The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1898-11-22
Ceives Consideration

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And now my fellow citizens, l wish
: to speak for few moments with refer
ence to the war. We have had war.
Idoubt not you have all heard of it.
All the world has heard of it: Our
democratic friends, in convention at
MarshalltOwn, insisted that the demo
Gratis in congress coerced the republi-
can party, and the president OF the
United States into declaration of wal
with Spain. deny the soft impeach-
ment, but if it be claimed that the
democratic party sought to have war
declared before it was declared, con-
cede the claim. This being admitted
they are entitled to all the credit in
cident thereto. for it is a fact that the
republicans sought to avoid war, and
consented therNtO only as last resort.
In was none of our affairs what took
place in Cuba; and we sought to dodge
the issue. We saw the storm approach
for some years, and contemplated with
anything but pleasure as it became
eminent. One day President McKin-
ley called to his council seven men, and
of these seven two we're from Iowa.
/ do not know how it may affect you,
but I confess to no small degree of
satisfaction that when the president
of the greatest nation of the world Sc
lects seven men on whom he can rely
in an hour of extremity he selects two
from your state and mine. (Applause.)
He said to them: ''It seems that the
efforts am making to avert war with
Spain are likely to fail. want fifty
million dollars placed at my disposal" ;"
A bill was introduced that morning; it
passed the house unanimously in two
minutes; it passed the senate unani-
mously in two hours; and before night
& Mr. Mckinley had signed the bill and
fifty million dollars were at his fingers
tips. That morning we did not have
ammunition enough to last our navy two
hours. We didn't have vessels enough
to safely engage in war. We didn't
have fuse enough to mine a single har-
Dor. We didn't have wagons, horses,
guns, clothing or army, Eand yet our
democratic friends claim, with truth,
that they had been seeking for several
months to have war declared. Mr.
Mckinley told the powder factories to
double their force, run night and day,
to make all the powder they could; to
make no noise, but to make powder
He set the clothing factories, the gun
factories, fuse factories at work on full
time. He Sent commission to buy
one hundred ships. II will avert war
if can; if fail then we will be as near
ready as possible" !"
say we were indisposed to declare
war. Some of our senators went down
to look over conditions and it was not
until they had returned and reported,
that the Spaniards had collected old
men and defenseless women and chill
dren into great pens, surrounded by
barbed wire fences, over which they
could not cllnab, and through which
they could not creep, and had refused
to feed and water them, until more
than two hundred Thousand defenseless
Cubans had pershed i'll these starva
tiOn slaughter pen; and God rolled up
on the conscience of this country {
responsibility for what was taking
place so near our doors, did we consen,
to sacrifice our own beloved in the
cause of others. Then MIR. Mckinley
said to congress-, "You may declare
war; 1t was done. lie called for al
army, and from every town, from ever,
village, from every section of tn,
country, from every condition of life
men sprung up by the hundred thou
sands in excess of all possible need
The millionaire from the city, the COW
boy from the plain, the employer serv
ing in the ranks with his employee ii
captain; politics forgotten, social dis
tinction lost sight of, former animosi
ties buried, and the call was more thai
full My democratic friends point wit
pride to the fact that it was non-pal
tisan army. So it was. But who mad
it non -partison? One man is respons
bic for this, when the president of III
Jraited States sought for lieutenants
Captains, colonies, generals, quarter
masters. paymasters and surgeons b
selected. so the records show, as | a,
told at Washington, a few more demo
Gratis than republicans. Everyone say
that was right. The republicans neve
objected And because it was righ
and because he did thus we are ableit
truthfully say, there has never been j
this country, from Washington's da
to this, a PRESIDENT so we'll beloved {
so universally respected during til
term of his administration as thi