The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-05-09
CLERGYMEN TOR THE WAR
Ministers Of Various Faiths
Justify the Contest
With Spain.
GODS HAND in THE CONFLICT
Pastor Aylesworth Says This
Country Will Accomplish
What It Has Under
taken.
GODS HAND in THE CONFLICT

In a prelude entitled War or Peace;
Honor or Dishonor,'' pastor Robert N.
Aylesworth, Of Simpson Methodist Church
last evening had his to say:
THE day of doom has come to the ma
ton that has blindly persisted in pro-
jecting he fifteenth century civilization
into the twentieth century. The most elo-
| quent sermon of this generation was de-
livered in Manila Bay last Sunday morn
ing by the steel lips and hot Threats of
Commodore Dewey's guns; while listen
ing nations are bewildered at its effect
iveness and SEVERITY.
This most wonderful naval victory in
the history of nations is not the outcome
Of the genius and heroic daring Of Com
modore Dewey alone; but the roar Of the
canon was he voice of God, and Dewey
was his messenger.
.sThe question is asked-'Is this war
right?' II certainly is. The European
press has stated, at various times, that
no nation in Europe would have waited
as the United States has patiently done
for three long years, while the cruel con-
test dragged its weary length along.
President Mckinley stated a few weeks
since, to a caller at the White House.
that there would be no war until the
United States, Europe and Almighty God
had seen that. he had done all that could
DO lone to avoid such a. calamity. The
world bears him witness that he has
kept his vow.
american commercial interests with
Cuba nave suffered to the sum of many
millions of dollars. to say nothing of the
American capital hopelessly lost through
The years of conflict. So cruel was the
burden OF the oppressors upon the poor
Cubans. after the ten years war, that the
natives arose determined to be free or die
in the attempt-Patrick Henrys OF a
later day. with the motto Liberty or
syfnpathies Of the liberty-loving Amert-
cans, and the Federal Government is
said to have spent $3.50, 600, 600 in the effort
to keep peace. No government mas a
right to demand that our navy police
thousands of miles of coast line in It's m
when, in the interests of friendship,
the Maine was sent to Havana harbor in
THE same manner that the Viscaya visit
ed New York harbor and was destroyed
with two hundred and sIxty-one OF her
crew, it illustrated the fact that Spain
is entirely incapable OF controlling ner
colonies or commanding the officers of
her own army. and of course, poWeriess
to restore order.
"The final, and Of itself, the all sufficient
reason for Intervention by arms is the
awful fact that the entire native popula-
tion of Cuba (and ,one-ha1f millions Of
people, is plunged into the struggle for
freedom and d~eliverance from the worst
misgovernment of civilization. The
policy of Wey1er, which is the success
full Spanish mode Of warfare. of driving
the defenceless women, children and old
men from their homes in the country to
the fortified cities where they are without
meaLs of subsistence and are slowly
starving to DEATH. From Spanish sources
it is learned that two hundred thousand
persons have already persisted and private
sources say one hundred thousand and
two hundred Thousand more are beyond
| recovery and are now dying of slow
starvation. The manifest purpose of the
Spanish Government is to the
native population, a condition of things
unparalleled in history. The able and
conservature Senator Proctor, ex-Sec-
retary of War in the Harrison Cabinet,
ana Senator Gallinger having eye-wit-
| nesses to all these atrocities. The United
States has arisen to do work never before
attempted in human history. To disin-
terestly intervene in the interests of the
civil liberties of an oppressed race sub
ject to the tyranny of q foreign oven
menf. This is a most righteous act and
has the appreciation of the King OF Kings.
| for it was he who held up the good
Samaritan before the admiring world as a
fellow Hebrews. He also said
'Inasmueh as We nave done it unto the
least of these, my brethren, ye have done
il unto me. The great American Re
public is writing a national commentary
on the closing paragraph of the 18th
Chapter of Matthew. ~
"Kenn, energetic, swift and virile it viii
name of humanity
nv