The Richmond climax. (Richmond, Ky.) 1897-1914, 1899-05-17
BLASTED
WILL BE ALL IDEALS SHOULD
IMPERIALISM GAIN A
SP0NG FOOTHOLD.
German-Americans Sought the
Land of Freedom to Es-
cape Such a System
as is Now Adv0-
Gated.
BY IhE A0mlNISTRATI0N-N0 PARTY CAN
OPPOSE AMERIcANISM AND
EXIST LONG.

The Westliche Post, of st. Louis, last
week printed an article in the English
Language defining the policy of all Ger
man-American papers in this country
regarding Americanism against imperi-
alism. The article in part follows:
Time and again the attempt has been
made to supplant American Republican
ism with imperialism. Time and again
American patriotism and that high and
far-seeing love of mankind which
unites men OF all countries i'm common
brotherhood OF humanity have rallied
against it. When, half a century
ago, We had the sane cries of ''Mani-
Test Destiny, 1.-THE "COnquering Saxon, {"
Expansion" and all the rest we are
hearing again now, Americans as radi-
cally opposed to each other in most
things as We are Calhoun and Corwin
joined with Clay, Webster, Lowell.
Clayton and Clemens against it.
What American can read this with
out an indignant refusal to consent that
the blood of those once our allies shall
"saturate the soil" on which they were
born that We may be praised by the
London Times for our mobile work for
progress in furthering British plans
for Remembering and rObbiDg China?
John NJ. Clayton himself, the author
of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, and open
ly in favor of cooperating with Eng
land in this,was openly opposed to hav-
ing anything to do with the political
methods of British Imperialism.
What is there in stalWart American
ism Gt's native Americanism, if you
Wild except that German Americans
are saying now in declaring that they
gave up home and friends and came
thousands of miles into an unknown
country for the deep love-nOt of Brit
ish cOlOnialism, but Of American Re-
publicanism. To that they are loyal
now and always.
To Americanism, not TO the British
commercialism of the bayOnet-to
Americanism, to liberty, to progress
to freedom from militarism, to the OK
pectatiOn of time to come when the
world will be no longer shackled by
imperialism, with its bayonets and fet-
ters-to that, German-Americans who
renowned imperialism in Europe are as
devoted now as they were SO years ago,
when they listened to Seward as he
said Of these same ''Expansionists: -
"Sir, they have sent the American
eagle abroad, bearing not the olive
branch, but shackle in his talons."
The flag of this great republic stands
now-not for what the London Times
approves-but for what it meant when
Seward stood under it to utter this i'm
mortal sentence.
Such Republicanism as that was not
his nor is it that of any loyal German
American or of any other American who
is loyal to his flag and to his country
Nav heaven forbid that it ever should
be. May the time never come when
the American people will applaud those
who drabble flag dedicated to free
dom and human progress in the blood
of men who die on their own soil re-
sisting the same principle Of British
imperialism again, over which America
triumphed at Yorktown and New Or
leans.
Such ideas will never prevail in
America. Any party which commits
Itself to them will be wiped out of ex.
istence. Any leader who attempts tC
check civilization and progress under
American institutions aud through
American principles will he repudiateC
and disgraced; any foreign nation
which, for its own brutal and se.fist
purposes, attempts to use the American
people as cats-paw in schemes o
fraud and violence will find itself the
victim Of the reactions of its own ma
levolent scheming. Justice, liberty
progress through Justice aud liberty
until the whole world is elevated by
our national life as 1t has been by til,
individual life OF Washington-that il
the manifest destiny OF America; TO
that the flag stands and for that Ger
man-Americans are willing now, a
they always have been, 10 stake every
thing knowing that when issues ar,
made against liberty and in favor 0
imperialism everything is at stake 70
them, the American flag and for al
that is worthy OF survival in the world
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