The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-11-03

message would add q glorious page to
American history and dispel 1.-THE darkness
Of desolation in which Cuba was enwrapp d.
We bad hoped that the American President
would declare that butchery, rapine and
pillage organized under the name OF govern
ment was blot on civilization, disgrace
to humanity which could not be tolerated
on the same hemis phere where that flag of
freedom was upheld.
I'VE had he ped that in a few words the
President Of the United States would de-
clare to Spain, or any foreign power, that at
our gates we would not toler Govern
ment whose barbarities have been infamous
in the fifteenth century, but which were in
tolerable in the nineteenth century.
Our hopes were disappointed. Our ex-
pectations were blighted. Instead of the
message for which we had looked, on which
we had counted, message was sent an
nont cling that, while the barbarities prac-
ticed by the Spanish forces in Cuba were
unspeakable, the time had not yet arrived
for the United States to intervene; but that
some time or other, why, we might do 80.
Now, this translated from the language
OF official communications to the plain
everyday speech OF the people meant that
we might intervene when intervention
would be too late to accomplish our pur-
pose; meant that we might intervene when
everything had been destroyed; meant that
we might intervene to forbid murder when
the Cuban people had been exterminatedl
Against the wickedness, the inhuman-
ity OF this evasion OF plain duty Mr.. Dana
protested then and continued to protest
while life was left in him. The protest
which he expressed has found an echo in
the bosoms of the American people, with
out distinction Of party or Of class.
son the question of morals the Ameri-
can people do not divide. On the question
Of duty there is never the slightest dissent
in their ranks. The duty which we owe
not to the Cuban people but to the civliza-
.,Nt Innx In nnI. Nhatt
eminent which is organized, not to prevent
spoilatiop, pillage, murder and arson, but
to perpetrate them, must stop on this con-
tinent now and foreverl
The spirit of Charles A. Dana enjoins
US to keep up this agitation until it be
crowned with success. No monument could
be erected to bis memory which would be
so enduring, none which he himself would
have selected so gladly as a message from
the President Of the United States to Spain
based on his own editorials, declaring that
we had no scheme OF conquest to advance,
that we desired no acquisition to our terri
tory; but while we had nothing to demand
for ourselves, we insist that the children Of
men within sixty miles of our coast line
shall not be hunted down like bulls by men
without a consciencel
No tribute can be so agreeable to the
illustrious dead as firm and unbending
resolution to carry out the lofty purposes to
which they had dedicated their lives; and
when the justice of God shall have decreed
the emancipation OF this island and these
sorely tried people, then the memory Of
Charles A. Dana will have received its most
fitting tribute and its most grateful prai Q.
"And not alone in Cuba, but everywhere
throughout the world that the battle of free
dom may be fought, the sympathy Of the
American people will be extended to those
who conduct struggles under the inspiration
of that love Of justice which he has taught
in his newspaper, preached from the plat
form, and instilled into the minds of his
countrymen.
Wherever a new flag of freedom is un-
folded to the breezes Of heaven, there we
will see his fruit. Wherever triumphant
anthem of liberty is sung to God, there we
will hear his requiem. The earth has re-
ceived his body, but who can rob Us OF the
life which he has led, the words which he
has spoken, the example which he has set?
AS we gathered around his grave we were
reminded in the solemn and loving words
Of the burial service that we can bring
nothing into this world and that we can
take nothing from it. What grand and
glorious blessing it is that nothing which a
yirtuous man IN my do is buried with him in
the grave. The Lord giveth and the Lord
taketh away said the minister. Blessed
be the name of the Lord The Lord has
given US Charles A. Dana; the Lord has
taken him from us. But, blessed be the
name Of the Lord, his works, his words, his
| spirit remains with us.
| Blessed be the name Of the Lord for this
! life so long, SO laborious, so fruitful; for
this addition to the intellectual worth of
mankind; for this stimulus to labor, to
honor, and to virtue; for this light to civ
ilization for this living, moving, undying
impulse to patriotism. Blessed be the name
OF the Lord for the prospect of human pro-
gress, for the prospect of human emancipa-
| ton, for the prospect of human perfection
which every tribute to his memory opens
before the eyes of the whole human racel"