Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1899-03-03
is 1T DESTINY?
Mr.. Bryan Speaks before
the Virginia Demo-
Gratis Association in
Washington.

OF our government or tno canOnS OF
morality; when they are unable to
defend it upon the ground of religi
OILS duty or pecuniary profit, they
fall back in despair upon the asser
ton that it is destiny. Suppose it
does violate the constitution they
say: Suppose it breaks all the com.
mandments. Suppose it does entail
upon the nation an incalculable ex
penditure of blood and money; it is
destiny and we must submit
''The people have not voted for
imperialism; no national convention
has declared for it; no Congress has
passed upon it. To whom, then, has
the future been revealed? We can
all prophesy, but our prophesies are
merely guesses, colored by our hopes
and our surroundings, Mans opin
ion Of what is to be it half wish and
half environment. Avarice paints
destiny with dollar mark before it,
militarism equips it with a sword.
"He is the best prophet who, re-
cognizing th omnipotence of truth,
compartments most clearly the great
forces which are working out the
progress, not of one party, not of one
nation, but of the human race.
History is replete with predic
,ions which once were the hue of
destiny, but which failed of fulfill
ment because those who uttered
them saw too smal an arc OF the circle
of events. When Pharoah pursued
the fleeing Israelites to the edge of
the Red Sea he was confident that
their bondage should be renewed
and that they would again make
bricks without straw, but destiny was
not revealed until Moses and his
followers reached the further shore
dry shod end the waves rolled over
the horses aud chariots of the
Egyptians. When Belshazzer, on
the last night of his reign, led bis
thousand lords into the Babylonian
banquet hall and sat down to table
glittering with vessels of silver aud
gold. .id felt sure of his kingdom for
many years TO come, but destiny Was
hot revealed until the hand wrote
upon the wall those aweinspiring <
words, Meme, Mem Tekel Upharsin.
When Abderohman swept north
ward with his conquering hosts his
imagination saw the Crescent tri.
umphant throughout the world, but
destiny was not revealed until Chas.
Martel raised the cross above the
. battlefield of Tours and saved Europe
= from tho sword of Mohammedanism.
When Napoleon emerged victorious
from Marengo, from Ulm and from
Austeriltz, lie thought himself the
child of destiny, but destiny was not
revealed until Butchers forces
?oined the army of Wellington and
the vanquished Corsican began his
melancholy march to ST. Helena
When the readcoats Of George the
1h.rd, routed the New Englauders
at Lexington and Bunker Hill, there
rose before the British sovereign Wis
sions of colonies taxed without rep
resentation and drained of theii
wealtE by foreign made laws, bu
destiny was not revealed until the
surrender OF CORVALLIS completed
the work begun at Independnec CO
Hall and usheeed In to existence
government deriving its just power
from the consent of the governed
ANOTHER CRISIS.
"We have reached another crisi4
The ancient doctrine of imperitism
baBNhed from our land more thai
q Century ago, has re crossed th
Atlantic aud challenged democrac
tormortal combat upon America
soil Whether the Spanish wa
shall be known in history as wa
for liberty or as War Of conquest
whether the principles of self govern
ment shall be strengthened or abaI
doned; whether this nation shall rt
mai, homogeneous republic c
become heterogeneous empire
these questions must be answere
~ the American -people-when the
speak, aud not until then, will de
tiny be revealed.
DESTINY is not a matter of chanc
lit is a matter of choice; it is not
1tl...x - l,o xx al rad for ~ - q Thin