United States To
say that the Integrity of our institu-
tions" depends upon maintaining even
by force and against their will the un-
certain boundary lines 1000 miles dis
tant of half-civilized republican despot-
isms tempered by assassination and
mitigated by revolution, is to insult
common sense and affront patriotism.
~. The resolution is dangerous.
What Webster, Clay, Calhoun and
Seward predicted in the face of an in
terpYetation of the Monroe doctrine far
less extended and dictatorial than that
now proposed would come true. "Oui
peace would ever be destroyed, " said
one of the earlier and greater states
men; the gates of our temple oi
Janus would ever stand open; wars
would never cease. "
Consider for a moment the practical
application of this dictatorship Sup
pose that Brazil and French Guiana
should agree upon settlement of the
boundary dispute now Oh between them
that should extend the line of the col
ony as we choose to regard it, And
suppose that Venezuela and Great
Britain should make similar settle
ment, as they are not unlikely to do.
The Senate resolution forbids this,
though President Cleveland in his mes
sage very sensibly said that "any ad-
justment of the boundary which Ven
ezuela may deem for her advantage and
may enter into of her own free will
cannot, of course, be objected to by the
Urited States"
But the new jingoism repudiates
this. Very we'll; in the cases sup
posed should we send a free force to
patrol and protect the boundary lines
which we regard as essential to uul
peace and safety" Should we moi
only override the friendly republics OF
Brazil and Venezuela, but fight Eng
land and France? This is the crazy
jingoism, this the dance of war, this
the witches caldron of toll and trouble
to which the resolution of the Senate
committee invites us.
II is time for the common sense and
the real patriotism of the people agair
to make themselves felt at Washington.
Apparently the rival conjurers of huga
boos and bidders to buncombe have
gone daft.