The herald., 1896-12-18
Against the Making of Arbitra-
tion Agreements
THE "PATRIOTlC LEAGUE"
Calls on the People to Resist British
Aggression
The League Wishes to See the Stars and
Stripes Respected in Every Country
on the Globe.
Associated Press Special Wire

NEW YORK, Dec. 1.-THE Patriotic
league of America, which has just been
organized in this city, has issued the fol-
lowing address to "The People of the
United States:"
THE closing years of the nineteenth
century are being marked by many hope
full indications Of a revival of genuine
American feeling. The organized activ-
ity of the Sons of the Revolution the
Sons of Colonial Wars and similar So
cieties has given most worthy and eff
cient service in admonishing the domi-
mating tendency of the commercial spir-
it and rekindling the sentiment of pa
triotism. not only among the people of
this republic. but of the entire American
continent.
But the membership of these organi-
cations. being restricted to people of par
ticular classes, must of necessity be
limited. The eXigencies of the present
demand the strenuous and unsellish ex-
ertions of a society as broad as the con-
tinent, and With it's doors wide open to
all patriotic Americans, without respect
10 race, nationality or religion. A
ent conditions gives emphatic indorse-
ment to this command.
"Of recent events mention need not be
made of the incident of the New Orleans
massacre, with a tax on American
diplomacy to avoid a conflict with italy;
the outrages committed by England on
Nicaragua in the Corirto affair, which
reused the indignation and called forth
the protests of the American people: and
the war clouds which less than a year
ago rose so threateningly over the Vene-
zuelan question and were cleared away
only by the firm, persistent maintenance
of the Monroe doctrine.
"Of present conditions the Cuban ques-
ton is daily assuming more threatening
aspects. The cause OF her patriotic citi-
zens. struggling through carnage and
conflagration in the unalterable deter
mination to break their yoke of bondage
or perish to the last man. battling heroic
ally to earn for themselves and their pos
terity the liberty our example has taught
them to coVet appeals most powerfully
and pathetically to the American sense
of justice and fair play, and cannot much
longer appeal in vain.
"The dictates of humanity and our
own vast interests in Cuba demand that
this government shall extend to that op-
pressed and ill-governed island the pro-
lection of the eagle and the shield, and
to command that this inhuman war OF
butchery, spoliation and destruction
shall stop, and Cuba be left free to culti-
vate the arts OF peace and develop her
resources under government of her
own choice and creation.
"The attitude of the British govern
ment furnishes another of the present
conditions which Americans cannot con-
template with Indifference. She has es-
tablished six powerful naval stations in
threatening proximity to our eastern
coast She has built others at Van
couver. Quebec, st. Johns, Kingston and
the Niagara river These Notifications
could not have been designed for de-
fense against any European power.
They are standing menace to this re-
public, and no agreement for the estab-
lishment of a permanent court of arbi-
tration should ever be ratified except on
the condition that all her maritime for
tifications south of Halifax and those
along the southern border of Canada
shall first be dsmantled and destroyed
another condition that appeals with
irresistible force to the American pat
riotisin is the fact that American citi-
Eens in foreign lands have been com