The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-11-14


can you do about it?" But "What
do you want to do about it?" Do yol
want slavery to exist forever in this
country or do you want at some time
or other and in some way or other, to
get rid of it; and are you awaiting the
first opportunity that may offer in
Gods providence to take the first prac-
tical step towards its extinction? To
these questions when suggested, at thai
time, the great body of the southern
people and many northern sympathi-
GERS answered one way. The rest of
the nation answered the other way; and
with this division of sentiment matters
stood between 1850 and 1861, while the
evils and dangers of slavery, becoming
more and more apparent and pressing,
were developing that "irreconcileable
conflict" which called in fire and sword
at last to save the nation.
The real question concerning the
Philippines to-day is what it was con-
corning slavery in 1850. Not GLOW can
we practically get rid of them?' But
do we want to get rid Of them?" Do
we want to keep them forever, holding
them in state Of vassaage or admit
ting them at last as states of our I'm
ion? Or do we want to give them indie
pendence at the earliest practicable mo-
ment, stipulating, of course, for such
protection of our naval and commercial
interests in the islands as may be rea-
sonable and proper? In 1850 con-
gress had by a decisive majority
passed resolutions declaring slavery to
Io A,,iI vritI, al In
situations, which, though not immedi-
ately and directly removable, ought to
be restricted and ultimately abolished,
and if the country had adopted and
adhered to that policy the civil war
would probably have been averted II
congress now by the action Of both par
ties (the democratic being already
committed to it) will declare for the ul-
innate independence of the Philippine
Islands, the solution of all attendant
difficulties will easily follow If the re-
publican party in congress or out of 1t
refuses to commit itself to such decla-
ration, the complex problems. racial,
civil, military, religious and constitu-
tional, which already embarrass the adj
ministration, and which have been
carefully kept In the background until
after election, are sure to arouse public
excitement and controversy; the latent
dissatisfaction with the present condi-
ton of affairs will develop into open
opposition, and the republican party
will go to pieces as the whig and demo-
cratic parties went to pieces in the de-
cade following 1850.
This prediction is based not alone on
general principles, but on plain indica-
lions manifested in the presidential
campaign just ended and it's result.
Why is it that McKinleys vote fell off
so largely in the east and the middle
west? There is but one explanation.
Everybody noticed AMI most people I'M
derstood the remarkable apathy which
pervaded the republican party In those
sections from the beginning to the end
of the campaign. The vast Importance
to the country that Bryan should be de-
feated was universally recognized but
the party watch-words were sound
money" and "the full dinner pail" On
these issues alone was 1t possible to
awaken any enthusiasm. The hurrah
made by the spell-bnders over expan-
sion, glory and keeping the flag where
it had once been raised found no echo
in the breasts of the people. On these
subjects even the speakers felt them
selves on the defensive, and their lame
and impotent arguments interested few
and converted nobody. What could be
more absurd, for instance, than the as
sertion that there is no danger of i'm
perialism becoming reality, because
congress will never permit it?" 1mpe-
rialism (Which means the concentration
of all governmental power in one head !
already exists by act of congress both
in the Philippines and in the West In
dies 1t has been established in these
islands from the necessity of the case. i
Colonization necessarily involves impe-
rialism more or less modified, so long
as the colonial condition subsists. 70 /
favor colonialism, still worse to favor
the holding of outside dependencies like
the Philippines, which are not even .
colonies, but conquered provinces, hos
tile in feeling and alien in race,
language, customs and traditions, and
at the same time to denounce the gov
eminent of such dependencies by i'm
perial methods Is inconsistent. Not .
less groundless is the sneer that impe-
riaism is a boyle and a bugbear be-
cause there Is no danger Of anybody be-
ing oppressed by congress or the Amer
lean people, Does the history of the
American people and the record of
legislation justify any
such confident assertion? Have we so
soon forgotten the fugitive slave law,
the outrages in Kansas, the horrors of
Andersonville, the present political +
status of the blacks in the southern
states, the barbarous lynchings and
nassacres Of negroes, Chinese and Indi-
ans in all parts of the country, the
treatment of the Indian tribes by the
United States government for the past
hundred years, the carpet-bag govern
ments in the south, and the rotten mu-
nicipal administrations In our principal
cities, when we proudly assume that
the American people and the govern
nents instituted among them are supe-
rior to all others in the world, and even
to human nature itself in the humanity
and integrity Of their political dealings,
md in the observance Of the golden rule
oward inferior races? Probably those
Who declare that nobody is going to be /;
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