The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-10

The time of conquest is past said the
French Emperor. 1t is not by extending
the boundaries of its territory that ma
ton can henceforward be honored and
powerful, but by placing itself at the head
of genrous ideas and spreading everywhere
the empire of right and justice.
president Mckinley, when he spoke.
was not thinking even of honor or Oh
power, inspiring and alluring as are honor
and power He placed himself and paced
the American people on the stern, endur-
ing, and perpetual rock of righteousness;
that forcible annexation is not 10 be
thought of, under our code of morality;
that would be criminal aggression.
who shall haul him down? Who shall
haul down the code? Who shall haul
down the President?
The Peoples Rights.
THE Declaration of Independence de-
clares that whenever any form of gov
eminent becomes destructive of the ends
therein stated 1t is the right of the peo-
pie TO alter abolish il, and TO institute
new government, laying its foundation on
such principles, and organizing its pow
ers in such forms as to them shall seem
most likely to effect their safety and hap-
piness. But the senator from Connecticut
thinks We have the constitutional right
ourselves to institute a new government
such principles and organizing its pow
ors in such form as shall seem to us most
likely to effect our safety and happiness
without giving them the slightest voice
in the matter.
And, further, the senator must think
although he does not say SOL suppose
ne expects to vote so-that we have the
right TO turn our cannon, bayonets and
ships of war, and armies upon that peo-
nj hey aft tn Oh
and prevent them from doing it.
George Bancroft says Of it:
" This immoral state paper, which for
its composer was the aurora of enduring
fame, was 1.-The genuine effusion of the
soul of the country at that time" the rev.
elation of its mind, when, in its youth, its
enthusiasm it's sublime confronting of
danger, it rose to the highest creative pow
ers of which man is capable. The bill of
rights which it promulgates is of rights
that are older than human institutions,
and spring from the eternal justice that
is anterior to the state
Il commend this passage to some of our
worthy clergymen who are of late preach
ing from their pulpits the new command
ment to do evil that good may come.
'Thackeray no mean judge of noble art,
no mean judge of noble actions, was one
day crossing the rotunda of this capitol
in company with Charles Sumner. He
stopped before the picture where the ge-
MUS of the great artist of Connecticut has
delneated on the imperishable canvas the
scene when the Declaration of Independ-
ence was presented by Jefferson to the
solemn sitting over which Hancock pre-
sided, and the new nation, born on the
18th of April, 1775, was baptized in the
faith of our new gospel Of liberty. He
stood for a moment silent, and then said
to Mr.. Sumner: That's your painter
Dignity of Human Nature.
Surely he was right. The foremost ac-
ton of human history is fifty represented
by the great work which we fondly hope
is to be as enduring as time, enduring as
the republic, enduring as liberty. 1t is
there, in the foremost place of honor
which can be found on this earth. No
Parthenon, no Saint Peters, no Palace of
the Escurial, no Sans Souci, no Westmin-
ster Abbey itself can equal, at least to our
eyes this spot where forever a great and
free people declares its constitutional will.
Beneath the great dome to which the
pilgrim from afar first repairs when he
visits the capital of his country, hangs the
great picture which delineates the scene
when the nation was first baptized into
immortal life. 1t was not only the indie
pendence of America which was then de-
clared-it was the dignity of human ma
ture itself.
when Samuel Rogers visited the Do
minican convent at Padua, an aged frjar
showed him the famous picture of The
Last Supper in the refectory of the con-
vent He said:
"T have sat at my meals before it for
seven and forty years, and such are the
changes that have taken place among us
so many have come and gone in that
time-that when 1 look upon the company
there, upon those who are sitting at that
table, silent as they are, l am sometimes
inclined to think that we not they are the
shadows
LAS administrations, terms of presden-
tial Office begin and end, as senators and
representa- tives come and go before the
silent figures in that immortal picture, it
seems to me that we are but the shadows,
while Hancock and jefferson and Adams
and Franklin and Ellsworth and Living
ston are still deliberatng, still acting, still
alive. All, Mi. President, shall we turn
it with its face to the wall? Shall the
scroll first be stricken from The hand of
jefferson and another put there which
shall read:
Governments just Powers.
Governments derive their just powers
from the consent of the governed-some of
them. Men are created equal-some of
gether-for US, not for other men. Life,
liberty, ard the pursuit of happiness are
held in the Philippine Islands at our viii
and not at the will Of the people.'
"And then shall we turn the picture with
its face 20 the wall, and put instead of II
a representation of some great battle
where the guns of our navy and our army
are turned on the men struggling for their
liberty al Iloi.o.
NO. MIR President, our friends tell us
thai all this is emotion and rhetoric anu
sentiment. They tell us that it does not
belong 20 the domain of practical states
manship, or The conduct of the affairs of
life: that these are The things we shink
when we talk, and that we are thinking
of quite other things when we act and
vote.
"Weu the doctrines ] stand upon are
the doctrines of the most practical states
men Of the most practical generation that
ever lived on the face of the earth. These
sentiments, wrapped In a few sentences,
not equaling in compass the Ten Com
mandments or the Lords Prayer, ampH-
fying only q little the Goiden Rule itself,