Connecticut western news., 1897-04-15

when they offer the poorest material possible for angelhood. Boors waiting to be sent to foreign palaces as embas- Eadors, and men without any business qualification wanting to be consuls to foreign ports, and illiterates, capable in one letter of wrecking all the laws of orthography and syntax, desiring to be put into positions where most of the work is done by correspondence. If di- vine help is needed in any place in the world, it is in those places where pat ronage is distributed. In years gone by awful mistakes have been made. Only God, who made the world out of chaos, could out of the crowded pigeonholes of public men develop symmetrical re- suits. For this reason pray Almighty God for all those in authority. The Demand of the People.
 Then there are the vaster perplexities of our relations with foreign govern ments For directions in such affairs the God of nations should be implored The demand of the people is sometimes so heated, so unwise, that it must not be needed. Hark to the boom of that gun which sends from the American steamer San Jacinto shot across the bow of the British merchant steamer Trent Nov. 8. 1861. Two distinguished southerners, with their secretaries and families, are on the way to England and France to officially enlist them for the southern Confectionery: After much protest the commissioners, who had em- parked for England and France, surren- dered and were taken to Fort Warren, near Boston. The capture was a plain invasion of the laws of nations and an- tagonistic to a principle for the estab- lishment of which the United States government had fought in other days However, so great was the excitement that the secretary of the United States navy wrote an applauditory letter to Captain Wilkes commander of the San Jacinto, for his prompt and decisive action," and the house of representa- tives passed resolution of thanks for "brave, adroit and patriotic conduct" and the millions of the north went wild with enthusiasm, and all the newspa- pers and churches joined in the huzza. England and France protested, the for
  guished prisoners should be surrendered and apology made for insult to the British flag within ten days Lord Ly- ons must return to London, taking all the archives of the British legation. War with England and France seemed inevitable, and war with England and France at that time would have made restored American nation impossible for long while, if not forever. Then God came to the rescue and helped the president and his secretary of state. Against the almost unanimous senti- ment of the people of the north the dis tinguished Confederates were surren- dered, the law of nations was kept in- violate, the lions paw was not lifted to strike the eagle's beak, and perhaps the worst disaster of centuries was avoided.
 Gods Guidance Needed.
 There came another crisis within the last two years when millions of people demanded that American war vessels sail into Turkish waters and stop the atrocities against the Armenians. The people at large have no idea of the pres sure brought upon our government to do tkis rash thing. Missionaries and other prominent Americans in and around Constantinople assembled at the office of the American legation and demanded that our minister plenipotentiary cable to Washington for United States ships of war, and they suggested the words of the cablegram. Had our ships gone into those waters the guns of foreign na- tions, everlastingly jealous of us, would have been turned against our shipping, and our navy, within few years be come respectable in power, would have crawled backward in disgrace. The proposition to do what could not be done was mercifully withdrawn.
 There will not be a year between now and the next 20 years when those who are in authority will Tot need the guid- ance of the God of nations. God only can tell the right time to nations to do the right thing. To do the right thing at the wrong time is as bad as to do the wrong thing at any time. Cuba will one day be free, but it will be after she has shown herself capable of free govern ment. To acknowledge Cuban independ- ence now would be to acknowledge what does not exist The time may come when the Hawaiian Islands may be part of our government, but it will be when they have decidedly expressed the desire for annexation. In all national nffairs there is clock. The hands of that clock are not always seen by hu- man eyes. But God sees them, not only the hour hand, but the minute hand, and when the hands announce that the right hour has come the clock will strike, and we ought to be in listening attitude. ''The Lord reigneth. Let the earth rejoice; let the multitudes of the isles be glad thereof.
 speechmaking Versus Fighting.
 You see, there are always in places of authority unbalanced men who want war, because they do not realize what war is, or they are designing men, who want war for the same reason that wreckers like hurricanes, and founder ing ships, because of what may float ashore from the ruins. You see that men who start wars never themselves get hurt. They make the speeches, and others make the self sacrifices. Notice that all those who instigated our civil war never as consequence got so much as splinter under the thumb nail, and they all died peacefully in their beds. had two ffiends-as thor ough friends as old men can be to a young man-Wendell Phillips and Rob- ert Toombs. They were not among those whc expected anything advan- tageous from the strife. but took their positions conscientiously. They both had as much to do with the starting of the war between the north and south as any other two men. A million brave northern and southern dead were put in the grave trenches, but the two il- lustrious and honest men I have men,