The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1899-03-08

and the Spanish war have fixed upon
| them. General Shafter, who seems 60
have been the pet of the Wart "a 70 y
ment saId a + o ~ I1oelSi2 !Li@U
is to kill half of them and treat the
other half kindly The president APP
pears to fall in fully with this idea of
the bulky American general. A late
engagement of the American army with
one thousand FilipInOs is reported as
resulting In the death of five hundred
Fillpinos and the capture of two hun
dred with no losses to our army worth
speaking of. At this rate everything
that the half bloody minded and half
humane Shafter could wish would soon
be accomplished.
The Democratic Policy.
$50 far as | am concerned, while |
am bitterly opposed to the policy of
conquest which seems to have taken
hold Of great many of the American
people l, in common With all patriotic
American cititizens, favor standing by
our soldiers and sailors wherever they
may be engaged under the constituted
authority. The resolution introdu 3ed
by me and passed unanimously by the
democratic caucus last week expresses
the position of the democratic party on
that question. We oppose the policy
which sends our soldiers there to kill
people who are contending for nothing
except that liberty for which our faith
ers fought themselves, to be butchered
by barbarians and slain by the ravages
of a climate in which it has been dem
Onstrated that white men cannot lour>
lsh. Lincoln's famous declaration in
1858, 4 believe this government can
not endure permanently half slave and
half free, is better applicable to the pol-
cy OF annexing territory and people ut
terly unfit for American citizenship
az totally unassimllable to our people
than to the situation then existing,
We cannot long endure half republic
and half monarchy. AS it was so we'll
put by my FREUD, Hon. John j. Lentz
of Ohio, in a speech In the house not
long since, we shall have the spectacle
OF president Of he United States who
is emperor of the Philippine islands :"
"The rights of the Filipinos
are as nothing compared with
the danger to American institu-
uons in this new policy of i'm
perallsm. We cannot shut our eyes
to The fact that it Is an abandonment of
the Monroe doctrine, under which we
have lived and prOspered from Wash
ington to Mckinley. We cannot saw
to Europe, "You shall not extend your
conquests on this continent" and at the |
same time engage in establishing colo |
MES or dependencies of our own in the
eastern hemisphere. If we start on
the one we must abandon the other.
The Political Outlook.
"You ask as to the political outlook for
next year. II is rather early to talk vet. |
buC may say that, to one who believes |
that the principles of the democratic
party are eternal, the future is not by
any means dark.
"EYents have followed each other with |
such great rapidity since Mr.. Mckinley |
took the oath of Office on March 4th, |
1897, that no man can predict with any
degree of accuracy what day may bring
forth.
ga year ago President Mckinley
would have been refused denomination
by his own party. 1t was at the same
time freely admitted that the democrats
would carry the next congress by a large |
majority. The blowing up of the Maine |
in Havana harbor was followed by a |
declaration Of war AS is invariably the |
case the war president was in a short |
time m)re popular than President Nc
Kinley had before been unpopular. /
Many of the people became drunk with |
war excitement and nobody expected |
the democrats to do more, in the fall |
elections, than hold their strength in the
house, in which the republicans had a |
majority of sixty. AS the campaign |
progressed, however, the people began |
to sober up and democratic hopes began |
to grow brighter. There was never any |
trouble on this score anywhere in the |
south. As l was saying, as the people |
began to think more soberly democratic |
chances appeared better, until it began |
to look as if we would carry the house
in spite of the terrible odds against us.
Indeed, | have been told by prominent
republicans that only the presidents j
speech-making tour through the doubts |
full districts of the middle west saved
the house to the republicans by the ex
ceedlngly slim majority OF twelve Our
defeat under the circumstanc9 IS was all
most triumph. Public opinion is in
formative state on the question Of terri
torlai EXPANSION, or rather imperialism,
which means the same thing. The peo>
pie are giving to this question more and
more thought every day, and whenever
they become convinced, as they surely
will, that expansion mems imperialism
woe to the party that advocates it. The
silver question has lost none of its
strength anywhere. The prosperity
which, it is claimed by some has re-
turned to the country, is bubble that
will burst with the ending of the specu-
latOr's boom now on in the New York
stock exchange.
'Reafirming, as it will in 1900, the
great CHICAGO platform or 1896, and in
sertino q new nlAnik denlarLn1r nnr Nm