The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-05-28
THE CHURCHES SUNDAY

results were awaited amid the widest
rumors 1t is difficult to credit the MIS-
torfan when he tells US that there were
those who were alarmed for fear the
American crown would go, out OF grau-
tude. to some member of the royal fam
lily of France. This was the problem. 10
found a government that should be free
from the defects of those of the Ola
World; TO inaugurate system that
should protect the Fights of the people
in general without degeneratlng into an
archy on the one hand or into tyranny on
the other
SHADOW OF REBELLION.
At last the constitution was completed;
it was a compromises; Washington was
chosen the first President of the United
States. But compromise never finally
settles any question. That is seen IN re-
spect to the one problem that arose IN
the federal convention-the problem OF
slavery. Some delegates declared that
slaves were to be regarded population;
others contended that they were only
chattels. Those of the North held to the
former view; those of the South to the
latter. The compromise agreed upon
seems absurd to us today. The slavery
question became a BanQuo'S ghost in ma
tional life In 1920 another crisis arose
out of the problem, and it was met by
another compromiSe-the Missouri COM
premise, brought forward by Henry Clay.
That compromise provided that there
should be no slavery north of a certain
degree of latitude except in Missouri.
The problem again reached an acute
stage in 1884 and it was met by another
compromise, the Kansas-Nebraska bill,
which repealed the Missouri compromise
and provided for local option, or "squatter
Sovereignty on the slavery question.
But the veXed question was never set
tied finally until President Lincoln drove
it's dark shadow from American soil with
ms emancipation proclamation.
Remember, then. that from the begin
ming there were two hostile systems of
NfNI{4 in -ina "a
FederaliStS and the Anti-FederaliStS.
Hamilton was the representative of one;
Jefferson of the other. The FederalistS
believed in national supremacy; the OPP
position merely in a league of common
wealths They met as ideas in converse
ton; as principles in public policy; as
parties at the polls, and at last as armies
on many bloody field of battle.
FEARED GOVERNMENT WEAK.
The existence of these irreconcilable
antagonisms gave rise TO grave doubts as
to the stability of the American Govern
ment. Alexander Hamilton told Josiah
Quincy that he hoped 1T would last thirty
or forty years. Talleyrand, the astute
diplomat said that the republic was
giant without bones" Macaulay, the
historian, declared that the American
Government was 'all sail and no anchor,
and consequently could not survive the
century. De TOcquevilie said that lit
had no power to sustain Itself in case OF
domestic dissensions. and that the Union
presented no object to patriotic feeling"
thus America passed through three score
years and ten of her hstory-a kind of
governmental mosaic, apparently ready to
fall apart at any time. Declarations of
State sovereignty Were continually heard
and threats of disruption by the secession
of States We're repeatedly uttered. Com
promise could no longer avail. You may
have thought that l have been drifting
far from my subject; but l submit to
you that you can have no adequate con-
ception of what the citizen soldiers that
composed the Union armies actually ac-
compliShed for America unless you know
the conditions that necessltated their de-
scent into the hell of war and the princi-
pies they settled forever by the arbitra-
ton of the sword.
WHAT MADE IT FIRM?
These are the questions: What solved
the problems compromised up to 1861
What firmly established the rocking, tot
tering American Republic? What contin-
ued the existence and power of the Con-
stftudon? What killed State sovereign
~? What welded the commonwealth
fragments into a mighty unity? What
gave Talleyrand's giant bones and Macau-
lays ship of state an anchor, as well as
sails? What gave the loyal American a
definite object for patriotic feeli2g? There
IS just one answer: The citizen soldier.
He won Vicksburg. Gettysburg and APP
pCmattox-but these were only means to
higher ends The American people are
not a warlike people, and in lS5i, half
century lay between them and any
sent a handful of soldiers down into Mex
leo on an unholy errand and We had had
some Indian campaigns. But for many
years our swords had been beaten into
plow shares and sour spears into pruning
hooks. The people of the North were of
domestic temperament; they We're given
to industrial pursuits; they We're pursu-
ing gainful occupations The little regu-
lar army had been reduced to the limits
of division and was scattered from
Maine to California in small attachments.
The militia was neglected. but few States
paying ii the small respect of legislation
Over the land quietly pursuing it's usu-
al occupations came the shock of the fall
OF Sumpter and President Lincoln's call
for troops. AS by magic almost in a day
America was transformed into a nation
or soldiers, who battled and bled until
100000 lives had been offered on the coun-
trys altar Over ]. 500. 900 answered: I'VE
are coming, Father Abraham. Scan the
list of leaders: Mcclellan was vice pres
ident of railroad. with his office and
home in Cincinnati; Sherman was teach
ing school in louisiana Sheridan was a
quartermaster; Grant was running a tan
merry in Illinois: Logan was a lawyer and