The Elk Mountain pilot., 1900-07-31
"HALFREPueL,c; HALFEMPlRE"

| half free, and has parapnraSeQ II into
the saying that the nation cannot en-
dure half republic and half empire.
The phrase was caught up by the
Democratic platform makers, and it
will no doubt be heard from the stump
in Colorado when the Hon" John
Sha1roth gets to declaiming about the
dangers of imperialism. But the idea
was not new, and the same argument
was used at the beginning of the CEN
tury, against the requirement by the
United States of some of the territory
out of which the state of Colorado af-
terwards was made.
In the debate in the House of Repre-
sentatives in 1911 the Hon. Josiah
Quincy arose to speak on the question
of admitting Louisiana with a full
sense of impending calamity:
Mr.. Speaker, | address you, sir,
with au anxiety and distress of mind
with me full unprecedented. The
| friends of this bill seem to consider it
as the exercise of n common power, as
an ordinary affair, a mere municipal
/ regulation which they expect to see
pass without other questions than
those concerning details. But, sir, the
principle of this bill materially affects
the liberties and rights of the whole
appears that it would justify a revolu-
ton in this country; and that, in no
great length of time may produce it.
| When l see the zeal and perseverance
with which this bill has been urged
along its parliamentary path, when l
know the local interests and associated
projects which combine TO promote its
success, all opposition to it seems
unavailing, l am almost tempted to
leave, without n struggle, my country
to its fate"
But, instead of leaving its country to
its fate, the anti-expansionist COW of
1911 decided to face the oncoming en-
gine. Mr.. Quincy said:
But, sir, while there is life there is
hope. So long as the fatal shaft has
not yet sped, If heaven so will 1t, the
blow may be broken and the. vigor of
the mischief making arm withered
l am compelled to declare it
as my deliberate opinion that, if this
| bill passes, the bonds of this Union
are virtually dissolved; that the states
which compose it are free from their
moral obligation, and that, as it Will
be the right of all, so will 1t be the duty
of some, TO prepare definitely for a
separation-amicably If they can, vio-
lently If they must"
Here the anti-expansionist orator
was called to order, his utterances
seeming to SAVIOR of treason. On ap-
peal from the Speakers ruling the
House generously allowed him to pro-
ceed:
When / spoke of n separation of the
states resulting from the violation of
the constitution contemplated in this
bill, l spoke of it as a necessity deeply
to be deprecated; but as resulting from
causes so certain and obvious as to be
absolutely inevitable when the effect
of the principle is practically exper-
fenced. 1t is to preserve, to guard the
constitution of my country that l de-
nounce this attempt l would rouse
the attention af gentlemen from the
apathy with which they seem beset.
By this event. if this bill passes, l am
willing to be judged"
1t should be borne in mind that the
awful danger which the Hon. Josiah
| Quincy tried to avert was not merely
the admission of Louisiana; it was the
extension, which he clearly foresaw
and deeply deplored in advance, of the
dominion of the United States govern
ment over the vast area of the Mlssis-
sippi valley, and perhaps even to the
shores of the Pacific. That vision of
| possibilities filled his patriotic soul
with horror. He appealed to the earlier
and purer days of the republic:
"The people of this country at that
day had no idea of the territorial avid
ity of their successors. 1t was, on the
contrary, an argument against the sue
cess of the project that the territory
was too extensive for a republican
form of government But now there is
no limit to our ambitious hope. We are
about to cross the Mississippi. The
| Missouri and the Red river are but
roads on which our Imagination trav-
| els to new lands and new states to be
raised and admitted (under the pow
er now first usurped) into this Union
| among undiscovered lands in the
| West"
And again he prophesied the repub-
| lies dissolution If expansion went on:
"This constitution was never con-