The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-27

SeuSS tHey pilHS together repreSsltet- tives of different parts of the country to know the various parts of the coun- try as they otherwise would not. If we were little country, like England, so that, as the man said Tt is not safe at night lest you step off," Qaughter), if we were a little country like that, there would be no need of large con- ventions. But think how large We are. You from New England have come here 1,500 miles; you may go on west more than 1,b00 miles before you strike the Pacific; then you may so north into immense territories, and we are now reaching out into a new policy which has taken in Hawaii, 2,4OO miles west of San Francisco, which, in the providence of God-and of Dewey (ap- plause) has taken Manila, and seems quite likely to have got hold of the whole of the Philippine islands; which has laid hold of the greatest islands of the West Indies, and which is estab- fishing for us, in all likelihood, new policy, policy which I, certainly, un- der the circumstances, do not regret. while I believe that the counsel of Washington was wise In the days when it was given, l do not believe that for all time to come nation so large, so learned, so virtuous and so patriotic as the American, has any right to a policy of seclusion and of self-sufficiency, but that nation of this character is called upon to put it's mark upon the world, morally, socially and politically. (Ap- plause.) Now, if that is jingoism, make the most of 1t. (Applause.) I am not afraid of that kind of iingoism. and the people of the northwest are not afraid of it. We went into the war with Spain on the most humanitarian principles possible, and believe that in good faith we intended to abide by those principles and shall abide by them. But circumstances have arisen which we did not anticipate, and we are compelled to take and take care of what has fallen into our hands, and what we cannot, in justice to human- tiy or the progress of the world, permit to go back into the hands that held them, nor into the hands of other peo- pie less friendly than ourselves. (Ap- plause.)
 Now, to go back to my one thought. from which so widely diverged. very much, l fear, to the interference with the eloquence of the learned gentlemen who are to follow. I don't want to cover the whole territory for them, but what l wanted to say was just this: The value of these conventions in bring us together from all parts of the country, meeting eye to eye and ex- pressing how we feel as we mediate upon these subjects, is invaluable. You in the east, take the people at large, know comparatively little of us in the northwest. We have come long dist ance to live here. About forty years ago, where we stand to-day, was noth- ing but an Indian reservation. The men who came here and who put their stamp upon Minnesota were largely New England men. We feel as you feel. Our hearts beat as your hearts beat We go back to the east great deal more frequently than you come here to the west. We know great deal more of how yon are feeling and talking than you know how we are feel ing and talking. But I want to tell you this, gentlemen: "Westward the star of empire takes its way" The power of this republic is moving west from the Atlantic and the future char acter of the American republic is to be decided by the intellectual and moral and political stamp that is put upon these states that constitute the great Mississippi basin here and to the south.
 A voice: That is true.
 And if you want to know what kind of a stamp is being put upon us, will tell you. It is stamp of intense pat riotism. It is a stamp that believes in America first and last and always as the most blessed and glorious country in the world (Great applause). It is patriotism that believes there Is no flag like the stars and stripes. It Is a pat riotism that believes in entire justice to all men and the enforcement upon the opinion of the world of the respon- sibility and greatness of human liber ty and human rights and of local and individual selfg government as exempli- fled by the institutions of the United States of America. (Applause). And for the maintenance of these views, for the enforcement of this kind of patriot ism, for the perpetuation of American institutions, not only on the continent but in the islands of the sea, so far as they, in the providence of God shall be placed under the government of this republic. I pledge you now and forever | the loyalty and the devotion of the men | of the northwest without regard to pol | itics, religion or any division of sentis ment whatever. (ApplauseO