The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-11-07
PRES. sTEYN'S REASONS
For Taking Up Arms in the Trans
walls Cause.

New York Nov. THE consul gen
eraI of the Orange Free State in this
city, gave out today the full text of
President Steyn's proclamation calling
on the Orange Free State Beers to sup
port the TransvaaI. The proclamation
reads as follows:
"Burghers of the Orange Free State:
The time, which we had 50 much de-
sired to avoid, the moment when we
as a nation are compelled with arms to
oppose injustice and shameless violence,
is at hand. Our sister republic to the
north of the Vaal river is about to be
attacked by an interruptions enemy,
who for many years, has prepared
himself and sought preteXts Tor the
violence of which he is now guilty,
whose purpose it is to destroy the ex-
istence of the Afrikander race.
with our sister republic we are not
only bound by ties of blood, of sym
pathy and of common interests, but
also by formal treaty, which has been
treaty demands of US that we assist her
if she should be unjustly attacked,
which we unfortunately for a long time
have had too much reason to expect.
We therefore can not passively look on
while injustice is done her and While
also our own dearly bought freedom
is endangered, but are called as men to
resist, trusting the Almighty, firmly be-
lieving that he will never permit in
justice and ighteOusness to triumph.
Now, that We thus resist a powerful
enemy, with whom it has always been
our highest desire to live in friendship,
Notwithstanding injustice and wrong
done by him to US in the past, we
sOlemnly declare in the presence of AL
mighty God that we are compelled
thereto by the injustice done to our
kinsmen and by the consciousness that
the end of their independence Will make
our existence as an independent state
of no significance and that their fate
should they be obliged to bend under
an overwhelming power, Will also soon
after be our own fate.
Solemn treaties have not protected
our sister republic against annexation,
against conspiracy, against the claim
Of an abolished suzerainty, against
continuous oppression and interference
and now against a renewed attack
which aims only at her downfall
Our own unfortunate experiences in
the past have also made it sufficiently
on the most solemn promises and
agreement of Great Britain when she
has at her helm a government pre-
pared to trample on treaties, to look for
feigned preteXts for every violation of
good faith by her committed This is
proved among other things by the un-
just and unlawful British intervention
after we had overcome an armed and
barbarOus black tribe on our eastern
frontier, as also by the fOrcible appro-
priatiOn of the dominion over part of
our territory which the discovery of
diamonds had caused the desire for
this appropriation although contrary to
existing treaties. The desire and inten-
ton to trample on our rights as an in
dependent and sovereign nation not
withstanding solemn convention ex-
isting between this state and Great
Britain, have also more than once
adopted and now again are shown bv
the present government by giving ex-
pressiOns in public documents to an
unfOunded claim Of paramouncy over
the whole Of South Africa and therefore
over this state.
with regard to the South African
republic, Great Britain has moreover
refused until the present to allow her
to regain her original position in re-
spect to foreign affairs. a position which
she had lost in no sense by her own
faults The original intention of the
conventions to which the republics had
consented under pressure and circum-
stances has been preferred and cOntiD-
ally been used by the present British
administration as q means for the
practice Of tyranny and Of Injustice
and among other things for the sup
port Of revolutionary propaganda within
the republic for Great Britain.
And while no redress has been Of
fered as justice demands for injustice
done the South African republic on the
part OF the British government and
while no gratitude is exhibited for the
magnanimity shown at the request OF
the British government to British sub
jects who had forfeited under the laws
of the republics their lives and property
yet no feeling Of shame has prevented
the British government. now that the
gold mines of immense value have been
discovered in the country to make
claims of the republic, in consequence
which if allowed viii be that those who
or whose fOrefatherS have saved the
country from barbarism and have won
it for civilization with their blood and