The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1900-08-10
WHAT is IMPERIALISM?

| the people-to the end that the work.
ing autonomy of our Republic may al
ways prove to be a government of the
people, by the people, for the people,"
as happily expressed by the immortal
Lincoln in his Gettysburg speech. The
jealous care of those who drew the
specifications and outlined the charts
by which our ship of State was to be
| constructed aud run was ever exercised
to prevent the possibility of any func-
ton of popular self-government's being
far removed from the people them
seves-to prevent its being taken out
Of the hands of the people or placed
beyond their control With that end
steadfastly in view, their all control
ling aim was to so safeguard every
function of the peoples government as
to make all persons, chosen from time
to time to administer temporarily the
public affairs of the Republic, keenly
and Immediately responsible to the
! people, whose instruments and SER
wants they were intended to be always.
| The bed rock idea of the whole plan
was a firm belief that the closer the
government is kept to the people and
the more keenly responsible each pub
| lie servant is kept to the will of the
people, the safer and the better will the
| liberties and the sacred rights of the
| people be preserved, aud the more i'm
possible and ineffective will be the
ever-present temptation ION the part of
those temporarily in authority }, toper-
vert and use the functions of govern
ment in promoting selfish euds, secur-
ing special privileges or working out
unjust aud unfair advantages. In
theory, at least, therefore, we find
! every public servant responsible, di-
rectly or indirectly, to the people
And, in studying the deliberations in
which the safeguards and wise pro-
visions thrown by them around our
government were formed, We also find
that those unseltish patriots who
planned it wer4 so jealous about having
the peoples control over every govern
mental function preserved in its en-
tirely that everything which was or is
one degree removed from the direct
control of the common people was and
Is the result Of Ompromise-not Il
! hgf
who favored a marked degree of re-
moval from the common people. on the
one hand, and those who favored the
NEST intimate and immediate respon
sihility to the common people, on the
other; but compromise between those
who, while favoring alike the most im-
mediate responsibility Of the govern
ment to the people, We're trying to ac-
complish three things-a government
of the people, by the people, for the
/ people," which should preserve justice,
in ure equality and be sufficiently
strong and stable to perform its func-
tons Effectively.
But in these later days the tendency
to remove the government away from
the people more and more, as well as
the tendency to regard lightly and
brush aside easily the sacred landmarks
of limitation set in our Constitution,
and even to set the Constitution itself
aside as thing of the past, obsolete,
out of date and inapplicable to present
conditions, seems to be growing more
accelerated and emphasized day after
day, week after week, month after
month and year after year. And the
manifest alton of these tendencies has
become justly alarming to those of our
people who believe in constitutional
government and are painfully con-
scious of the increasing frequency and
boldne,s with which its well defined
limitations are being questioned,
strained or totally disregarded. This
tendency to remove the government
further and further from the people, to
constantly minimize the force of the
I peoples voice in the disposition and
management of the current affairs of
1 our government aud to increase and
I greatly magnify the powers which
! those temporarily elected to office may
! exercise without hiudrance and with
absolute impunity is what is meant by
imperialism. We have seen very plain
manifestations of 1t during the past
few months, or at least that eternal
! vigilance which is the price of liberty
has become alarmed at the trend of
current tendencies i'm government
matters.
A Democratic Republic is that form
of government in which a self-govern-
ing people rule, while an Imperial
Republic is that form of elective gov
eminent in which agencies more or
less independent of the popular will
may rule-an empire with an elected
ruler, who, once in power, may be all
! powerful and largely Independent of
those who elect him, and that trend of
events which has tendency to change
/ the former into the latter and which
millions of our people think they see
manifested in the present administra-
tive and legislative policy of our gov
eminent has provoked that earnest
protest which makes such policy the
/ paramount issue in the pendinp Presi-