Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1898-10-13
POST M(RPGA APPRECIATION.
Boston Evening Transcript, oct ..

their lives, and that was tho fate Of
the late Thomas Francis Bayartl. But
no sooner is he dead than his fine
points of character and his infexible
integrity are dwelt upon even by those
who were his opponents on almost every
point of national policy and political
| doctrine, and by increasing degrees 1t
is dawning on the public mind that
the country owed him debt of appre-
citation and gratitude that it has not
| yet paid 1t is only two or three years
since the fierce fire of criticism was di-
rected against him, because OF the
positions whichhe took as Ambassador
to England. He was charged with
toadyism, something that with his
nature was impossible. He was called
weak and un-American, when his
Anericanism was the most conspicuous
trait OF his character.
How much of his service as our rep
resentotiye to England was due to a
wise foresight, and how much to just
intuitions, may perhaps never be
/ known, but subsequent events have
demonstrated that he did the right
| thing at the right time. Doubtless,
his Influence had more to do in avert
ing one war than that of any other
man, while he won to us nation
without whose friendship the recent
undertaking in which this country en-
gagged could not have been successful.
| This was not acknowledged as it
| should have been during his lifetime,
but he must have enjoyed the satisfac-
| tipnt Of realizing it himself, and of
knowing. that history, which in time
corrects hasty and preiudiced contem-
porary judgments, would do him justice.
Mr. Bayard was the consistent
apostle Of peace. His utterances of
nearly 10 years ago come to us today
almost with the force of prophecy.
They are good reading, as the follow
ing extract will show:
"The American people should always
bear in mind what the military spirit,
the thirst for conquest and glory
| as it is termed, really MEANS What is
war but destruction? Destruction for
us or for the enemy. War brings desc.
lation somewhere. Is spirit OF which
war is the logical and inevitable out
come a condition to he encouraged by
q great and enlightened peopleY On
| the contrary, there is controlling
reason why we, of all nations, should
| discountenance such tendency. What
is it that has built up and preserves
the autocracies of EuropeY War. Look
at Germany, at Italy, at France, with
their huge standing armies grinding
out the happiness and prosperity Of
| their peoples. Every soldier main
tainedsin these armies is an individual
subtracted from the producing classes
and fed and clothed at their expense
| A great army means repression, and
repression begets discomfort and
anarchic conditions. The nihilists of
Russia, the socialists of Germany, the
firebrands of other autocracies are the
result. Encouraged the military spirit
In this country and you would soon
have a war. A war necessarily means
an army, and il once the military spirit
| got thorough possession Of the people
this army would become permanent
establishment. 1t would, of course,
| have a leader, and If the army became
| the dominant force in the state it
would be but stepto dictatorship.
Sooner or later our liberties would be
tramped IN the dust the rights of in
diyidual would disappear, and upon the
ruins of our cherished institutions
would be reared the fabric of mil
tary despotism. uENF
In all his SUBSEQUENT as in mis- pre-
vious career, he stfove for the things
4 which make for peace, A year ago
| last spring when Mr. Bayard was about
to CLOSE his diplomatic career, he Lon
! don correspondent of the New York
Sun said of him :'.'g
From the day of his arrival in
June, 1888, Mr.. Bayard has preached
o doctrine of peace and love and
brotherly kindness. He has insisted
| that no difference could arise between
America and England which might not
be amicably adjusted in a friendly con-
versation between representatives of
the two countries. There need be no
moro secrets in diplomacy. Open,
aboye-board discussion and mutual fair
play were all that necessity required,
i at least between England and the
United States. He proceeded to ad-
dress, himself on these lines to the PEG.
pie of England at every opportunity
which presented itself. America s
diplomatic representatives are the only
ones who make public speeches except
on the rarest occasions. Mr.. Bayard
has made more than any half-dozen of
his predecessors. They have nearly all
been OF the same general tenor-all de-
voted to the promotion of the cause or
mission which he came to England to
serve, Peace on earth, good will to
men,, has been his sublime text on
almost every occasion. AT first he was
as prophet crying in the wilderness,
but at last he was heard
There has since been no backward
step from the relations which he did SO
much TO establish. In spite of jibes
and sneers, he set up standard which
this country has not dared, or cared,
to lower. The target OF jingoism; and
the sport of small minds, he was yet
making history, beneficent and lasting.
Evensif in the intense sincerity of his
convictions he sometimes failed to OBJ
serve that imperturbable tactfulness
that is held to be one of the essentials
Of trained diplomacy, he was still pro-
phetic as well as unreservedly frank
when he said:
sit is incorrect to speak of 'protec-
ton as a national policy, for that it
can never be because it can never be
other than the fostering of special in
terests at the expense of the rest, and
this overthrows the great principle of
equality before the law and that result
ant sense of justice and equity in the
administration of sovereign powers
which is the true cause of domestic
tranquility and human contentment.
The value of protective taxation to
its 'benehciaries consists in its in
equality, for without discrimination in
favor of some ono there is no advantage
to any one, and if the tax is equally
laid on all, all will be kept upon the
relative level from which they started
and this simply means high scale OF
living to all, high cost of production of
| everything, and CONSEQUENT inability fo