Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1899-12-22

republic of the United states peculiarly
so. else our boast has been without war
rant and the character Of this democracy
has deteriorated. This thought will be
present with ALI In whom the sense OF
public responsibility has been adequately
developed. How goes it with the great
experiment in democracy?
We have been drifting into strange
situations and adventures without pre-
cedent. In the distant East there are
60, 900 of our soldiers and many trans
ports and war ships concentrated to do
battle with the inhabitants of the Philip
pine islands. In the woe that falls upon
those far-away and alien people we
share, for the men of America suffer and
die in the encounter, and the distress OF
it enters our homes. The fact the pre-
sent war and devastation surpasses any
thing which Spain wrought there is
solemn and startling. Propinquity and
the slow advance into this state of things
has dulled our apprehension of the sum
of the facts, but there is upon us the
moral obligation to see and apprehend
them. There are those who Joy in the
fie-ceness of the situation and its strenu-
Gus length and breadth, while others
look beyond to point with cold and
heartless rapacty to the selfish benefits
they believe are to be won. But deeper
than these, more profound and masterful
than they, are the sound, right-thinking
masses of good Americans who are
troubled and sore and doubtful with it
all.
TO what do we drift? To deny that
we have drifted, that the war with
Spain has carried us whittier we would
not have gone, is to refuse to credit the
words of the president of the United
States. Whatever the forces which have
prevailed, he has, step by step and act
by act, gone steadily beyond the pur-
poses which he professed and the re-
assurances which he has given. Already
great landmarks of the republic have
been left behind, and we have been
hidden to regard them not. There has
come about an official disposition to cry
down all who stand by the oli-time re-
publican principles as pessimists and
traitors-to what? The same demand
that we give to those people in the
island of Luzon, who were, in the words
of Dewey, better fitted for self-govern-
ment than the ubans, the same unselfish
pledge that cleared our path in Cuba
this rational program was rejected.
What the outcome has been we see, as
ing to the uttermost all the machinery of
local government that kept peace and
conserved its benefits. The mistake has
been a dreadful one, and the outlook
today tells it so. The head of the So
called republic fees for his life, with his
dead child and lost mother in his
wake, sad and moving spectacle for
this Thanksgiving day.
And so we-the natlOn-press on to
assert our mastery over and to dominate,
with many professions of good will, the
lands we bought of Spain. Thus we
meet today under benignant proclaim.
alton which dwells with particular
emphasis upon our cordial fellowship
with all the nations of the earth. The
traversity of this ofiicialism cannot
escape the thought of the people. Con-
science will question, debate and weigh
1t all Our good friend, England, too,
has her troubles like unto ours, domes-
tic disturbances all having their root in
asserted sovereignty over unwilling peo-
piles. The strange partnership proceeds
on England's lines and not on ours, for
the moral domination of an Anglo-Saxon
alliance is and must be hers and not
ours. The differentiation that began
with the American Revelation must pro.
coed, or be wiped out-there is no other
alternative, and no escape from the
obliteratiOn Of our old principles IL the
new doctrines and the new policies are
to prevail. What is at issue, the root of
the present situation, deny it who may,
is the foundation principle of self
government. All the story of the ma.
tions is conclusive that this Is not an i'm
position, but a development, growth
from within.
So then we get to the source of our
embarrassments in radical departure
from this theory. Like all great laws
so simple that a child can see it, yet
made need!essly obscure because our
professed craftsmanship has refused to
be governed by the fundamentals OF
republcanism. There was need of
courage ard the strong man. Already
have we gone so far and plunged sc
deeply into another and alien path thai
I the doubt i voiced y .iether the United
States can find anu'her and righteou,
way out than the one which represses
devastates and rules by force of arms
/ Public men of little faith but right in
stincts are perpiexed, good people whC
have relied on President Mckinley are il
grave doubt, and loud and clamorou
selfishness proclaims that we must pres
en- to the bitter end.
Thus we come to Thanksgiving day
1899, and faith seems 10 fail. But RICH
ana justice and deep sensitiveness to tn,
national honor have not yet gone out il
the American people, nor will they il
the long run. The supremacy of tn,
golden rule is still the bright ap(