The evening times., 1898-06-25
John Shsrmon's Sentiments.
From the Chicago ChrunicIe.)

IT wish TO God the war were over. ]
| wish to God the war had never been
started. I was opposed 10 II from the be-
ginning. But now that we are in IL, I
want TO see II brought 10 as effectual and
triumphant an end as possible" The
speaker was eS-Secretary of State John
Sherman. 1t was his first visit to Chica-
go in two years. and as he sat in his
apartments at the Victoria Hotel he look
ed 10 years younger than the seventy-tive
birthdays he has passed. His eye was
clear. his face possessed the ruddy hue OF
health. his step was firm and his voice
| rang resonantiy. Mr.. Sherman will leave
| tomorrow for Alaska
| II think" he continued. that we should
be satisfied with the results SO far. There
has been some disposition to criticise the
! tardiness of Sampson and Schley That
Is unreasonable. think. because no one
has any idea OF what they are doing or
| OF what the Spanish feet is doing.
"The Naval Board of Strategy also may
hG.ve come in for criticism. but Ii ought
| nee to- The board simply acts IN an ad-
visory capacity TO Secretary Long. All
| orders to the fleet must come through
! him. / think he Is allowing Sampson to
! follow out his own ideas.
| LAS / said, craftsmanship was opposed
| to this war. The demand of the people,
reflected by Congress. it always IS
| brought 1t on. The demand for the relief
| of the suffering Cubans was strong. but
| It was the destruction of the Maine which
| caused the war;
| "will it become a war of conquest?"
| was asked.
Certainly not. We want neither the
| Philippines nor Cuba. We want no for
4 I. t.s-I. h,... n
| fend with our ships. We do not want TO
| be constantly in trouble with France.
| Germany and possibly England. This is
! a seif-contained nation 1t has limitless
resources in Itself. 1t wants no entan-
clements with foreign nations. 1t wants
| to keep them of its shores and 1t wants
to keep of theirs. Our trade treaties
| with every civilized nation on the globe
| are sufficient.
II do not believe in an offensive and de-
( fensive alliance with England. People
| throughout the country generally may
| have talked of 1t, but only because their
| fears are aroused by the thought Of
| European intervention. There is no
chance of the interference of any foreign
power. Diplomacy may step in: bu. war
| ships and armies. never. Great Britain
| is always In trouble with some other
| power With the United States at her
| back these troubles would become more
| serious and more frequent. and the
| United States would soon become en-
| broiled. We need fear no nation in the
| world. Our country is safe from an in
vading army. our seacoast cities are pro-
| tected from n hostile fleet.
How about the troops going to the
Philippines
THAT of course is a military necessity.
We must conquer the islands for pur-
poses of war. They afterward may be
effective for purposes of peace. We may
cede them to Spain. We may use them
to purchase the freedom of Cuba We
| may sell them to England and thus pay
the expenses of the war. We may do
| half a dozen things with them, but we
! must not annex them. Their population
would never be in accord with ours. The
islands are inhabited by the worst people
in the world-a hybrid race. part Span
ish. part Chinese. and part native. Now,
with Cuba the situation is different.
Freed from Spanish domination. the ma
tive Cubans can govern themselves well.
but still we do not want to make the
island part of the United States"
What was your opinion Of the dipio-
macy of the Spaniards while you were
Secretary Of Statey'-s..,.,, i,st go.
You can't judge Spaniards by the
standard of any other nation. They have
lost all the vast possessions they once
held. They will do things and call them
honorable which would be revolving to
an American, EnglIshman or Frenchman.
They are cruel brutal and vfndictive.
Taking these characteristics into consid-
Grafton, 1t is hard to Judge Of their ability.
History, however. shows that they have
not been successful in anything for CEN
turies. They have never been able to
maintain a stable form of government.
1.-The war had nothing to do with my
resignation from President Mckinley 3
Cabinet. In fact, up to the time l left
there had been no talk of war in the
Cabinet. The question Of getting the
Spaniards out Of Cuba came up. but there
was no war talk. ,...,fi - r..-
"As to my relations with President Nc
Kiniey, care to say nothing. II had
any cause to make complaints this would
not be the proper time to make them. My
friends in Ohio think that was badly
treated. They wanted me to run for
! Congress as a sort Of Justification. but
| this was an honor refused. Since
have been out Of of1ice 1 have heard all
kinds of reports about myself-that was
a mental wreck and that had one foot
in the grave. want to say right here
that was never In better mental and
physical condition In year than am
now" ta.s