New-York tribune., 1900-01-24
BUNCOMBE COUNTY. SorrH AFRICA.


The Buncombe County for which a certain
famous speech was made is, we believe, In the
State of North Carolina. 1t has, no doubt, its
counterpart for oratorical purposes in every other
State of the Union. And that is we'll The ennis
sion of superheated rhetoric now and then serves
the same purpose in human economy that the
letting off of steam does in case of an engine.
1t may make an irritating noise and obscure
the air for a time. But it saves the boiler from
bursting. A certain respect for social amenities
should, however, be observed in both cases. The
engineer who should direct the escape valve of
his engine toward his neighbor's open window
would be reckOned nuisance. So the effusive
rhetOrician should consider himself bound when
speaking for Buncombe, to avoid offence to his
neighbors and to the neighbors of his country.
- To that end 1t is eminently desirable that we
should find all our Buncombe counties at home.
1t is of course, easier and in one respect safer
to fire Buncombe speeches at foreigners There
is less danger of being answered. And 1t seems
rather imposing to some to jump up and down
and shake ones fist at a great empire or at its
sovereign-at a distance of few thousand
miles. But what spectacle it Is for men of
authority and representative repute to grow red
in the face with screaming bad names across
the ocean over a matter which does not concern
them or their country in the least! And above
ALL what deplOrable thing it is for them to
drag foreign politics into the domestic politics of
this land and to influence domestic affairs ac-
cordng to their prejudices in some alien contro-
versy Surely. that is the very worst form of
the foreign entanglements against which we are
often and austerely warned 1t would
really seem that we have enough causes of party
difference in our own land without dragging
South Africa into the dispute. For Americans
to draw party lines and cast partisan votes on
the issue of Boer or British supremacy In South
Africa is-what new and stronger phrase shall
we devise to describe such lunacy?
Apart from that, it may be instructive and
suggestive for some Buncombe orators and reso-
luton writer's to consider how such utterances
theirs would have been regarded by them
had they been made year or two ago by repre-
sentative men of other lands about the UniIed
States. Suppose, for example, that members OF
the British Parliament had publicly declared in
1898 that the United States was waging an un-
lawful and barbarous war, had called this n
"robber nation" and had demanded that the
British Government should take sides with
Spain against us. Suppose that a prominent
municipal officer of London had expressed the
hope that very British guns would be
speaking by the side of Spanish guns against us
Would there not have been q fine old howl
raised on these shores against such unfriendll-
ness? And If those who said such things and
formally resolved them had been part of the
treaty making power Of the British Govern
ment with what feelings would this Nation
have regarded any subsequent negotiations with
Great Britain?
Every American, in private or in public sta
ton is entitled TO his opinions, his sympathies'
his prcjudices But in the utterance of them he
should be subject TO the restraints of decency.
To scream lnvectivcs in the face of friendly ma
tions and their rulers Is not good international
manners. To warp ones domestic policy accord
ing 10 preiudices in alien affairs is not good
patriotism. Let us keep Buncombe County IN
North Carolina. 1t is not for us, TO be found III
South Africa.