Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1899-07-13


In speech delivered in the House
of Representatives on January 18th,
1s4s, replying to President Folks mes
sage justifying the Mexican War, Abra-
ham Lincoln, then u somewhat obscure
member of Congress from Illinois,
sharply scored the President for the
manifold evasions and elusive argu-
ments contained in the message.
Among other things, he said:
AS to the mode Of terminating the
war and securing peace. the President
is equally wandering and indefinite.
First, 1t is to be done by more rigor-
Gus prosecution OF the war in the vital
parts of the enemy's country and after
apparently talking himself tired on
this point, the President drops down
into q half-despairipg tone, aud tells
us that with people distracted and
divided by contending factions, and a
government subject to constant changes
by successive revolutions, the con-
tinued success of our arms may fail to
secure satisfactory peace. Then he
suggests the propriety OF wheedling the
Mexican people to desert the counsels
OF their own leaders,, and, trusting in
our protestations, to set up a govern
ment from which we can secure salts.
factory peace; telling us that this
may become the only mode of obtain
ing such peace. But soon he falls
into doubt of this, too, and then drops
back on to the already than half
abandoned ground of ''more vigorous
prosecution. All this shows that the
President is in nowise satisfied with
his own positions. First he takes up
one, and in attempting to argue us
into it, he argues himself out of it,
then soizes another and goes through
the same process, and then, confused
at being able to think of nothing new,
he snatches up the old one again which
he has some time before cast off. His
mind, taxed beyond its power, is run
ming hither and thither, like some tor
tured creature on burning surface,
finding no position on which it can
settle down and be at ease.
How well this applies to President
Mckinley and the war in tho Philip
pines. 1t is true that Mckinley has
not yet sent to Congress message OK.
cusing and apclosizing for the war in
the Philippines, but he will do so as
soon as Congress meets, whether in
special called session or at the regular
session in December. Ard judging
from McKinley's course thus far. and
from the manner in which the cause
less war has dragged along, in spite of
the splendid Successes of our brave SOL
diers, the war message Of President
Mckinley to the next Congress is apt
to be about as mystifying, evasive and
unsatisfactory as Abraham Lincoln
found James X. Folks executive deliv-
erance in lS4S.
Abraham Lincoln was the keenest, the
most sagacious, the most farseeing and
the most level headed American of his
day. He was opposed to the Mexican
War, Notwithstanding the enoromus re-
suits that accrued from it in the
acquisition Of contiguous and valuable
territory, without which this country
would not have been complete, and
which was bound, sooner or later, to
become part of the United States.
He conceived it to be war without
Just cause, and opposed it accordingly.
But what would Abraham Lincoln
have thought of such a causeless and
cruel war as the one the Mckinley
administration is now waging against
the patriotic people OF the Philippine
Islands?