The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-07-13
EX-AttOrney Generals CIear-cut
Argument Against Conquest.
PURPOSE OF THE WAR
CANNOT ESCAPE OUR DISCLAIM-
ER OF CUPIDITY.
There Is No Dishonor In Bringing
Home Our Victorious Banners,
But There Is Dishonor and Dan
ger, Too, In Pulling Down the
Landmarks of the Union.


dress of the president, ex-Attorney
! General Harmon, to the Ohio Bar as
ISOLATION today, was mainly devoted to
the question Of territorial acquisition
| by the United States. He said, in part:
I'VE have made war on a ground SO
| unusual that there is scarcely a prece-
dent. That ground was SO high and
| so consistent with our ideas that l am
not ready to deny that, under all the
circumstances, We were justified in
making a precedent. But we knew for
various reasons we were liable to be
suspected of covetousness lurking be-
hind our professed motives, and to be
accused of making a preteXt rather
than a precedent. The war resolutions,
therefore, which were passed almost
without dissent and approved without
hesitation, were made expressly to de-
clare that we did not covet our neigh
boris lands from which we demanded
her withdrawal.
That neighbor, thus made our en-
envy, has, scattered over the globe, the
remnants of her great possessions. 1t
was, of course, proper to attack her in
any of these as well as in Cuba The
victory which Commodore Dewey
promptly won seemed to bring within
our grasp a large group of inhabited
islands, nearly 5000 miles away, and
to show that still others might be had
for the taking
Forthwith, before we had conquered
foot of Spanish soil, it was declared
by many, for whose statements we are
held in a measure responsible, that we
shall keep whatever We take. We must
seize the dominion from which We
thrust Spain, and become the ruler of
numerous and distant peoples of I'M
kindred race and tongue
Various preteXtS are suggested for
escape from our disclaimer of terri
torial cupidity. 1t applied to Cuba only
1t merely expressed our intentions at
the time. subject TO change. Spain
did not promptly yield, but persists in
pretending she is making war. The
declaration was of no consequence,
anyway, because it was voluntary and
without consideration
If, without seeming to discredit our
country, we may assume that she will
countenance tricks of special pleading
against her solemn, self-assumed obli-
cation Of honor, or if we may suppose
that circumstances will arise to release
her from it in the judgment of man
kind, it becomes our duty to consider
the action proposed. 1t involves a rad
ical change in the course the country
his followed from the beginning, and
is not matter to be settled by hue
and cry. 1 shall briefly discuss it, not
as question of policy, but as one of
constitutional right
After dwelling upon the constitu-
tional powers of the government, with
reference to the acquisition of terri
tory, Mr.. Harmon said:
But what are we to do with cOun-
tries we take? If where our flag is
carried in battle it must remain as the
emblem of permanent authority, VIC
tory viii become more perilous than
defeat. There is no dishonOr in bring
ing home our victorious banners, as we
did from the walls of Mexico. There is
dishonor, and danger, too, in pulling
down the landmarks of the Union. No
obligation, legal or moral, prevents our
leaving such countries as we find them,
or giving their people control of their
own affairs if we think best. Desire
only, not duty, suggests the assumption
of authority over them.
IF we must provide fuel for our
ships, we want coal bins, not provinces
or colonies. We can hold them as
property. We need not broaden them
into domain. If they must be fortified
and guarded so we may fight our way
to and from them let us keep them, as
England does Gibraltar. She does not
have TO rule Spain. If we must have
can at least keep our politics at home,
where we can have a close eye on
them.
Congress was authorized merely to
regulate commerce. Our ancestors
knew commerce can be captured and
kept only by better goods and lower
prices. Yet it is more than limited that
power to conquer foreign nations in or
der TD mako them fra 10 with
Conquest is even suggested as a
means of spreading the Gospel
Our merchants and missionaries
must, indeed, -be protected wherever in
terests or duty call them, and there is
ample authority to do it. If for this or
any other reason we ought now to be-
come more active in the worlds af-
fairs, if the precepts of your youth
were founded only on our weakness,
and we should now take counsel of our
strength, so be it.
But who is authorized to abandon
the ocean ramparts with which God has
US, because the inventions |
Of men have made them somewhat less
They will always be our
chief defenses while the earth revolves. |
Our country can be no further from
danger than its nearest part Where |
is the right found to expose our ma
tiOnal honor, pride and welfare in do
minions beyond the seas, when they |
may abide in safety forever in the |
home which the kindness of nature and |
the wisdom of our fathers have provid-
I'd for them?
1T is not pleasant to play Cassandra.
It is easier to join in the shouting and
the dancing of those who seem to think
The past is dead and the future assured.
But ones duty to his countrymen is
to give warning of evil when he be-
ieveS he detects its approach