The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-05-18

VAluu DChCLlOUll vi uCAbyg ORdhAoh
government, against the crusade of
mercy which our nation has started.
Had it been on our part a war of con-
quest, a war of annexation, war of
aggrandizement, there would have
been by this time enough flying squad
rons coming to this country across the
Atlantic to throw into panic every city
on our American seaboard.
The wars of the Crusaders were only |
to regain an empty sepulcher; the Ma
poleonic wars, with their 100000 |
men, were projected and
carried out to appease the ambition of |
one man; of the $4,000, 600 slain in Jew
ish wars; and of the go, 900, 900 slain in
wars under Julius Caesar; of the $780,
900, 900 slain in wars with Turks and Sa-
racens; of the so, 900, 900 slain in wars of
Xerxes;of the 30, OOO 900 slain in the wars
of Justinian; and the 92, 900, 900 slain in
the wars of Genghis Khan, not one
man was sacrificed by mercy; but in
this Hispanic-American war every
drummer boy, or picket, or gunner, or
standard bearer, or skirmisher, or
sharpshooter, or cavalryman, or artil-
leryman, or engineer who falls, falls
in the cause of mercy, and becomes
martyr for God and his country.
Another alienation of this war is that
it is for the advancement of the sublime
principle of liberty, which will yet ell
girdle the earth. Not only will this
war free Cuba, but finally will free
Spain. By what right does dynasty
like that stand, and corrupt court
dominate people for centuries, tax
ing them to death, riding in gilded
chariot over the necl1s of beggared
population? There are 10000 boys in
Spain growing up with more capacity
to govern that nation than will the
weak boy now in the Madrid palace
ever possess. Before this conflict is
over, the Spanish nation will be well
on toward the time when constitu-
tional convention will assemble to es-
tablish free government instead of
the worn-out dynasty that now afflicts
the people The liberty of all nations,
transatlantic as we'll as cis-Atlantic,
if not already established, is on the
way and it cannot be stopped.
Another alleviation is the fact that in
this war the might is on the side of the
right. Again and again have liberty
and justice and suffering humanity had
the odds against them. 1t was so owhen
Benhadads' Syrian hosts, who were in
the wrong, at Aphek came upon the
small regiments of Israel, who were in
the right, the Bible putting it in one of
those graphic sentences for which the
book is remarkable-"The children of
Israel pitched before them like two lit
tie foclls of kids, but the Syrians filed
the whole country" 1t was so in the
awful defeat of the Lords people at
Gilboa and Megiddo. 1t was SO re-
Gently when gallant and glorious Greece
was in conflict with Gigantic Moham.
mechanism, and the navies of Europe
lowering about the Bosphorus were in
practical protection of the Turkish
government, fresh from the slaughter
of 100, 900 Armenians. 1t was so when,
in 1776, the 13 colonies, with no wal
shipping and few undrilled and poor.
ly clad soldiers, were brought into a
contest with the mightiest navy of all
the the earth and an army that com
manded the admiration of nations. II
was SO when Poland was crushed II
was so when Hungary went under. II
has been SO during all the struggles
heretofore for Cuban independence
But now it is our powerful navy
against feeble group of incom
petent ships, crawling across the At
lantic to meet our hotillas, which have
enough guns to send them as com
pletely under as when the Red sea sub
merged Pharoah's army. 1t is SO il
these times, when only few Thousand
Spaniards at most can reach our hem
isphere, and we go out to meet then
with 1885, 900 armed men, to be backed
up speedily with 500, 900 more if needed
We do not have to ask for any miracle
but only fair shot at the ships headed
this way, and time enough to demolisl
them. This is one of the cases in tn,
worlds history where might and righ
are shoulder to shoulder.
Another alleviation is in the fac
that such an atrocity as the destruc
tion of 266 lives in Havana harbor il
time of peace cannot with impunity b,
wrought in this age of the worlds civi
lization. The question as to who diC
that infernalism is too well settled t,
need any further discussion. But wha
small crime it was, compared witt
the systematic putting into thei
graves of hundreds of thousand
of Cubans, or leaving them unburie,
for the buzzards to take care OF
If Spain could destroy 200, 900 men, VIC
men and children, the slaughter o
) 266 people was not very great under
taking. But this one last deed will
result in the liberation of Cuba, an,
, the driving of Spain from this hemis
phere and the overthrow of that gov
ernment, which will soon drop t
pieces if it does not go down unde
E bombardment of insulted nations.
$ There was danger that the long-cor
= tinued oppression of our neighbors i
3 Cuba might be continued from genera
{ tion to generation without sufficien
4 protest on our part and the pronounce
I execration of people on both sides G
e the Atlantic, but that bursting volcan
: of destruction in the harbor of H5
vana fred the nation and shocked tn
: whole civilized world. All nations wi
learn that such an act cannot be re
a peated without the anathema of a
Christendom. AS individual criminal