Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1899-02-09

cIent for the fin de slecIe statesmen now
on the boards who dream of an empire
and who are hungry for world po1iticsl
Consider the soaring presumption of
the men who think that George Wash
ington. Alexander Hamilton and old
John Adams, Thomas jefferson, John
Marshall and James Madison were fit
only for small country in a rude age,
and in the same breath arrogate to
themselves the wisdom to legislate for
s'all the nations Of the earth and the
rest Of mankind as General Zachary
Taylor remarked in his only message
to congress-
The entire history Of the human race,
including our own glorious history, for
more than a century counts for abso-
lately nothing with these far aspiring
statesmen. The safety Of the republic,
the perpetuity of our institutions the
happiness of our posterity through all
coming time are all to be jeopardized
in a reckless venture in which we have
everything to lose and nothing abso-
lutely nothing gain.
Our Present Duty.
We are fippantly told that it is our
duty to carry the blessings of liberty to
these people. 1t is not true 1t is our
duty to attend strictly to our own busi-
ness Nobody commissioned us to go
forth like Don Quixote in quest of ven
lures. Suppose we start out on the
theory that we are to force our ideas of
government upon all nations which we
think need improvements in their mo-
dus vivendi. Where shall we begin and
where shall we stop2 Why cross the
Pacific to try our first experiment? :?
Why not rather save transportation ex-
penses at least and force a stable gov
ernnent upon the five little, quarrel
some, revolutionary Central American
republics We might practice upon
them until we get our hand in. We
might force them to settle down to a
steady gait by the time our great grand
children are in public life Having re-
duced our bellicose neighbors to com
atose condition, if we are still bent on
doing political missionary work with
the rife and the bayonet we might
| proceed to take the inconstant South
American republics through a course of
sprouts. 1t would probably require
some two or three generations to thrash
them into an adequate comprehension
Of their inalienable rights to life, liber-
ty and the pursuit of happiness. If by
that time any of us survive the fevers,
bullets and swords of our South Ameri-
can friends, we might give the Rus
slams, Turks and other monarchists a
few lessons.
Our National Frontier.
Every country needs natural from
tier. That necessity accounts for every
acquisition above mentioned except
Alaska. which, as every body knows, was
purchased Of Russia as matter of
gratitude to her for unfalteTing friend
ship to the national government during
our titanicciviI war. Russia had Alas
ka for sale. and the powers then in
Washington appeared to think that we
could do nothing less than buy that
large slice Of the polar region at Rus
sia's own price, nobody then dreaming
that it would ever be considered either
valuable or habitable.
In passing, it may be remarked that
it has never yet been demonstrated that
Mr. Seward s much vaunted land trans
action has been of the least benefit or
service to the American people or to the
cause of human freedom. Some fisheries
have been established; some sealskins
have been taken; some gold mines have
been discovered; some corporations have
made money; but, ON the other side of
the ledger, are the lives of some 40, 600
or so, 600 Of our young men-the very
flower of the land who perished there
in quest of the yellow metal and who
shall compute the value of those lives
the lives of an army greater than that
with which Washington won the indie
pendence of his country
| But, barring Alaska which ought
not to count, and which does not count
in the minds of reasoning people-every
| foot of the land above mentioned was
acquired for the purpose of securing a
natural frontier When Jefferson wrote
| the fateful sentence, 1.-The Mississippi
must flow unfettered to the sea, he
was stating the natural frontier propo-
sition in unique manner. In that sen
tence is the kernel of our policy of ex-
pansion up to the new departure of an
nexing the Hawaiian Islands But, hav-
! ing acquired the aforementioned areas OF
land, we had achieved natural from
tier everywhere except ON our northern
line, and from day antedating the i'll
starred expedition of Montgomery and
Arnold to Quebec it has been the dream
of our statesmen and soldiers to round
ont our geography and complete our
natural frontier by securing the North
American British possessions.
MercuriaI People.
Even the acquisition Of Cuba might
find the shadow. if not the substance, OF
justification on the grounds of mat
ural frontier if we were not solemnly
pledged by resolution of congress not to
grab it as result of the war with
Spain 1t will probably gravitate into
the Union naturally and voluntarily
'sin the course Of human events. .
First and last we have heard vast
deal of the marvellous rapidity with
which things have changed in the last
hundred years We plume ourselves ex-
ceedingly upon the steam engine the
electric car, the telegraph, the telephone
and kindred inventions, which have, as
we say in our bloviations. annihilated
time and space We are even looking
forward eagerly, hopefully and impa-
tiently to the appearance of the flying
machine, 50 that we may cleave the
blue ether after the manner of our OWE
bald eagle
But after mature deliberation ! an
persuaded that the most astounding evi-
dence of the swiftness of movement il
our age is the growth of expansion SEN
timent in America as manifested in
the apparent strength of the proposition
to annex the Philippine Islands in any
way or for any purpose whatsoever.
We have always boasted that we be.
longed to the most conservative race in
the world, and yet. judged by the reyo-
luton of public opinion on this subject
which has taken place within the last
year, we are more mercurial people
than the French, at whose antics, crises
and gyrations we have laughed for gen.
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