San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-12-17
PURELY PATRIOTIC.
THE PATRIOTIC LEAGUES ISSUES
AN AMERICAN ADDRESS.
1t is Full Of Good Suggestion and Points
The Way to a Broader and More
Effective National Life.

New YORK, Dec. li.-Ine PatrlOtlc
league of America which has just
been organized in this city has issued
the following advice to the people Of
the United States.
THE closing years of the nineteenth
century are being marked by many
hopeful indications of a revival of
genuine American feeling. The or
ganization and activity of the sOcie-
ties of the Sons of the Revolution
The Sons of the Colonial War and
similar societies have given most wor-
thy and efficient services in diminish
ing the dominating tendency of the
commercial spirit and in kindling the
feeling Of patriotism, not only among
the people of this republic but of the
entire American continent.
'But the membership of these or
ganiza atoms being restricted to the
people of particular classes must of
necessity be limited. The exigencies
Of the present demand the strenuous
and unselfiSh exertions of a society
as broad as the continent and with
its doors wide open to all patriotic
natiOnalitySor religion. A brief refer
ence to recent events and present con-
ditions gives emphatic endorsement to
this demand.
'Of recent events, mention need be
made only of the incident of the New
Orleans massacres, of the tax levied
on American diplomacy to avoid a
conflict with Italy, the outrage COM
mitted by England on Nicaragua in
the Corinto affair, which aroused the
Indignation and called forth the pro-
test Of the American people, and the
war clouds which less than a year
ago rose so threateningly over the
Venezuelan boundary question and
were cleared away only by the firm,
persistent and determined mainte-
nance of the Monroe doctrine.
''Of present questions the Cuban
threatening aspects. The cause of
her patriotic citizens, stalking through
carnage and destruction in an unalter-
able determination to break their yoke
of bondage or perish to the last man,
battling heroically to earn for them
selves and their posterity the liberty
our example had taught them to COW
ct, appeals most powerfully and pa
thetically to the American sense of
justice and fair play and cannot much
longer appeal in vain.
"The dictates of humanity, sOur own
vast interests in Cuba, demand that
this government shall extend to the
depressed and illgoverned island the
protection of the eagle and the shield,
and that this inhuman war Of destruc-
ton and murder shall cease and Cuba
be left free to pursue the arts of peace
and to develop her own resources I'M
der a government Of her own choice
and creation.
'sThe attitude of the British govern
ment furnishes another of the present
conditions which Americans cannot
contemplate with Indifference. She
has established six powerful naval
stations in threatening proximity to
our eastern coast She has built for
tifications at Vancouver, Quebec, st.
Johns and the Niagara river. These
Notifications could not have been de-
signed for defense against any Euro
pean power They are a menace to
this country and no agreement for the
establishment of a permanent court Of
arbitration should ever be ratified ex-
cept on the condition that al her mar
thine Notifications south II Halifax
and those along the soutl IN border
of Canada shall first be dismantled
and destroyed.
Another condition which appeals
with irresistible force to American pa
triotism is the fact that American citi-
Zens in foreign lands have ben COM
PEELED to suffer to humiliation of ap-
pealing to British and other alien con-
ed violence, as their own legation was
either too weak or too cowardly to
protect them.
During the massacre at Van, our
countrymen were compelled to seek
the protection Of the British consul
who to assure their safety hoisted the
Union Jack above the American mis-
sion, the stars and stripes implying
neither respect nor fear. Only the.
unceasing exertions of Sir Phillip Cur
rie, the British ambassador at Con-
stantinople,' says the Westminster
Gazette, have enabled the American
missionaries in the Ottoman empire
to pursue their labors Of mercy unmo-
lested.'
"The well known policy Of this gov
eminent to keep at peace with all the
world as long as peace can be main
tanned without loss of honor, would
be the policy of the league, but it will
insist that the best means of securing
peace is to be found in the most am
pie provisions for the. defense Of our
coasts both by sea and land, in lib
eral policy towards the army and ma
w, in such an adjustment of the tar