Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-08-08
THE PRESIDENTS HAND.

Atno previous time since he took
the oath of office has the President
had as delicate problem to deal with
and as large a responsibility to meet
as at the present. Upon him devolves
the duty of establishing a peace that
declared, Le generous to our enemy
and leave the ship of state riding
in the safe harbor of its long tried re-
publicanism. Congress is not in
session. but even if it were it would
have no business to NEEDLE with the
preliminary negotiations. The Presi-
dent has an opportunity such as has
been presented to few of his pre-
decessors, to make great name for
himself, and we believe that he has
enough wise discernment to look be-
low the yeastv sentiment that always
rises to the surface Of affairs during a
successful war and see what the sober
Judgment of the nation desires and ex-
poets. The question is one for the
broadest statemanship to deal with.
When the, history Of this present
conflict comes to be impartially writ
ten, the part which the President has
taken in it up to the present time will
receive the cordial approval of the
candid historian. AS far as it was pos
sible for him he exhausted the sources
of diplomacy before he consented to
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fused to be hurried into it by the
pressure of jingoism and sensational
ism, and when at last he yielded to the
inevitable ne did so in a conservative
manner that kept within safe limits
the reckless impetuosity which would
have hurried us into all sorts of dan
gerOus excuses,
Since hostilities began he has con :
Quoted the war with energy and skill,
and considering how unprepared we
were he has accomplished more than
those who did not entirely ignore the
conditions, expected. But he has
conducted it in his own way and it
has been a much wiser way than
though he had paid any attention to
the eXhortatios Of those newspapers
that have been diligently manufact-
uring a brumlnagem public opinion.
1t has been vigorous war but it has
nevertheless been a humanitarian war
in it's methods as we'll as it's purpose.
Yet in three months he has accom-
SO much that Spain anxiously inquiries
upon what terms she can have
peace.
That inquiry brings the President to
the most difficult portion of his task.
That he will have a conviction Of
what is just and right in the premises
we do not doubt. That he should
have the courage Of that conviction
is equally necessary. His authority
is the first negotiations is SO large
that he can act with comparatively
free hand and that which he and the
representatives. of Spain may agree
upon will be substantially the terms
of peace. The Senate does not keep
in as close tonch with the feelings Of
something during the vacation SEA-
son, and to throw down an arrange
ment establishing peace to which the
parties most interested and the ma
tions Of the earth had adjusted their
ideas would be hazardous proceeding.
The President has been wiser than
Congress during this whole controversy
and it it is gratifying and reassuring,
now that events are approaching a
a crucial point, that SO much power at
the outset rests in his hands. II he
will act as his own Judgment dictates
in this matter we can afford without
to await the result.