The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-22
THE PRESIDENTS POLICY.
1T WAS FINALLY PRACTICALLY
APPROVED By CONGRESS.

some Features of the War Talk.
Scenes and Events of National
Life.
The following paper was prepared to be
read before the Semi Educational Society
of Waycross:
The latest developments are accepted as
proof conclusive that the denouement,
which has been apprehended for two
months, is upon us. We cannot, and TN
der the circumstances, we do not desire to
evade the issue. AS a private citizen, 1
what I regard as some of the most note
worthy facts which have been evolved
from the hurly-burly of recent events.
The tout en- semble is to most of us, prob
ably, very distracting tumble of events.
! The connecting thread is not always OBJ
. vious; the objective is vaguely defined. Il
has been with us as 1t has been said to
be with the soldier in the midst of great
battle. to whom the issue is seldom known,
TO whom even the tide of battle remains
! lndeterminate, until the conflict ceases.
| Every great political movement however
|
tails, throws into pre-eminence some great
| principle or leader who or which, TO the
world at large, is the concrete expression
| of the varied dogmas behind that move
| ment. The quintescence of every great
| war is summed up in the person of some
| illustrious warrior or some splendid mar
dal achievement, which remains, to fu-
| ture generations, the pivotal fact around
which the minor circumstances and err
sonages of that war revolve palmary
instance is that of Nelson at Trafalgar
| Wellington, al Waterloo, Bismarck or
Won Moltke at Sedan, Perry upon Lake
Erie. So it has been that the real essen
tial spirit and meaning of the multitude
| nous disturbances of the past sixty days
| is crystalized in a few salient fea lures,
| and probable results which Ii is our intent
to consider.
No attempt Is made to discuss the vexed
| problems IN which these disturbances bad
| their origin. Upon the details of these
matters the wisest men in our land differ
| among themselves. There are certain
broad principles of international law and
practice which apply TO the case in point,
| and from which various deductions have
been drawn. AS a great and wise jour
| nalist said a few days since, however the
time for equivocations, the time for legal
constructions, has passed. We have unit
ed in doing thing Unprecedented in nod
ern times, at least. We have planted our
selves, our flag, our commonwealth, upon
a plane which transcends Jurisprudence;
we have scared above the atmosphere of
| legal bounds; we have assumed stature
| which refuses to subject itself to the hard
and fast rules of legal calculations. We
have become the self-constituted cham
pions of a noble sentiment. The single
| hearted prayer of the earnest lover of his
country is that we may not hereafter allow
the standard of our lofty ideal to be trailed
in the dust. That what has been begun
distinctly as warfare of liberty against
bondage, truth against falsehood, civiliza-
ton against barbarity, may never respond
to a less exalted war cry.
Strange scenes, strange events, have
been portrayed upon the canvas of our
national life, during the past two months,
while we have been lowering in uncer-
tainty upon the narrow neutral ground
which intervenes between war and peace.
AT any time it has needed but the faintest
breath of encouragement, the merest
shred of justification, it has seemed at
times to plunge us forward, sword in
| hand, to the sombre arbitrament of arms.
| I've have been held fast in a labyrinth
| from which at times it seemed as if we
i had lost the secret of issuance. From
the storm-center of Congress to the foci
of Madrid and Cuba, we have had pre-
scented to us a vast Kaleidoscope, ever
shifting ever flashing before us some
highly colored, new phase of a situation
already so perpexing as 20 be unendura-
| bic. The picture of a sometimes dignified,
sometimes august senatorial body embark
ed upon the uncertain seas of spread-eagle
oratory, with frequent wrecks upon the
dreary rocks of buncombe; a highly agi-
tated lower house organizing itself into a
glee club, singing national airs and threat
enIng TO Hand old Weyler on a sour APP
pie tree" this same lower house sweeping
on to the dlsgraceful climax of rabble in
stincts asserting themselves in personal
encounters. Excess of foolishness nenac-
ing the counterpoise of wisdom. False
patriotism and no patriotism run amuclS,
like a Malay and willing to sacrifice in
estimable lives, inealculable treasures, 10
the realization of it's own false ideals.
Accusations, vague at first, but assuming
definite and repulsive outlines as they
grew, against the first citizen of the land.
All these vivid scenes have passed in
panoramic review before us, and their
combined forces at the outset almost
swept us from that anchorage Of calm; So
Der second-thought which is Characters
tic of our people
Most flattering among the sentiments
which have emerged from this veritable
maelStrom, Ii the SpleHdlu manifestation
Of patriotism, in lls true signihcat.on
There Is no mistaking the answer which
the people of this country have returned
to the call of it's leaders; the genuine ring
is still there. "Whatever things are true
whatever things are Of good report" 1--WE
have proved we have hearts in cause
we are noble STILL The intensity OF the
fighting fever displayed Is grand, but nat
uraI. The a prlori Is simple. "A nation
sprung from the Joins of liberty, baptised
in the fire and blood Of righteous warfare
against the oppressions OF a tyranniC
ruler. shrinks not from such stern con
armation and acknowledgment OF its
vows as their nature involves Notwith-
standing, there Is patriotism and there Is
4 patrlotism From the frenzy which mas
auerades under the garb OF patriotism
which iustifies the efftfsion OF blood by
continued vocIferation Of this divine shib.
boleth. whose absurd formula of liberty
equality fraternity has not. and never
had. any existence IN fact, good Lord de
liver US. This Gailiean monstrosity, thl,
boasted liberty which has 10 be RESTRAINED
and ground down beneath the iron hee
of miluarism. Is happily ineOmmlsclbls
with AngiO-saxon dignity. But there hai
been, unhappiy rampant. among us
soi-dlsant patriotism. cOnccaling rs rca