Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1899-01-05

President Cleveland for war would
have been accepted. But in 1898 the
purpose of Washington is accomplish
ed We have a war with Spain, and
France would help her because she
owns Spanish securities, because of
ties of blood and because of relations
of contiguity; Russia, Germany,
italy. Austria would help her for dy-
nastic considerations. England alone
stands aloof; England refuses to join
in an effort to have the navies of the
world intervene; England alone says,
''if you intervene without us we will
be with our navy on the side of the
United States The closing days of
1898 witness a fraternal relation and
a full and complete understanding
between the Englishspeaking peoples
of the world. 1t sees America
and Great Britain together the
controlling powers for civiliza-
ton, for liberty and for com
merce. If, as | believe, those who
have gone before in their spirit lives
follow in the family those they love
and in affairs the things in which they
were interested, Washington has the
qualification of seeing the prophetic
purpose of his malIgned intentions OF
1896 fulfilled in 1s9S.
The evolution of the administration
of the affairs of the American repub-
| lie has been for 100 years toward ma
| tional supremacy. Hamilton's rem
! edy has worked the cure of state
rights From the war of 1912 came
to the presidency its hero, Gen. Jack
son. His prestige and personality
| enabled him to suppress the South
| Carolinian assertion of the original
doctrine, came near hanging John {.
| Calhoun. and condensed in an epigram
! the philosophy of the future. by
| the Eternal" said the old soldier,
"the Federal Union. it must and ii
| shall be preserved BY the
war with Mexico in 1916 our coun-
try acquired vast territories, organ
lied for them governments and ad-
ministered them from Washington
for years without regard to the
wishes of the inhabitants With the
! close of the civil war, during which
Abraham Lincoln was both president
and commanderin-chief, Federal
power began to rapidly crystalline in
the president. Now, in 1898, at the
close of the Spanish war, the presi-
dent of the United States possesses
and exercises an authority beyond
! that of any ruler in the world except
the car of Russia, and without ques-
! ton from any source.
From Washington to Mckinley we
! have evoluted from the weakest form
of federation to the most concentrate
| ed one of executive Capitalization.
! Just here the difference between
! American liberty and autocracy or
! hereditary sovereignty in any form
| becomes brilliantly conspicuous. The
ma jestic presidential office, with its
supreme and unequaled powers, at
the end of every four years is sur
rendered to the people. The office
remains, the power remains, the man
is eliminated. The people again and
again select the chief magistrate tcl
whom they shall confide this tremen-
| dOuS responsibility.
We face at this ChTistmastide ques-
tions as vital to the future of our
country as any which in the past have
! been met and successfully answered.
! The federation of Washington in 179S
! has developed into the United States
! of 1898, with that inherent power
! which is always attached to national
! sovereignty, of acquiring territory by
| conquest or cession. No constitu-
tional lawyer will doubt this power.
| | do not think any body of constitu-
tional lawyers will doubt that
among the reserved powers of SOW
| i,h hal tn n
lion. is the right to administer the
! affairs of territories acquired by con-
| quest or by cession, under such form
! of government as congress and the
| executive may prescribe. But to great
numbers of wise and good people. to
| govern any of the possessions of the
| United States. except as the people
! WOUld govern themselves, seems illOgi-
| ca! .tGd contrary to the Declaration of
| Ind cndence and the constitution of
! tAe alted States. War is illogical 1t
| via.aGCS the injunction of the Great
! Na%.tr. Peace on earth, good Will to
| mCi Revolutions are illogical. They
| Overturn the existing order of things.
! That the feet of Admiral Cervera, com
| ing oGt of the harbor of Santiago and
meeting an American fleet of nearly
equal strength. should have been sunk
| in thirteen minutes, with a loss of
| half its officers and crews, while the
| American fleet lost but one man and
| received no damage to any vessel is
| illogical. 1t is against the traditions
| of war. That Dewey, with six crus-
ers, should have sailed unharmed past
the forts in Manila bay and captured
| and destroyed thirteen Spanish men
of war without the loss of man is
| illogical, according TO the calculations
of war Destiny knows no logic.
Providence, in the wise purposes
which it has for nations, makes the
precedentS and conditions from which
alone the logic of these conditions can
be argued. We make war against a
foreign power, and for the first time
in the history of the world solely for
humanity. The world cannot under