The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-16


ican political history with the celebration
of the independence of the United States.
Events are crowded into the receEd of
the nineteenth century, now about to close,
which signalize this as the most import
ant period in the history of the world since
the Inauguration of the Christian era.
In this series of great events, in which all
nations have had some peculiar share and
have underground changes that were not
forseen, which have opened up new fields
of national endeavor and new theaters of
action for statesmen and armies, none have
been greater or more influential in human
progress and in lifting up the nations to
higher planes of development than the
growth of the Republic of the United States
of America.
principle of true government was
planted in America, which terminated and
took root in a country that seems to have
been reserved for that purpose and, in its
twenty-ffth year, it was ready to present,
protect and defend it's right to stand in
the front rank of nations, ana to proclaim
its championship of free, constitutional re-
publican government for the benefit of all
mankind.
From the beginning its growth has been
a logical, natural and irresistible eXpan-
sion. AS the oak grows and expands in the
forest, without other than natural forces
to sustain it, and extends its branches to
shelter and yield its fruit to nourish what
ever is dependent upon its benefactions
this republic has grown and expanded to
meet and accomplish the purposes of its
creation. fit is a good tree and brings
forth good fruit it's growth should not be
stopped or retarded because it may cover
the ground where evil weeds will other
wise spring up to curse mankind.
On the Fourth day of July, in the year
$780, our people met at various centers to
celebrate their independence and to con-
template the task that new country
opened to them in sustaining a government
that monarchs sneered at as the folly of
democracy run mad and great states
men who were impartial could only concede
to it the indulgent title of an honest ex-
pertinent.
The terrible orgies of the French revo-
luton justified the monarchs in their de-
nuciatons of the republican government as
1t was projected in Europe, and the First
Empire,-hnilt upon the smoking ruins OF
the first French Republic, rose up in a
dreadful splendor which alarmed our peo-
pie as to the fate of our own Republic.
Great Britain then held the ground to
the north of the center of the great lakes,
and claimed its extension west of the Mis-
sssippi to the Pacific ocean. Spain and
France held in rapid succession all the
coasts of the Gulf of Mexico and the mouth
of the Mississippi river, their possessions
reaching far back into the interior, and
excluding Georgia and the Alabama and
Mississippi territories from access to the
Gulf and the South Atlantic
All of the great interior-a vast and I'M
explored wilderness-was occupied by war;
like tribes of Indians, who We're in constant
alliance with the French, Spanish and
British governments; all of whom stood
ready whenever occasion should present to
vex and harrass our frontier settlements
with the cruelties of savage warfare.
Our country then seemed to be far too
extensive for our meager and widely scat
tered population, and its military defense
against the great monarches that were
even in it's infancy jealous of the success
and alarmed at the new plan of it's gov
eminent, seemed to be almost hopeless
task. In that day and under those condi-
lions the suggestion OF a further expa~
sion of territorial area to include the
whole length of the Mississippi river and
beyond, to the mouth of the Columbia, and
"the far off Oregon" and the Gulf coast
from the Sabine to the Perdido, was re-
ceived with alarm even by the heroic peo-
pie whose faith had been strengthened and
whose sinews had been seasoned and whose
souls had been lighted up with glorious
courage in the struggles of the war of the
stood abashed and alarmed when Thomas
Jefferson proposed this wild scheme of ex-
panson-the purchase of a vast wilderness
that, in their belief, would not be occupied
by our people within the period of a hun
dred years, and at the cost of ten million
dollars to nav for It. They were astound-
ed and confused at the audacity of II
movement and began to search the con-
stitution for some prohibition of the recl-
less scheme. They had plausible grounds
for their contention, and of such apparent
solidity that, appealing to Jefferson's theo-
ry of strict construction, they even alarmed
him into doubts as to the constitutionality
of the measure, which he solemnly declared
was indispensable to the safety of the re-
public.
Some of the agitated people at first whis-
pered and then fiercely proclaimed that the
movement was reasonable, and that JEFF
ferson, in league with Napoleon was fol-
lowing him in the effort to convert the
Republic into monarchy.
Mr.. Jefferson was the boldest advocate
of the doctrine which limited the powers
of congress and of all executive officers
to the express grants found in the consti-
tuition, and he was the first executive who
found 1t necessary for the safety of the Re-
public, in its future growth. to refuse to
apply that doctrine to our international re-
lations. He found in the consent of the
senate and in the approval of the legis-
latufe ana the people a sufficient warrant
for the first and greatest act of expansion
to which we have committed ourselves
The arguments and threats leveled at
usurpation, and those based on the grounds
of inconvenience, and upon the admission
of savage enemies to the right of protec-
ton under our flag; with all the others that
are now so earnestly urged against expan-
sion, and then, as now, grouped In the cpl
thet OF imperialism" all failed to shake
Jenerson's resolution to save the Republic
from death by hamilton, and from the
abandonment of national duty; and he trf-
umphed in its salvation. ..
This act of bold foreign policy performed
by republic that was In its infancy and
weak In its resources and in the confidence
OF mankind was the first distinctive proof
that the new government had lived be-
yond Its experimental stage, and was az
brave as the bravest and would become as
strong as the strongest. The youthful pres
ident OF an infant state planted its flag on
the highest pinnacle of sovereign power.
and gathered within its rightful domain a
vast and rich territory that TEMPTED seri
oUsly the greatest monarchies 10 uore 80