The record-union., 1898-08-25
j. H. Neff Of Placer His
Running Mate.

| of San Francisco, who kept. the con-
vention in a good humor by his spark
/ ling wit and wonderful oratorical pow
ers. General Barnes spoke as fol
/ lows:
GEN. BARNES GREAT SPEECH
Gentlemen: This is perhaps as good
an occasion as another to congratulate
ourselves upon the position of the Ma
tional Republican party. 1t is won
derful to look back upon its history anC
its traditions Of honor and see how il
was born, under what circumstances
of disaster and danger it came into eX-
istence; how splendidly it grew until il
reached the towering stature that com
mands the admiration of the world.
In all the changes of time and con-
ditions of men, it is again in the hour
/ of advancement-in the hour of peri
it might be-in charge of the helm OF
State. And under the administration
of the Republican party the most splen-
did victories that the annals of wal
Will ever have to relate are those OF
the American army and navy upon the
sea and upon thefland. (Applause)
Il don't know how it is with you
/ gentlemen, but within the last four
months this flag of ours has grown tc
have a new beauty and a wider mean
ing; its stars, it's blue, it's white, its
! crimson, were always the emblem OF
mans best hope and desire-always
the emblem of something good and
bright to come. as the sunlight break
ing through the eastern night comes
I streaming up with crimson and with
gold, and mingles its colors with the
j lc+a ho+ lo, nd hos pla r
/ ed to burn like torches in the midnight
sky. (Applause)
1T was to make the grandest en-
/ blem of all time, and to-day, when We
/ look at it with the new trumphs which
surround it as it leads in the van OF
! the new era, extending beyond the linn
/ its of our own country and casting its
! benediction among other peoples, I be-
( gin to think of the great time imag-
ined by the poet, when the war drums
/ should beat no longer, and the battle
flags be furled in the parliament OF
man and the federation of the world.
That flag floats to-day over islands
yet unknown to the best civilization OF
the time. Is it going to hurt the Unit
ed States to hold them? (Cries of mo-
Noi') Is it going 10 do anything else
with them but bless them? Why, our
ratIIers taught US, and wisely perhaps
at the time, that we should form no Ell
| tangling alliances and preserve our
selves like a sort of hermit nation, un-
moved and undisturbed by the storms
that beat on other continents. But
when George Washington wrote his
famous farewell address there We're
but 100000 white people in all the
States of the Union-3, 100000, and that
was all, and a half-million of negro
slaves.
England held the north; Spain held
( the E1oridas; France and Spain We're
contending for the territory west of
+ the Mississippi River, and Mexico lay
at the southwest. Washington said
/ over and over again in his correspond
ence that the Mississippi River was the
natural boundary of the United States,
and we know that any time since then
that new territory was acquired, it has
met with resistance on the part of a
great many thinking people, because
| they supposed the Constitution of the
/ United States could never stand the
strain of such extension. When we
took the Louisiana purchase; when Mr..
! Jefferson. by that purchase and the ex
penditure of 1900, 900, took that vast
! territory to the west of the Mississippi,
there We're thousands of the best think
! ers of the United States who declared
it was the commencement of the ruin
/ of the great Government under which
we had lived until that time.
when. in 1919, we made the mistake
Of buying the Floridas from Spain,
and paying the claims of American cit
izens for the depredations which Span
ish buccaneers had committed in the
Gulf of Mexieo-eeeking refuge in the
harbors of Cuba-those very harbors
where our ships during the last four
months have been hurting their mis-
siles OF war-and they had destroyed
about SS.O00000 worth Of American
nropertv-and for the Floridas we
agreed to pay those bills-that was a
mistake. We should have taken the
Floridas and taken Cuba, too. Cap
plause)
when we annexed Texas and took
1t into the Union, you all remember how
strenuously the Whig party of the time
resisted that operation. 1t has passed
into history. and the great speaker and
orator of Ohio, Thomas Corwin, said
he hoped the Mexican army would well
come those of the United States with
hospitable hands to bloody graves. Yet
we took Mexico and under the treaty OF
Guadalupe Hidalgo those territories and
the blessed land where we now live.
The Oregon purchase had already pre-
ceded ii. And when Mr.. Seward in
1867. leaped over the British posses
sions and traded with Russia for
.ra.1-n x,,,,4 rpy,naY,a her with yh a +
shouts of derision the press of the
I United States. from one end to the
other. accepted that transaction.
$50 1t is to-day; yet, singularly
enough. there is less resistance to the
idea of acquiring possessions outside OF
the present limits of the United States
than to any other proposed acquisition
of territory the United States has ever
had. For my part ! hope and believe
that not one foot of the territory of
which we have acquired possession,
either by the possession of the foot or
by theory of law, will ever be surren-
dered. (Applause.) / hope never 70
know that a single grave beneath
which, under the tropical sun, lies the
rotting remains of an American soldier,
mingling with the soil of those islands,
shall ever be surrendered by this Gov
ernment 10 any other on the face of
this earth. fApplause) And that it
will forever remain the sentinel over
our heroes who have fought and died
for the extension of American commerce