Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-04-17

So | wish success to all earnest and
competent men who appeal to city or
state or nation for place to work.
But how many men i'll high place in
city and state and nation arc ut their
wits end to know what to do, when for
some places there are ten applicants
and for others hundred. PorpleXities
arise from the fact that citizons sign pc
titions without reference to the qualifi-
cations of the applicant for the places
applied for. You sign the application
because the applicant is your friend.
People sometimes want that for which
they have no qualification, as wo hear
people sing II want to be an angel"
when they offer the poorest material
possible for angolhood. Doors waiting
to be sent to foreign palaces us embas-
sailors, and men without any business
qualification wanting to be consuls to
foreign ports, and illiterates, capublo
in one letter of wrecking all the laws
of photography and syntax, desiring to
be put into positions where most OF the
work is done by correspondence. If di-
vine help is needed i'll any place i'll tie
world, it is i'll 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 pigeonholcs
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 perpleXitics
of our relations with foreign govern
ments. For directions in such affairs
the God of nations should be implored.
The demand of tho people is sometimes
so heated, so unwise, that it must not
be needed. Hank to the boom of that
gun which sends from the American
steamer San Jacinto Il shot across the
bow of the British merchant steamer
Trent Nov. S, 1861 Two distinguished
southerncrs, with their 81 cretaries and
families, are on the way to England
and France TO officially enlist them for
the southern Confederacy. After much
protest the commissioners who had en-
burked for England and France, surren-
dcred and were taken to Fort Warren,
near Boston. The capture was plain
invasion of the laws of nations and an
tngonistic to 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-
tiyes passed resolution of thanks for
''brave, adroit and patriotic conduct, y
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
mcr demanding that unless the distln-
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 IT 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 sentl-
ment OF the people of the north the dis
tinguished Confcderates were surren-
derod, the law of nations was kept in
violate, the lions paw was not lifted
to strike the eagles 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
this rash thing Missionaries and other
prominent Americans il and around
Constantinople assembled at the office
of the American legation and demanded
that our minister plcnipotentiary cable
to Washington for United States ships
of war and they suggested the words OF
the cablegram Had our ships gone into
those waters tile guns of foreign ma
tions, everlastingly jealous OF us, would
have been turned against our shipping,
and our navy, within q few years be
come respectable in power, would have
crawled backward in disgrace. The
proposition to do what could not be done
was mcrcifully withdrawn.
There will not lie year between now
and the next 90 years when those who
are in authority will not need the guild
ance of tie God Of nations. God only
can tell the right time to nations to do
the right thing. TO do the right thing
ut the wrong time is as bad as to do the
wrong thing at any time. Cuba will one
day lie free, but il 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 ne may come
when the Hawaiian Islands may be a
part of our government, but it will be
when they have decidedly expressed the
desire for annexation. In all national
affairs there is a clock The hands of
that clock are not always seen by hui
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 Ill listening
attitude. 1.-THE Lord reigneth. Let the
earth rejoice; let the multitudes Of the
isles be glad thereof. F."
speechmaking Versus Fighting.
You see, there are always in places OF
4l,o,,;+, r,bo1anced mon who want