The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-03-10
CAFFERY ON EXPANSION
Self the Key of
American Liberty.
INHERITANCE OF FREEDOM
Imperialism a Menace to Our Institu-
tions-The Dark Counsel of Dead
Fatalism-The Wrong of the
Paris Treaty,

Boston, March a.-The members of
the Massachusetts Reform club had as
their guest at the regular monthly
banquet tonight Donelson Caffery,
senator from Louisiana. The meeting
was we'll attended. Moorefield Storey
presided Many portions of Senator
Catferys speech were loudly applauded.
Senator Caffery spoke to the toast
THE Duty of Public Man-to Him
self to His District or State, and to
His Country" In the course of his
speech he said:
"Our simple minded ancestors left the
shores of the old world with the set
purpose of living in a new world of
freedom They builded. in the course
of time, a government whose corner
stone rests upon the consent of the
governed. They have, into every state
government, erected beneath the folds
of their starry banner. incorporated
this living principle of self government
They have widened their borders so as
to embrace vast extent Of practically
co-terminus territory and erected it
into sovereign states, where this self
governing principle is recognized and
enforced.
Not until the fires Of liberty cease
to burn; not until our race forgets its
inheritance Of freedom: not until that
eternal vigilance which is it's price
sleeps on it's post, bedrugged with i'm
perialism and expansion and all the
parasites and crawling things of tyr
amy and empire will this energizing,
essential, vital principle leave our
breasts and cease to be a governing
principle of our republic.
when that time comes Mr. Chair
man, let the destiny that overtakes the
degenerate, the power loving, the wor-
shippers of Mammon, the followers of
Moloch overtake us. as surely it will
overtake US. The principle of self gov
eminent is our cnliseum-while it
stands, the republic shall stand: when
1t falls, liberty shall perish from the
earth. setfr''
1T is left. sHs in the closing hours
of the nineteenth century to clothe tyr
amy and criminal aggression in the cast
off clothes of Asiatic and Egyptian Ia
talism. Are we to take for the guide
of our national life the enlightened fac
tor of a living human conscience or the
dark counsel of dead fatalism? Shall
nature and free viii both be bound in
the chain of 'destiny?' All. sir the star
of empire has lured conquerors and
states to ruin
1T is not too late to repair the wrong
of the treaty OF Paris. The better
sense of the American people, not the
promoters, the jobbers, the franchise
hunters, the placemen, the searchers
after glory, may come to the rescue of
our imperiled institutions.
God grant they may come soon. The
duty of the legislator to his state and
to his country consists first. in squar-
ing every act and vote with the con-
stitution, which he is sworn to sup
pert: second, in performing every act,
and giving every vote. in all consti-
tutional legislation. under the sanction
and approval of an honest conviction of
right. Neither fiattery nor threats. nor
censure must sway him from the right.
His party may condemn: conventions
and meetings may censure; friends and
enemies alike may try to persuade. but
conscience and judgment must rule"
Charles Francis Adams followed in
the same vein. A number of other
members of the club discussed the fu-
ture policy Of the government.