The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1898-06-03
Memorial Address.
Continued from First Page


earth. All az moment we are being mad.
aware of our greatness and our power
This Spanish war has served to advertise
our wealth and our resources We nave
had no navy aid but few struggling cou.-
panies for an army The world has thought
OF rs and we have thought OF ourselves as
suddenly charged We arr feared perhaps
more than any other nation Great Britain
has suddenly changed her attitude from In
difference or downright hatred To ons OF
respect and frat. rnal feeling There Is not
power on the face OF the earth with which
England would rather be In close alliance
today than with the Uuited States But
for all this commanding Influence In the
world today WI can thank you men who
helped to decide tina I war of the re-
nit your minds to dwell on the possible
situation had the rebellion succeeded.
There would have been two jealous and
rival nations on this soil and one of them
cursed above measure by the institution of
human slavery. They would have been
alienated by the bitterness engendered by
fraternal strife. They, by their weakness,
would have advertised to the world the fail
ure of republican institutions perhaps more
eloquently than does this great nation to-
pressed people of every CLINE. Instead of
being courted for alliance by England and by
, every other power and being able to stretch
out the hand of liberty to the oppressed
Cubans we should have the nations of the
earth pointing the finger of scorn at US for
our weakness and our failure. In the criti-
cal moment of the nations career you men
saved the union and In doing that you made
possible all this greatness and power which
we now have.
But again. and this thatI have said leads
up to it. You old veterans of the rebellion
will ever hold distinguished place among
all the soldiers of the wars past, present or
future, because of the high motives for
which the war of the rebellion was fought.
have been accustomed to think that the
objects for which you fought were of the
very greatest, possible. And you know it
is a great object that makes great war.
1t will never be possible for US to dwell
with such pride upon the victorious march
es Of old General Winfield Scott and Gen.
eral Taylor and their men when they
marched into Mexico and stormed her
works in the days of '46 to '4s, and won for
US that great southwest territory. Indeed
we cannot forget the scathng denunciations
of the Mexican war uttered by the impas-
stoned old orator, Tom Corwin, of Ohio, and
others, while we try to convince ourselves
that after all the war was right. Even the
war for independence sometimes fades out
a little when thought of by the side of the
rebellion. True they fought for indepen-
dence and without that we could not have
had these republican institutions. Yet
; this country under England would have had
a great career and would have enjoyed
much of liberty. This present war with
Spain has high motives behind 1t. Let no
man think meanly of the ends we aim at.
1t is glorious thing to see great nation
like this take upon itself all the loss In
human lives and in money, that she might
set free q million and half of oppressed
Cubans. But this is not all that stands out
before this nation to be achieved The
more you think of it the more you must
conclude that this war is Gods agent
through which to bring about his own high
aims in the world. 1t Is thrusting upon US
the question of change of policy and
widening of our field of influence. The
craftsmanship of the old Jacksonian or
Hamiltonian type, for that matter, is being
severely shaken. 1t Is question Of forsak-
ing our old home-staying policy and launch
ing our national bark upon wider seas.
Shall we become world power instead
of an American power. Conservative
statesmen like Speaker Reed hesitate to
rashly change the policy of the nation In
this regard, for to them 1t means much. 1t
is this great question which causes them to
hold of the annexation Of Hawaii. One of
these conservative men in congress is re-
ported to have said: ''I'd like to see all
these new questions of our foreign policy
settled at the same time. OF course we are
going to hold onto all that we take until the
war closes. I don't think anybody Is OPP
posed to that proposition. But the war has
awakened new ambitions; it has opened
new fields to this country. We need lit.
tie time to think about them. As we meas
ure all things from the dead level OF the sea
and not from the mountain tops or from the
crests of the waves running high in storm.
so 1t will be better IL we measure these new
problems by the calm level Of public senti-
ment after the war Is over. Hawaii, the
Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico and
you might add the Nicaragua Canal, are
all parts of the same great proposition. l
take position in favor Of the upbuilding OF
our navy, and / favor the construction
of the Nicaragua Canal. Immediate
ly after our civil war we felt the
necessity of the Pacific railroads to bind