The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1899-02-23

certain among the Powers of earth, who
would dispute with arms, each others
possession of a Pacific empire from which
that ocean can be ruled The blood al
ready shed is but a drop to that which
would flow if America should desert it's
post in the Pacific. And the blood already
spilled was poured out upon the altar of
the worlds regeneration. Manila is as
no bic as Omdurman, and both are holier
than Jericho. Retreat from the Philip
pines on any pretext would be the master
cowardice of history. 1t would be the be-
trayal of a trust as sacred as humanity.
1t would be crime against Christian civ
ilMation, and would mark the beginning
of the decadence of our race. And so,
thank God, the republic never retreats.
The fervent moral resolve throughout
the republic is not "a fever of expansion
II is tremendous awakening of the peo-
pie, like that of Elizabethan England. 1t
is no fever, but the hot blood of the most
magnificent young manhood of all times
manhood begotten while yet the splen-
did moral passion of the war for national
life filled the thought of all land with
ideals worth dying for, and charged its
very atmosphere with noble purposes and
a courage which dared put destiny to the
touch; manhood which contains mil
lion RoOsevelts, Woods and Fobsons, who
grleve that they, too, may not SO cODspic-
uously serve their country. civilization
and mankind Indeed, these heroes are
great because they are typical Amer
can manhood day contains the master
administrators Of the world And they
60 forth in the healing of the nations
They 60 forth in the cause of civilization.
''lmperialism Is not the word for our
vast work. imperialism as used by the
oppuserS of national greatness. means op-
preston, and we Cypress not. Imperial
ism, as used by the opposers of national
destiny, means monarchy, and the days of
monarchy are past Imperialism, as used
by the opposers of national progress. is a
word to brighten the faint of heart, and SO
is powelless with the fearless American
people Who honestly believes that the
liberti- of eighty million American will
be destroyed because the republic admin
listers civilization to the Philippines? Who
honestly believes that free institutions are
stricken unto death because the republic,
under God, takes its place as the first
Power OF the world? Who honestly be
lieves that we plung to our doom, when
J
prepared by Higher Wisdom than oar
own? Those who believe have lost their
faith in the Immortality of liberty. Those
who SO believe deny the vitality of the
American people. Those who so believe
have lost the reckoning of events, and think
1t sunset when it is, in truth, only the
breaking of another day-the day OF the
greater republic, dawning as dawns the
twentieth century.
THE republic never retreats. Its flag
is the only flag that has never known de-
feat. Where that flag leads we follow, for
we know that the hand that bears it on
ward is the unseen hand of God. We fol-
low the flag and independence is ours
We follow the flag and nationality is ours.
We follow the flag and oceans are ruled.
We follow the flag and, in Occident and
Orient, tyranny falls and barbarism is
subdued. We follow the flag at Trenton
and Valley Forge, at Saratoga and upon
the crimson seas, at Buena Vista and
Chapultepec, at Gettysburg and Mission
Ridge, at Santiago and Manila, and every
where and always it means liberty, nobler
opportunity and greater human happiness
for everywhere and always it means the
blessings of the greater republic. And SO
God leads, we follow the flag, and the re-
public never retreats"