The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-11-02

! countries should study our politics and
| hope for victory or defeat of our parties
for their own advantage. But there
is less difficulty Of that kind in the
present case because the conditions
are such that Spain has got to submit
to our terms, and the question of our
policy is to be decided by the Ameri-
can people, whether Spain like it or does
not like it. And, besides, the great
things that concern our welfare are not
to be settled by diplomacy. The Ameri-
can people must settle it by legislation
only. They must act through their
constitutional organs-through the
president and the senate, Il Jwo-thirds
vote of the senate in case Of a treaty,
which is but one form of legislation,
or by the two houses of congress and
| the president, which is another form of
| legislation. So when our friends tell
us that they are willing to leave this
matter to the president, they only mean
that they will leave him ito determine
what conditions he win require
of SPAIN, to be submitted to the SEN
ate hereafter, or what conditions he
will propose to congress, to be acted
upon by them hereafter.
William Mckinley, who is alike great
as a patriot and as a statesman, is the
last person on the continent who would
accept the duty of determining for the
American people the question of re-
versfng their whole constitutional poll
cy and departing from their constitu-
tional obligations. Indeed, we would
not leave such a question TO, George
Washington himself, although we know
very we'll how he would decide it.
So when it is said that what is to
happen to us in this matter is to be de-
termined by the tide of fate or Of des-
tiny, or that we are riding in car
along a course which we cannot choose,
to a goal which we cannot see, con-
fess my own incredulity. l believe re-
ligiously that God in his providence
controls the affairs Of men. But L be-
lieve he has committed it both to free
men and to free nations to be the arbi-
ters of their own destiny in obedience
to His laws. .
Man is his own star; and the soul that
can
Render an honest and perfect man
Commands all life, all influence, all
fate
Nothing to him falls early or too late.
| Our acts our angels are, for good or i'll;
Our fatal shadows, that walk by us
STILL
So, fellow-citizens, / reverertly be-
| lieve that the fate Of the American
republic has been committed by God
|
the American people. If they will but
obey His laws, as He has revealed
them to us, or our fathers, under His
| inspiration, wrote them for us in the
Declaration of Independence ard in the
constitution, the happy and fortunate
destiny of this people is secured. The
! tide that flows will ebb. Our house is
founded upon a rock which can resist
and Withstand the ride. 1t may be that
I
| determine for ourselves the track we
will follow, the station for which we
will take passage, and a great deal,
just now, is depending upon the switch
man.
My colleague, Mr. Lodge, made last
night in Boston a sober, temperate and
most admirable statement, with every
word of which / agree. He declares that
! he will not turn the people of the
Philippine islands back to Spain; that
he will not hold them as a conquered
people, at the cannon's mouth: that
| he will give them a chance to be free;
that he Will give them the chance to
| govern themselves; that there snail be
order in those islands instead OF an
archy; that they shall have peace and
| the opportunity to decide their own
fate. Now if this be Imperialism then,
unless I have misunderstood the tenn
per of the people of Massachusetts and
have failed to read her history Alright,
we are all imperiallsts. That is one
| thing. Freedom from SPAIN opportu-
nifty for government, the restora-
ton of order in those islands,-sup-
port countenance, assistance to that
newly delivered peopie,-these things
are all right.
"These are imperial arts and worthy
thee"
This is one thing. We will emanci-
pate this maiden; we will make ner, if
it be necessary, a wedding present and
| help to give her a dowry. But we will
not make her our slave, and certainly
we do not propose to marry her
Some Of our good friends have said
| thoughtlessly in their zeal, that where
the American flag goes it must stay.
But surely they cannot wish TIC COM
nit the country to that doctrine. We
planted it on the City of Mexico. But
no men demanded 1t should stay there.
If the war goes on, we shall plant it
on the coast of Spain; very likely it
i will fly over the capital Of Spain. But
we have no desire to hold permanent
dominion there. Such doctrine would
! change every future war into a war of
| determination or subjugation.
If the Philippine islands become ours,
| then under the late decision of the SUI
| preme court, every child hereafter born
| in them becomes an American citizen
| free to come, free to go. Are you going
| to admit them as states, with so rep
resentatives and dozen or 20 senators?
Are you going to hold them as subjects
taxation and representation not going
| together, all men not created free and
equal to live under the American flag
Are you going to have a subject people
without trial by jury, without habe9s
corpus governed not by their own leg
islative assemblies, but by praetors and
proconsuls?
Are you going to have trained and
governing class, such as England has
| been compelled to build up, educated
for the purpose and when they come
of age, with the same right to offices
in the colonial government as the Off
GERS educated at West Point or Annap-
| oils have to commissions in the army
or the navy2 Are you going to enter
into the struggle and scuffie for power
in the eastern hemisphere, with its ne
cessity for intrigue and bargain and
secret diplomacy? Are you going to
abolish the right Of the senate to concur
in treaties, or the right of congress to
declare war and make peace? To main
tain itself in that struggle every great
nation must have a power of an in
slant, rapid and unfettered action, en-
tirely inconsistent with our constitu-
tiona1 restraints Are you going to null
tiply by 10 the size of your navy, and
to have a navy such as England has
| equal to that of any other two powers
on the face of the earth?
Are you going to have a standing ar
my which must amount, in my judg-
ment, to hundreds of thousands in num-
Der? Are you going TO have the ma
tional tax gatherer the most frequent
and the best known visitant to every
American house? Are you going to in
crease many fold your national debt?
! Is every American Child hereafter to be