Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1900-08-23
THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPIrB.JCs,

THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLICS.
I am in most hearty sympathy with
the struggle for liberty being made
by the patriots of the South African
republics. IL is a matter of profound
regret that during all the months that
the British empire has been marshall
ing it's armies to ovcrwhelm these fee
BILE republics, there should have been
no friendly expression by any Official
at Washington. These heroic men in
South Africa are slowly but sullenly
retiring before the conquering armies
of Great Britain. II the contest were
somewhat equally matched. the occa-
sion for sympathy might not be so ex.
| igent. IL is not so, however. England
has resources in men, at least 100 to
| 1, and yet these burgbers. who sprung
| from the great Teutonic race, have
held England in check for months,
and made fight for liberty that
should challenge the admiration oil
| the world.
| These people have demonstrated
their capacity for self-government by
the establishment of republics. but
because they are few in numbers, En-
gland wages a cruel war, which must
be practically one of determination
before the Beers will surrender their
homes and firesides. IL would seem
that every American, familiar with
the story of Concord and Lexington,
and Bunker Hill and Valley Forge
and Yorktown, would sympathizs
with this liberty-loving people. / be-
lieye the hearts of the great masses
| of the people do beat in unison with
| them, but the administration at Wash
ington is so entangled with under
standings and alliances with Great
| Britain, which exist, If not IN words,
yet in spirit, that the republican par
| ty is powerless to voice the over
whelming sentiment of our people
| Abraham Lincoln uttered an axio-
| matte truth in 1861 in Independence
hall when he said: What constitutes
/ the bulwark of our own liberty and
| independence? 1t is not our browning
battIements. our bristling seacoasts,
Il
our relianees against danger. All of
these may be turned against us with
| out making us weaker for the strug-
| gle. Our reliance is in the love OF
| liberty which God has planted in us.
| Our defense is in The spirit which
prizes liberty as the heritage of all
men in all lands, everywhere. Destroy
this spirit, and you have planted the
seed of despotism at your own doors.
| Familiarize yourself with the chains
of bondage, and you prepare your
own limbs to wear them. Accustomed
| to trample on the rights of others,
you have lost the strength of your
own independence. and become the
| fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant
who rises among you" / have quoted
the mightiest statesman of the repub-
| lican party, because the utterance ap-
| plies with equal force to the South
/ African situation, and to the policy
of the republican party in respect to
Porto Rico and the Philippine is
lands. Mr.. Lincoln also said mo man
is good enough to govern another
man without that others consent.
| When the white man governs himself,
| that is self-government: but when he
| governs himself and also governs an
| other man, that is more than self-gov-
ernment-that is despotism. Our re-
| lance is in the love of liberty which
God has planted in us; our defense
is in the spirit which prizes liberty as
the heritage of all men, in all lands,
everywhere"
Ii seems that these opinions of the
great captain of the republican party
should inspire that organization, and
| yet on the occasion of the recent Hi
nois state republican convention a res
olution of sympathy for the Beers
was greeted with derisive boots and
| jeers. And Illinois is the state which
| gave Lincoln to the Union, and be-
| meath whose soil rests his illustrious
| ashes! Is it any wonder that Harrison,
| Hoar. Schurz. Sherman, Henderson.
Wellington, Edmunds, Boutwell,, Hale.
| Reed and others who have been great
leaders of the republican party should
/ endeavor to call a halt in the mad
/ race of the present leadership of that
| party for worldwide empire?
| The armies of the English empire
are slowly but surely crushing the ex-
piring South African republics. Liber-
I ty there will soon exist as memory
| only. The war seems to be nearing
its close. and the tattered remnants
of that heroic band of patriots must
| soon seek homes elsewhere. Let this
republic extend a cordial handgrasp
and welcome them to this old-time
asylum of liberty. The democratic
party bids them welcome, but il they
come, November will determine
whether their lot shall be cast in a
free republic or in a colonial empire,
patterned after the mighty empire
which has just deprived them of home
and liberty.
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL EXTRAv-
| AGANCE.
Mr.. Chairman and fellow-citizens,
| there is another issue raised by the
national democratic platform of COM
manding interest to the people The
| denunciation of continued war taxes,
after the war has closed. and the Law
ish appropriations of the republican
congress are exceedingly timely.
We have already reached an enor.
Gus total of federal appropriations
amounting practically to the confisca-
ton of large part of the earnings of
the people. Year after year the re-
publican party has been warned, even
by some of its own conserva-
tive leaders, that a halt must be
called upon the ever increasing scale
of national expenditures. The warn
ing has thus far fallen upon deaf cara
Appropriation follows appropriation
with ever accelerating speed, until
now the liabilities imposed by single
congress are so stupendous as to be
almost beyond the power of computa-
ton. The appropriations of the first
session of the last republican con.
gress, excluding all the estimated
amounts necessary for the army and