Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1899-03-30
hard BLOWS FOR EXPANSION.

one OF the speakers at inc recent ulnner
of the Liberal Club of Buffalo, N. Y.
His subject was 1.-THE Spanish War;"
and in the course of his remarks he
said:
1t is a universal law that no family
or nation will prosper whose foundation
ideas are not harmonious and
consistent. If conflicting, there is
nothing more certain than that trouble
will follow. Our own history furnishes
tremendous lesson in this direction.
We commenced our national life de.
claring, us its foundation principle,
that all men wero created equal; that
they possessed inalienable rights-life
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
But we tolerated u conflicting thought.
Wo attempted to limit our foundation
principle to white men and deny 1t to
black. 1t was compromise. 1t seemed
small matter The antagonism would
disappear with time. But we forgot
that ideas are living forces.
William Fl. Seward OWNED the whole
situation when he affirmed an ire
pressible conflict" Abraham Lincoln
saw tho inevitable struggle when he
declared that this nation could not
endure half slave and half free. And
after nearly century we paid the
penalty in tho awful sacrifice of the
Civil War.
Shall we forget tho lesson of the past?
Shall We say ii is u trifling matter to
introduce into the life of this nation,
which allirms that government derives
all its powers from the consent of the
governed, the thought that that is true
of only one race and not of all? That
| the consent of the governed may be
recognized fo- one portion and one race
and repudiated for another portion and
another race within the same dominion?
Government by consent and govern
ment by force, no matter how well the
government may be administered, are
two essentially antagonistic principles.
| Doubtless no immediate conflict will
follow. We may see large measure of
prosperity: but are we not sowing the
seeds which in the days to come will
grow up into u harvest of trouble for
our children and our childlren's chill
dren?
The possibility is not changed by
tho unquestioned fact that the Anglo
Saxon race has the capacity for govern
ing other races, nor 10y the singular
prosperity which has attended England
in her colonial system. In comparing
the two nations it must be remembered
that England's colonial system COM
menced when the king was one in fact
as well as in name. The consent of the
governed was only little factor in
English life when she first reached Out
her hand to subdue and control other
races. 1t was no more for the king tC
govern Canada and India than it was
for him to govern England; and, while
the consent of the governed has beer
struggling and growing in England II
has not even yet become the single,
dominant, controlling fact of thai
nations life; so that the antagonist
between the two ideas of government
by consent and government by force
has never, in that empire, been fully
developed.
With us the case is different. w,
stand consecrated to the single political
idea of government 10y the consent o
the governed. To introduce into til,
life Of the nation the other thought o
outset, to preciEitate conflict which
sooner or later, must inevitably resul
in disaster.
Neither have we been so successful
in our treatment of dependent races il
; the past as to justify any exalted OK
!; pectations for the future. We hav
, , called the Indian tribes the wards o
the nation, and our best citizens hav
striven from the beginning of the gov
ernment to the present time to secure t
them their rights, and with what result
The eccentric Congressman from Ne'
Hampshire is credited with the state
ment that the Puritans marched anon
the Indians with Bible in one han
and rifle in the other. They con
verified those they could with the on
c and disposed of the rest with the Other
a Helen Hunt has told the story of on
4 dealings with these tribes in boo
h which she entities "a Century of Dis
a honor" Are we entirely sure that
century of dishonor in respect
), savages near at home will not be TO
! lowed by a millennium of dishonor
i. respect to those beyond the seas?
To hear some talk you would thin
/ that all the influences going out frol
this Christian nation to the heathe
"a have been Christian, purifying
n elevating; but the fact is that eve
"a from Puritan New England there ha,
& gone more hogsheads of rum than mi
d sionarIes, more gallons of whisky tina
IS Bibles. If anyone imagines that tn
= will be changed when we come in
a control of the Philippines and atteml
n to rule them, that thereafter only mi
h sionaries and Bibles will pass thith
ii from America. he sadly undertakes II
ar locomotive capacity of the devil.
IS The safety of government by Il
4 people has been in local self-gover
te ment. The town meeting has pc
Re petuated the Republic. Thus far Il
| CfuN nnla
system have been dopinated by ra
r capable of self-government. Introdu
h into that system tomorrow u multitu,
6. OF States whose people are confessed
Il incapable of salf-government and y,
nj will bury it beneath the burden
local incapacity. A chain is
stronger than its weakest link, and
Federal system, some of whose lin
are composed Of States incapable
~ self-control, will, unless all the la
of human action are reversed, break
"a pieces through the weakness of I
le, incapable links. We have had Il
OF ritories and kept them in state
", tutelage, but that status was &C
IL tinued, not until the residents there
he became capable OF self-governmei
et, but until the number of the poT
Dr. lation was sufficient to justify
ter Stunning the burdens of statehoc
to Territorial organizations, probationa
lr- as they are, for races incapable of Sc
W. government not only repudiate [
las basic thought of the national life, /
lg. remain constant and increasi
ion menace TO its successful accompli.
DOL ment. Who can tell how many C,
be turtles must pass before the savage a
md semi-civilized races of these islal
be become fit to assume the responsible