The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-08-03
Our Mission as a Nation.

Justification has never existed for
the fear that the heads of the Ameri-
can people could be turned by success
at arms until they would abandon the
ambitions of peace for those of swag-
gering milltarism. Least of all does
1t exist today. Only few days before
Commodore Dewey sailed out of Hong
Kong harbor on the militant mission
which was to put his name atop of the
list of the worlds sea heroes and usher
his country into a new era of world
wide prestige and responsibility he
wrote home to his sister expressing,
with preference for peace, the hope
that diplomacy would yet make need
less the resort to force; and hardly
a message since received from any SOL
dier or sailor at the front has failed
to voice the Eladness with which our
valiant warriors, though everywhere
victorious, stand ready to welcome an
honorable peace. We are to the core a
pacific nation, which fights never until
forced to and then halls eagerly the
chance to lay aside the weapons of
war. Those who imply otherwise show
inexcusable ignorance of American his
tory and character.
Therefore we may dismiss the argu-
ment against national expansion which
pleads that if, for purposes of civiiza-
tion, we undertake the courageous dis
charge of the responsibilities of the
war with Spain by sending into con-
quered territory armies of occupation
to facilitate their paciflcation and or
derly development we shall be in dan
ger of building up a military aristoc-
racy prejudicial to the welfare of the
republic. There is nothing in it. Those
who make this plea do so either in
ignorance or in perverted judgment of
the spirit Of their ellow-countrymen.
They forget or they deliberately ignore
the experiences following the surrender
of Lee at AppomattOX, when the great
est armies ever assembled, after the
tiercest and most bitterly contested war
ever waged dispersed with hardly a trace
of friction into the various walks of
peace, and remained there, quietly and
successfully, until another war called
them out again, this time to fight under
one flag standing side by side
Growth in power is a necessary re-
sultant of success; and those weak sis
ters among our citizenship who doubt
the ability of their countrymen to gov
ern wisely an enlarged dominion really
question the ability of the American
people to govern anything. They say,
for example, that if we step out of the
traditional attitude of isolation to take
an influential part in shaping the des-
TIMES of the world we shall encounter
perils of friction, trouble and per-
chance war with nations hitherto dis
tant from our path. But have we not
shown ability to encounter perils? Can
we, IL deeming our cause and course
Just in any direction, draw back in
cowardice without qualification of con-
science and dwarfing of the very es-
sentials Of sturdy character which
have made US what we are? History
teaches full well that the American ma
tion, whether operating in a small
sphere of influence or in a large, will
not seek a quarrel in mere vanity OF
conscious strength. Is not such a ma
tion the very one to exercise growing
influence and exert expanding power?
1t is time for US to have an intelli-
gent perception Of the duty which
Providence is placing before this ma
tion. That duty is not 10 buster or
brag; neither is IL to emulate the sullen
and selfish exclusiveness of the clam
1t is to take dignifed and sanctified
courage Of the conviction that in the
United States OF America God has in
stalled an example for the nations OF