The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-24
War Conducted for the First Time I'm
the History OF the World
Solely for Humanity.
HOW WE MAY BE BENEFITED
UNITED STATES WILL GAIN In IN
CREASE OF COMMERCE.
Possession of the Philippines a Step
Towards the Trade of China-NOw
Citizens of the World.

BUFFALO, N. Y, Dec. 23-The Independ-
ent Club had as its guest this evening the
Hon. Chauncey NJ. Depew, the occasion be-
ing its Christmas dinner. The banquet room
| of the Elicott Club, where the dinner was
held, was handsomely decorated with bunt.
| ing, evergreen and electric effects, the fea-
| ture being the handsome INTERVENING of the
stars and stripes and the union jack. When
| the cigars and coffee had been reached C..
| B. Gibbs, president of the Independent Club.
read letter OF regret from ex-senator u.
| Il. Hill, in which he referred to the guest cf
the evening, Hon. G.. NJ. Depew, as our
mutual friend, soon to be United States SEN
ator from the Empire State. Mr.. Hills let
ter was received with hearty applause, as
was Mr.. Depew, who was introduced a mo-
ment later by Mr.. Gibbs Mr.. Depew took
for his theme 1885" He said:
We face, this Christmastide, events as
| vital to our country as many in the past that
nave been met and successfully answered.
The federation Of Washington in 1898 has
developed into the United States of 1898,
attached to national society, of acquiring
territory by conquest or cession. No con-
stltuuonal lawyer will doubt this power.
do not think any body OF constitutional law
| yer5 will doubt that among the reserved
powers Of society which belong TO us as a
natlon Is the right to administer the affairs
| OF territories acquired by conquest or by
cession under such form of government as
Congress and the executive may prescribe.
| But to great numbers of wise and good peo-
| pie to severn any of the possessions of the
United States, except as the people would
| govern themselves seems illogical and con-
| trary to the doctrine of independence and the
Constitution of the United States.
| War is illogical. 1t violates the injunc-
| tlon OF the great Master, Peace on earth,
| good will to men, Revolutions are illogical.
| Ihey oVerturn the existing order of things.
| That the fleet of Admiral Cervera, coming
/ no of onf loo nd ti,,.y
| an American fleet of nearly equal strength,
should have been sunk in thirteen minutes,
| with loss of half its officers and crews,
while the American fleet lost but one man
| and received no damage to any vessel, is
Illogical 1t is against the traditions of war.
| That Dewey with six cruisers should have
/ sailed unframed past the forts in Manila
| bay and capture and destroy thirteen
| Spanish men-of-war without the loss of a
| man, is illogical, according to the calcula-
| tons of war. Destiny knows no logic. ProVi-
dence in the wise purposes which it has for
| nations, makes the precedents and condi-
| tons from which alone the logic of those
conditions can be argued
| we make war against a foreign power
and. for the first time in the history of the
world, solely for humanity. The world can
not understand, and the world stands by TO
| sheer and scott. To maintain order in Cuba
until her people shall be able TO maintain a
| stable government of liberty and law, is hui
mainly. To incorporate Porto Rico in our
| domain, relieve its citizens from oppression
and give them good government, is human
| ity To permit the bloody hand of Spain to
again grasp the threats of ten millions of
| F1lipinos, or to pass them over to the tender
| mercies of European governments would be
| inhuman and cowardly; it would be refus-
| ing the mission which Providence has dis
| tinctly forced upon us. Then. again, 1
said at the beginning, the colonial prece-
dents of Rome and of modern nations do not
apply. We must judge of the future of these
| possessions, not by the expressions which
| they have suffered, but by the liberty which
| they will enjoy.
General Wood governing the province Of
| a nhin0f 1pScnn in ri
| can liberty, law and opportunity. The most
unsettled province in Cuba resumes all the
/ arts of peace and as its people understand
that they are to be protected in their per-
| sons and property, and that as fast as they
| demonstrate capacity for self-government
| they will be advanced to positions in the
| civil and military service. We have the opin-
| ion of Dewey one of the great men whom
this war has developed, and of General
! Merritt, wise observer, that when the in
| habitants of the Philippine islands appre-
ciate what American protection and law
mean tney Will become one of the most
| obedient, law-abiding and productive popu-
| lations in the world
THE vast trade of Cuba, which heretofore
went to Spain and to Europe, will now
| come to us and be enormously increased
| by Americans who will flock there with cap
ital and energy. The development of the ISL
| because it deserves by it's location. its
climate and the richness of it's soil, it's min
eral possessions and its forests. its title of
| exports from Porto Rico, of which all but
| AOOO,OO0 have gone to Spain, will now come
| to us enhanced many fold by American en-
| terprise and immigration The Philippines to
| the United States, like Java to Holland
| under the inspiring influences of American
| opportunity of American schools and Amer
| lean hope, will be an immense market and
| large source of revenue over and above
| the cost Of administration for the United
! States. Our government firmly planted, will
| not only enter the open door of the Orient
| Tor the products of our fields and our fac
torres, but when the great boot of Uncle
| Sam is put in the crack of the door which
| continental nations would close, there will
pc no musket damned upon that boot to
The question which has agtated the
schools the philosophers and the thinkers
| OF all ages has been how to live. The ques-
ton which is most interesting for us on this
night preceding Christmas eve of 1898 is
when to live? In a memorable conversa-
ton Mr.. Gladstone said to me that of all
the ages of the world in which to have
| lived and worked he would select the last
fifty years of his life, because it had been
n M % years ears OF emancipation from the tyran-
ny or law and bigotry. We, as Americans,
have wide choice of the periods in which
we would have chosen to pass our lives
The revolutionary time has its attractions
but its limitations in education in the arts
and in inventions are fatal. The period of
the civil war has the fascination of heroic
deeds and exalted patriotism, but the limita-
lions Of the horrors of internecine war
THE year 1898 has given to the American
people the exaltation of patriotic fury and
fervor to relieve the sufferings of an op-
pressed and neighboring people The mar
velouS victories of our navy and army con-
densing into a hundred days the struggle of
hundred years for the overthrow of the
colonial tyranny of Spain. have spiritualized
US with that fire of brain and blood which
came to the Greeks after Marathon to the
English after Agincourt, to Americans after
the battle of Santiago. In 1898 we have be-
come citizens of the world. We have be-
come the foremost power. The boy at
school has been wont for a half century to
recite with wonder and bated breath Daniel
Webster's magnificent tribute to the world
power of Britain, Whose morning drum
beat, following the sun and keeping COM
pany with the hours, circles the earth with
one continuous and unbroken strain of the
martial airs Of England but the American
school boy of to-day is himself the citizen
Of a country upon which the sun never
sets"
Mr.. Depew's remarks were frequently in
terrupted by applause.