Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1898-08-18
GIANTSIN THE PATH or PEACE
London Spectator. July sd.

We prefer, like most civilized per-
sons, peace to war, but some OF the
arguments Just Dow employed to induce
America to make q quick peace with
Spain strike US as not Snly unfounded
but profoundly immUral. What did
America 60 to war for? First OF all, 10
terminate SPANS authority over her
colonies, which Americans balieved to
be tyrannical, destructive Of human
happiness, and in all ways bat. Whether
their evidence In support OF that belief
was good. as we believe it to have been,
or as bad as average Spaninrds nssert
or as accidental and tenn porary as mnny
thoughtful Spaniards maintain, has
little TO do with our present subject
The Americans believed the charge
heartily, and SD believing went into a.
war which, to all human appearance,
will end in giving them the power
to terminate the misFule which so
affronted their consciences. A moralist
would say. one would think, that,
having begun 81 great work, they
we're bound tn carry it through. that
they had contracted weigbty, eyon ter
rible. obligations towards the col0niets
Of Spain. and were bound to discharge
those obligations without thinking too
much OF the consequences TO them
selves. They can, il they like. being
Anglo Saxons. give the colonists firm
and lenient government, and, as the
historian will say, in the mereHt justice,
and out OF a decent care for their own
self-reupect, they ought to 10 il. That,
however, Ia not the opinion Of most OF
our contemporaries either in Great
Britain or in Europe. They ure crying
aloud to Washington to be generous
10 tho hour of victory" to restore TO
Spain, il not Porto Rico-the value of
which Ms naval station they under
stsnd-at all erents. the Philippines.
We will tell them what generosity"
under such circumstances means. 1t
means that Spain should recover full
authority over 3, 600, 900 of dark persons
whom she has for 200 years 50 governed
that, Ne MIR. Foreman testifies, the
children fly with shrieks il they sac a
'Castilian, and should recover it at
the very moment when every virtue an
we'll as every vice in Spaniard will
incline him towards severity In punish
ment. He will be full of loyalty TO his
country and full of vengeance against
rebels who have insulted her. and in
the strength of both feelings he will
strike az Spaniards struck in Peru. 1t
means that Americans, having enuour.
aged them to revolt. are to hand over,
the 1900, 600 OF Tagals TO a nation
which regards their revolt not only as
a crims-that is usual-but as an I'M
paralleled insolence calling aloud for
chHstissment. 1t means that the United
States, which Of all Powers should
keep engagements because of her rela.
-. 49,. = -. -
she claims hegemony, are to betray
Aguinaldn and the whole tribe of
| Tagals, 1000. QUO Of dark people who
have accepted Christianity aud display
many considerable qualities--though
mercy, we fear. attracts them as little
as u attracts some Spauiur,ls- into
those Spaniards' hands. America may
| DO compelled by Continental coalition
to do this thing and yet be blamelsss,
| for there can be no sin where there is
no. will; but to do il voluntarily under
| the false plea Of generosity" would
be nothing less than baseness. She
had better even partition the islands
| among the Great Powers, though, as
we maintain, she is bound, having upset
a had civilization, to provide gooli
| one, and not TO shirk responsibilities
| which, from the moment Admiral
Dewey broke into the harbor of Manila,
she took upon herself.
The case is just as strong in Cuba.
| or stronger, for it has there this aggra.
walton. that in Cuba there il danger OF
the most frightful of all wars, war
between the colors. and that the native
Cubans. having dreaded oppression for
200 years, have become mercileAsIy
hard, cannot conceive that their OPP
pressors have rights. and are as ready
to put Spaniards to death at sight and
merely as STANDARDS as We were when
they invaded Ireland, ard were sup
posed to he likely to lead an insur-
rection. IL Washington honestly thinks
it can govern Cuba in the true sense
of government, through professionals,
we'll and good. We differ, but the
right of judging is thoirs, not ours
but that to secure good government in
Cuba is their bounden duty va have no
doubt whatever. They have enfran-
chised a people. and they must see t'.at
enfranchisement is not for them q
curse. If generosity" ia to bs exer-
Gised at all, it should be 10 regard ia
Portu Rico, where the only American
claim will be right of conquest; hut
the same writer's who are so keen about
tia Philippines surrender Porto Rico.
We do not say they ars 10 tho wrong
about that island. for il does not lie in
Englishmen's mouths to declare con
quest bad title; but about the Philip
pines they are advising pseudo
chivalry which, like much of chivalry,
has an arti-morul basis; aud we bslieve
they ara in thu wrong for another
reason also. They forget what the in
f1uence Of dependencies will lie on the
Union itself. The future Of the world
will depend greatly upon the political
character of Americans. When in 1860
thoy are 100000. GOO, and have absor bed
as they will absorb the swarms of. i'm
migrants whose presence now makes
Continontals douht-ezcept just after n
grOat sea fight-whether Americans are
Eng .ishmen, their purposes, their ideas,
their will will be to all mankind matter
OF tho grnvast moment. They will be
able il much stirred to crush any single
people, except perhaps tho Slave. TO
fit the Americans for that destny the
first neceFsity is that they should,
before they are irresistiblv, have diff
culties dependencies. complicated and
urgent relations with the remainder Of
mankind. At present everything is too
easy to them. and they live too much
to themselves, ''comraring themselves
with themselves" as the Scripture has
1T, till they have no idea or equals, and
see their own powers as we'll as rights,
through one medium and their ripals'
through another. They thought, not
out of bonstfulness, but pure mex
perienoe, that they could crush Spain
aud liberats Cuba in a fortnight. Thav