St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1897-05-15

SppllC30C - your 1r1enO. TeOpse 0OWS
times wan. that for which they have
no qualification. Is we hear pco'
pie sing. Il want to be su
angel" when they offer the poorest
material possible for angelhood. Doors
waiting to be sent to foreign places as
ambassadors, and men without any
business qualification waiting to Be
consuls to foreign ports. and litter
ates, capable in one letter Of wrecking
al the laws Of orthography and sym
tax, desiring to be put into positions
where most of the work is done by
correspondence. If Divine help is need
ed in any place in the world it is IN
those places where patronage is dis
tributed. In years gone by awful mis-
takes have been made. Only God, who
made the world out of chaos, coa'd.
out of the crowded pigeon-holes OF
public men, develop symmetrical re
suits. For this reason pray Almighty
God for all those in authority.
Then there are the vaster pcrplexi-
ties of our relations with foreign gov
ernments. For directions in such af-
fairs the God of nations should be i'm
plored. The demand of the people is
sometimes SO heated, so unwisc. that it
must not be needed. Hark 10 the boom
of that gun which sends from the
American steamer San Jacinto y shot
across the bow Of the British merchant
steamer Trent November 8, 1861. Two
distinguished southerners, with their
secretaries and families, are ON the
way to England and France to Official
ly enlist them for the southern confed-
eracy. After much protest the COM
missioncrs. who had embarked for
England and France, surrendered, and
were taken to Fort Warren, near Bos-
ton. The capture was plain invasion
of the laws of nations, and antagonis-
tic to . principle for the establishment
Of which the United States govern
ment had fought in other days. How
ever, SO great was the excitement that
the secretary of the United States navy
wrote an applauditory letter to Capt
Wilkes, commander of the San Jacinto,
for his prompt and decisive action"
and the house of representatives passed
. resolution of thanks for ''brave,
adroit and patriotic conduct" and the
millions of the north went wild with
enthusiasm, and all the newspapers
and churches joined in the huzza. En-
gland and France protested, the for
mer demanding that unless the dis
tinguished prisoners should be surren-
dered and apology made for insult to the
British fag within ten days Lord Lyons
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 secretary of state.
Against the almost unanimous senti-
ment of the people of the north the
distinguished confedcratcs were sur
rendered, the law of nations was kept
the lions paw was not lifted
to strike the eagles bcak. and perhaps
the worst disaster of centuries was
avoided.
There came another crisis within the
last two years when millions of
people demanded that American
war vessels sail into Turkish wa
ters and stop the atrocities
against the Armenians. The people at
large have no idea of the pressure
brought upon our government to do this
thing. Missionaries and other promi-
nent Americans in ana around Constan-
tinople assembled at the Office of the
legation and demanded that
our minister plenipotentiary cable to
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
everlastingly jealous of us
would have been turned against our
and our navy, within . few
years become respectable in power,
would have crawled backward in dis
grace. The proposition to do what
could not be done was mercifully with.
drawn.
There will not be . year between
now and the next twenty years when
those who are in authority will not
need the guidance Of the God of Ma
tions- God only can tell the right
time for nations to do the right thing.
To do the right thing at the wrong
time is Is bad IS to do the wrong thing
1T any time. Cuba will one day be
free, but it will be after she has shown
herself capable Of free government
To acknowledge Cuban independ-
ence now would be to acknowl-
edge what does not exist. The
time may come when the Hawaiian is
lands may be part of our government,
but it will be when they have decided
" expressed the desire for annexation.
In all national affairs there is clock.
The hands Of that clock are not always
seen by human eyes. But God sees
them, not only the hour hand. but the
minute hand; and when the hands an
nounce that the right hour has come
the clock will strike, and we ought to
be in listening attitude. 1.-The Lord
reigneth; Let the earth rejoice; let the
Of The isles be glad thereof" !"
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 AZ those who instigated our civil
war never as . consequence got 50
much Is = splinter under the thumb
nail and they all died peacefully in
their beds had two friends
aS fhorouQh friends aS old men