The record-union., 1899-04-20
Danger Involved in the Policy Of
Military Conquest.
Every Nation Comes to Grief Which At
tempts to Rule the World.
Speech of the Former Minister to
Spain at a Banquet Given by the
Sons of the Revolution in Cele-
bration of Patriots Day at
Boston.

BOSTON, April 19.-The Sons of the
Revolution observed Patriots Day by
the unveiling of tablet upon the
tomb in Kings Chapel burying grounds
which marks the resting place of Will
lam Dawes. whose daring night ride of
April 1919, 1873, was of the same .cnar-
acter and accomplished the same pur-
pose as the ride of Paul Revere. The
ceremony was followed by banquet at
the Hotel vendome at which Senator
Hoar and former United States Minis
ter to Spain Hannis Taylor We're the
principal speakers.
Senator Hoar said in part: 1--WE should
as soon have thought three years ago
of asking the Savior of Mankind 10
| come down from the mount and take
service under Roman centurion or go
into the employ Of Tiberius, in order not
to be isolated, as to have asked the
American people to descend from its
lofty hight to engage in the diplomatic
quarrels of Europe or the scuffle for
empire in Asia
The Hon. Hannis Taylor of Alabama
responded to the toast The Fathers
of the Revolution as Standards for I'M
itation" He said in part:
curate understanding of what has been
and may be the legitimate bounds Of
our expansion in this hemisphere, with
in the circle of influence which the faith
ers contemplated, is it possible to meas
ure the stupendous folly and danger IN
volved in wild scheme of military con-
quest which is now threatening not only
to draw US into new methods of gov
ar amt ir1f4o Ia oi,,f1a Of a
large standing army with it's conse-
quent expense, but to inevitably bring
us very near to the crater of eruption
in the Far East whose activity is i'm
minent. When the successful merchant
has possessed himself of all the chan
nels of trade kindred to his own, his
hour of peril comes when his vaulting
ambition is over-tempted by a seduc-
tive voice to embark in some perilous
though promising venture far from
home.
Il will yield to no man when it comes
to trusting faith in the future Of The
American people, in earnest belief in it's
conquering, colonizfrg and civilzing
power. But 1 also believe that there
should be limits even to our ambition;
that Providence has set bounds even
to grief that has attempted to rule the
world Why can we not be content
to dominate the best half of it? Why
should we wish to return to the old
Roman days when every over-ambitious
Consul or Emperor strove to strengthen
his hold upon the people by presenting
them with a freshly conquered prov
ince?
n p o. Oft har ar
moral, to reduce the nine millions of far
distant F'flipfnos to servitude through
bloodshed and slaughter; we have no
commercial interests in such an en-
terprise to justify the sacrifice in
tropical jungles of our heroic sons, ever
ready to die for their country. Let US
gather hope from the fact that the
growing opposition to this unwise and
unholy undertaking is confined to no
party In the Capitol at Washington
the voice of your senior Senator, who
commands to-day the confidence and
reverence of the entire nation, has
thundered against it strong as an army
with banners while the great tribune
of the people who now speaks for the
Democratic party is equally infiexible
in his opposition.
AT this critical moment in our ma
tional history, at this turning point i'll
our wonderful career, let us not be di-
verted by distempered dreams of for
eign conquest from the consideration of
the question of questions, of the prob
lem of problems, that now confronts
US at home. One of the wisest of mod
ern philosophers has told us that the
life of people, it's institutions, its be-
llefs, and it's arts are but the visible
expression of an individual soul No
one can comprehend what American
democracy really means until he
touches, in the penetralia of it's past,
its invisible soul as embodied in the
unconquerable libarty-loving, Sod
fearing, individual man If ypn desire
to commune face to face with the
shade of such a man. you may find it
IN the graveyard of any one o. the an
cient New England townships in which
your forefatherS We're born. IN the in
Vlslpie soul of every such local COM
munity the idea was rooted that the
source of ali power and authority in
cnurch and State was the sovereign
christian man, elect of God and dcstin-
ed to eternal life, whose most sacred
duty involved the assertion even unto
death OF his private judgment in all
matters OF conscience against every
form OF religious or political belief that
princes and prelateS might attempt to
force upon him. In such a man the
entire conception of duty rested upon
the idea of individual responsibility,
and in order to secure proper field
Tor Its exercise, your forefathers and
mine came into desert where they
could not be oppressed by star chamber
proceedings to restrain their personal
liberty, by ecclesiastical codes to ham
per their faith, or by trusts and mono
poles to limit their right to trade and
barter with each other.
In withdrawing from the struggle
for individual liberty at home their
purpose was TO re-create here a system
OF government in which the immemo-
rial rights and liberties of the citizen
as def1ned in the English law should
! be limited to the smallest possible pos
slple extent by the paternal powers of
the State. The cornerstone of the whole
fabric was thus made to rest upon an
individualism that signified the right
OF every free man to work out his own
destiny unbridled and unfettered by the
power of the State either to enrich
him upon the one hand or to rob him
on the other. That intense Individual
ism, resting upon a perfect faith in
manhood and in the might of man. was
/ the germ. of our national life out of
which has grown the mighty tree of
liberty under law in whose protecting
shade the down-trodden and oppressed
from every land and every cline have
found refuge and home.