Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-11-06
THE SITUATION IN THE
TRANSVAAL.


forced by the Transvaal upon Great
Britain, the question arises on which
side are American sympathies to be
cast. Officially, the American Gov
eminent is not directly concerned,
and the question of it's neutrality will
scarcely need to be considered. The
war will be entirely on land and inland,
and, seeing that to get to the scene of
war any one would have to pass
through waters and across land actu-
ally Or practically under British con-
troll and in British possession, it is not
to be supposed that even the most
rabid Anglophobes will undertake any
filibustering expeditions to help the
Beers Cypress American settlers in
the Transvaal. The question of pop
ular sympathy is, however, quite an
other matter, and it will doubtless be
variously dealt with. There are some
Americans, including some of the most
worthy and esteemed citizens, who
are of Dutch origin and who, through
influences of consanguinlty, side
strongly with the Beers. There are
others, no less worthy and perhaps
more numerous, who similarly espouse
the British cause. There are, unhap-
PLY, others who are imbued with
blind hatred of Great Britain, and who
for that reason alone side with the
Beers, not that they love the Dutch,
but that they hate the British. But
these are classes. The masses of the
American people will be guided and
governed by broader principles than
these.
They will not in the first place, be
misled by the pretense that the Trans
vaal is republic and Great Britain
an ''effete monarchy" and that,
therefore, Americans should sympa-
thize with the former. They have
only to compare the restricted fran
chise and corrupted courts of the
Transvaal with the universal suffrage
and free, strong judiciary of the Cape
Colony to disabuse themselves of all
such notions. The fact is that the
Transvaal, with citizenship restricted
to minority and with not only relig-
ious but sectarian tests and Hngual
shibboleths hedging in allreal author
ity, is not republic, but particu-
larly narrow and despotic oligarchy.
On the other hand, despite the nomi-
nal monarchy, the British Empire,
whether in Great Britain itself Or in
the self governing colonies, such as
the Cape and Dominion of Canada and
the United States of Australia, is one
of the most complete democracies the
world has ever known. .On the general
ground of form of government, there
fore, American sympathies will natu
rally turn to the British side.
Americans will not fail, moreover,
to observe that the British are con-
tending for much the same principles
that they themselves and their ances- |
tors have contended for in more than
one war. The Outlanders have been |
protesting against taxation without !
and Great Britain is
backing them up in it. 1t was to en-
force that Identical protest that this
nation fought it's first war. Again the
British are contending that British
subject, wherever he be, is entitled to
British protection. Was not that
what the United Staes was fighting for
in 1912? Again, it is said Great Brit
ian has refused arbitration and has in
sisted that the dispute must be settled
between her and the Transvaal with
out alien Intervention. Would we
have accepted alien intervention in
1861? Or would this country have
the settlement gifts dispute
with Mexico to the arbitration of a
European power: Nor, finally, will it
notice that there is similarity
between the Boer counting of war
with Great Britain and the Spanish
course toward the United States. The
Beers declare that Great Britain
forced the war upon them. So the
Spanish complained of the United
States. This country can scarcely ad-
nit the Boer complaint to be we'll
founded without equally admitting
hat of Spain.
In brief, then, Great SBritian is
acting precisely as the United States
would act in her place, precisely as
his country would have to act if it
lid not wish to repudiate it's principles
md its record. That is the great sa
lent, fundamental fact which is like
i
direction in which the overwhelming
mass of American sympathy will be
given. There is, of course, no ground