The Delawarean., 1900-08-15
INHERITANCE OF OUR BOYS.

Jefferson as President of the United
States. BY sinister coincidence it
lis the first Presidential year in which
the paramount issue is whether the
American people shall make a radical
departure from the principles of the
Declaration of independence and of
THE Constitution framed by the fathers
of the Republic.
This is the paramount issue, with
or without the consent of the politi-
clans and regardless of the prominence
given ito it in one of the leading party
platforms and denied ito 1T in the
other. The paramount character of
an issue is not determined by parties.
1t is inherent in the issue itself. The
greatest issue in any national election
is not created by the fat of political
managers; it is settled by the intrinsic
value lof the issue itself. Whether the
people of the country shall begin the
new century with a fundamentally
new NATIONAL policy, imperial instead
of Republican in principle, European
instead of American in its aims and
methods, is "a question larger and more
vital ito them than any other that can
be presented. Hence it is rightly
called ''the paramount ISSUE"
1t must not be overlooked that the
popular decision of this question next
November is not more momentous for
us than for our posterity. Our child
ren and our children's children
will repoice or lament because of
the decision. The Imperial policy is
one whose consequences, once they are
invoked, will have ito be borne by sue
ceeding generations. If by their bal
lots this year the people endorse the
Mckinley policies we are not merely
irrevocably committed ourselves Ito the
new principles that governments de-
rive their just powers from superior
armed force; that alien Asiatic peoples
may be first bought and subiugated
and then held under our flag as sub
ject colonies and dependencies, Ito be
ruled as Britain rules India and South
Africa as Germany rules Alsace and
lorraine, as France rules Algiers and
Madagascar or as Russia rules Poland
and Finland. In committing ourselves
to such principles and policies we can
not avoid committing the rising and
future generations to them also.
There are some national as there
are some individual 0r~.ss and follies
which, being recognized and repented
of, may be abandoned and their con-
sequences repaired But NO nation has
ever deliberately adopted the imperial
foreign adventure, conquest, colonial
expansion and that spurious CONNER
cial enterprise" which has armies and
navies for its advance agents and huge
war debts for its accompaniment and
been able to turn back. There have
been statesmen in England since Pitt IS
who would have liked to turn their
country back from the policy of mill
tary and naval aggression, by which
its empire building has been carried
on from the days of Wellington and
Nelson to the present time But the
currents of habit, of tradition, of ap-
parent trade interests, and, above all,
of the insatiate appetite of the nation
for power and glory, We're too strong
for them. They were all compelled Ito
go with the stream, so that NO English
| Statesman can now get "a hearing who
pleads for the abandonment of for
eign policy that keeps the nation in a
state of almost perpetual war, with
its never-ending sacrifice of life and
treasure.
Nor can we expect to be exempt
from the operation of the same law
If we choose in November next tC
ratify the Philippine war and commit
ourselves to the pursuit of territorial
and commercial ambitions in the East
by armed force no man living is wise
enough to say in what part of Asia
Africa or Europe the rising generation
of Americans may not be summoned
by the tens of thousands to fight anG
die for the flag which the fathers %!
the Republic dedicated to peace anG
Friendship with all nations, enltang.
ling alliances with none" 1t is for us
to count THE cost 1t will be useless fol
our children when they come OF age
to do so. If we commit them to THE
pathway of Destiny and Duty" mark
ed out by Mr.. Mckinley they will bt
bound, by the same motives of pride
pugnacity, unwillingness Ito retreaf
and commercial greed which keel
England chained Ito the rock of colon
ial empire-building Ito continue in it
/ T ~ IN