The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-10-11

rcSS. NOW Inat nag is to change us
meaning, and for the people of Porto
Rico and for ten million Filipinos it is to
represent just the opposite principles. 1t
is to represent despotism. 1t is to rep
resent just what the Spanish flag repre-
sented; and instead of being loved as it
has been during all this time, it is now to
become an object of hatred in that part
of the world
Are there any old soldiers here? Why
did you go to the war in the siXty's?
Why did you kiss your wife and your
babies goodbye, and with gun in hand
set your face toward the South? Why
did you lie in the trenches in Vicksburg?
Why did you fight in the forests Of Ala
bama? Why did you bury your comrade
in Georgia? What did it all mean? What
was it all for? 1t was to destroy the
doctrine that dominant people has the
right to control weaker people, and give
OF the weaker people so much of liberty
as the dominant people may see fit. When
you returned from the South in 50 that
doctrine had been shot to death. You
did it. Are you prepared in the year
nineteen hundred to resurrect and vote
up doctrine that you shot down in '65?
NOT A PARTISAN QUESTION.
This is not partisan question. 1t is
an American question. Shall we preserve
republican institutions, or shall we aban-
don them? The principles of liberty, the
principles of equality, the vigor of lib
eral ideas, have triumphed in every con-
test for the last one hundred and thirty
years. Now they are again in death
struggle. in struggle with the spirit
Of r1nnOnOIu at bpr1n i'm Gtpnoolp
with the spirit of despotism abroad. Shall
we surrender and start on a retrograde
movement? Shall it be written that the
sons of the Revolutionary sires were in
capable of maintaining free government,
and that in one short century the Corrup-
lions of trade and the corrcsions of greed
had destroyed their vitality; shall the
great American republic lie down on the
dusty plains of despotism to die?
The men of New England carried their
ideas westward to the Pacific coast. IN
every school-room, in every court house,
in every library, in every shop in every
city, we see the finger marks of their
genius-the genius of true democracy.
Everything great ever reared by man
rests on this foundation. Young men,
would you serve mankind? Then this is
your only road. Would you win an en-
during fame and live in the bright pages
of the future? Then this is your only
field, this your only stage. From the era
of Pericles to the age of Gladstone. the
worlds heroes have been on the side of
the masses. Examine the calendar Of
saints canonized in the temple of human
ity and you will find not a name that
stood only for force. Even the great
warriors who stood only for repression
are fading from view, while the men who
stood for equality, who stood for liberal
ideas, are becoming fixed stars in the
armament. That wretched class of poll
ticians, who for the sake of temporary
advancement, serve selfish interests, arc
becoming the euspidors of history HUI
mainly is splitting on them. The world
cares nothing for the houses, or lands,
or granaries, or the wealth of the past,
nothing about barbaric display The
golden periods of history were the periods
of liberal ideas. We owe all our glory
and happiness to liberal ideas. Shall we
be true to our high ideals? Shall we re-
store equal opportunities at home, and
give ether people the same right we in
sist on ourselves? Or shall we perpetu-
ate monopoly at home, and deny to other
people rights that we have insisted ON
ourselves?
APPEAL TO YOUNG MEN.
Read the speeches and papers of the
men who founded The republic Yea, read
the speeches of Sumner and Curtis and
Lincoln and the men who made the Re
publican party, and you will find they
treat of justice, they appeal to all that is
noble in man. They are an inspiration.
Then read the speeches of the men who
are now controlling the Republican party,
and YOU will find thew are only husks.