The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-14
A NEW REPUBLIC.

and elevation. p. F. Lyons, Observer.
NEW REPUBLIC.
The public address Of President Kru-
ger, of the Transvaal, reveals what is
doubtless the hope in the hearts of
thousands Of the brave men who have
built up strong and progressive COM
munities in South Africa Something
more than mere colonists these would
be, or distant subjects of an alien pow
er. 1t is the history of colonization
over again. Scattered bands Of rugged
pioneers go into the wilderness and
brave the assaults Of Savage beasts
and still more savage men" in order to
hew out for themselves their little prin-
cipalities. They are stimulated to in
dependence of thought and action by
their isolation and their ambitions ex-
pand with their conquests over man
and nature. They grow into a hardy
race, impatient of control, and, by and
by, ambitious of political domination
for themselves. This is, briefly, the his
tory Of the founding of the American
republic. 1t is the history of most mod
ern states, and 1t promises to repeat
itself in South Africa. OF good staunch
stituted the advance line that pushed
farther and farther into the savage
wilderness. They have been recruited
by the adventurous spirits from all
lands, who have pushed into the new
settlements until they are not infre-
quently a majority and begin clamor-
ing for their own rights. But by and
by there is evolved, just as there was
in the case of the thirteen colonies,
a community Of spirit and of aim that
glances toward independence.
1t needs some great occasion and
some great man to breathe into this the
spirit Of life and to lift it to the ideal
and the objective. Given the ordinary
smooth course of events, without OPP
position and without friction and We
have the colony growing great and
strong without lessening it's attachment
to the mother land, as has happened in
Canada and in Australia Let agrees
sion come to weaken the spirit of al
legiance and arouse that of indie
pendence, and a new nation may be
born. AS it was a century ago upon
the Western Atlantic, the daring attack
of Cecil Rhodes in South Africa may
be the blow that will crystalline the
inharmonious elements Of that power
full community into new nation.
President Kruger is the man for such
an emergency. He is far-sighted, a
sage in council, deliberate in action,
mastery in statecraft, and of that Wig
orous and unrelenting stock which
knows not how to yield If there be
in the states of South Africa that spirit
to which he appeals, the world will
soon see new republic come to the
birth. There is no other future to fire
the ambition of men like these. They
see their little republics scattered and
discounted. They feel the devouring
desire of the monarchs of Europe
to hold them safe for selfish purposes
They feel the constant pressure of ag-
gression from without. They can wit
ness, in the history of other crown col
onies, the secondary and humiliating
part which they must play in the
worlds drama as mere dependencies
of central power that recks little of
their interests or their dignity It is
easy for any patriot of South Africa to
picture a future in which that country
shall remain cut up into little hostile
sections, each responsible to some dis
tant and careless power and each for
ever limited in its development by the
selfish political needs Of home gov
eminent. It is easy for a more vivid
imagination and a stouter heart to
entertain the dream of a great future
for which history gives full warrant
Why may not the story of the United
States be repeated, without the bloody
accompaniment Of war, in the spaces
redeemed to civilization from the
mighty dark continent? Nothing needs
to be done but the laying aside of ma
tional prejudice and the acceptance Of
the idea of a new nationality. These
south Africans have a continent to
themselves. From Cape Colony to the
dim border land, where fact and fiction
meet. they are supreme. There is no
Indigenous power to be reckored with.
Once plant the seed of a nation here.
and it's territorial ambition need be
limited only by the Sahara and the
border Of upper Egypt on the north.
From ocean to ocean it could well hope
20 stretch eventually, by purchase or
by peaceful REIMBURSEMENT, its vast do
nsssp, win favorinR coil and climate,
With jpezbsBsbbie mineral wealth, with
feS3sste@s nat are tempting eager spir-
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