The Irish standard., 1900-10-13
The Real Issue in the Campaign
Before the People.
IS NOT THB POLICY OF JEFFERSON
M'Kinley is Taking Useless and
Remote Territory.

| The following extracts from the
great speech of Bourke Cochran at the
Chicago Coliseum are worth reading:
"Statcd in it's very narrowcst COM
pass, the issue before the American
people is the right of this government
to seize distant territory. govern it
against the will of it's inhabitants, not
under our constitutional government
but through oiiiceholders to be named
by the president, who will administer
their functions outside the constitu-
tion and Independently of it's limits.
"There is the issue. We would have
little difficulty in disposing of it If it
were not for the bewildcring and in
toXicatng effects of certain express
sions which we find the president Of
the United States justfying his actions
by referring to the Louisiana pur-
chase.
because the United States have eX-
panded their form of government over
the western territory he undertakes to
say that this annexation of islands be-
yond the sea, which are not to be gov
crncd according to our constitutional
system, is also expansion, and, by that
use of the word, seeks to Justify by Il
precedent of liberty IN attempt at sub
iugation and conquest which is an out
rage.
"ro think that such system should
ever have been submitted to the Amer
can people and attempted to he justi
| fled by the purchase of Louisiana is,
perhaps, the most extraordinary in
stance in our history.
"You will observe, my friends, that
the republican party in the attempt to
justify It's course by Jefferson's exam
pie proceeds upon the assumption that
when he declared in the declaration Of
independence that the consent of the
governed was the sole foundation Of
authority he did not mean what he
said. That is to say, it argues that
this country, the most civilizing in
ilucncc in the history of mankind, was
born with Il lie upon it's lips
ut is difficult to discuss that patient
ly, and yet, il this statement were
true, if the purchase of Louisiana by
jefferson were IN any way analogous
to the enterprise in which Mr.. McKin-
ley is now engaged and on which he
has launched this people, should hesi-
tate to condemn it, because anything
which formed feature of q; policy Of
this government for 100 years, in view
Of the results which this government
has borne, could hardly he considered
prc,j,ldicial to liberty or dangerous to
progress.
"But it is not true. No two trans
actions could have been more dissin-
| liar than the expansion of Jefferson
and the Imperialism of Mckinley. So
much has been said Oh the question
that if you will allow me l will state
this evening briefly as l can the actual
facts of that momentous transaction,
so that hereafter every person in this
hall who shall hear the sacred name Of
Jefferson to justify the deal Of NIcKin-
Icy will find the means Of rcfuting the
slandcr and of confounding the person
who discredits the most illustrious
name in American history.
"You will remember that when the
independence of this country was
achieved the western boundary of the
United States was the center Of the
Mississippi river and the southern
boundary was the thirty-first parallel
of north latitude. Its southern bound
ary in those days was not the Gulf Of
Mexico. 1t did not touch the Gulf of
Mexico at any part. Between the
southcrly lines of the union laid the
Flordas and Louisiana, all Spanish
territory.
"There were no means Of navigating
from the United States to the gulf,
except by the permission Of the Span
ish authorities. AS far back as the
period of the revolutionary war the
United States had been negotiating for
right Of navigation through the
mouth Of the Mississippi through Span
ish territory to the gulf. For you will
remember that while Louisiana slaid
mainly on the western bank of the
Mississippi at the thirty-frst parallel
it crossed and extended eastward to
the western boundary of Florida and
covered both banks Of the river to ito