Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1900-09-20
Who Will Haul Down
The FIau?"

Extracts from remarks of Hon J. c.
Sibley, of Pennsylvania, in daily Con-
gressional Record, February 1, 19O0)
Shall we keep the Philippine Archi-
pelago and Puerto Rico? Every foot
No nation on the globe has higher rights
or better title to a rod of soil. We hold
bya double claim-the right ofconquest
and the right of purchase. My belief
is that where once our banners shadow
has fallen, there will survive a race of
freemen. And | should hold Cuba un-
til stability, order, the protection of
life, property, and good government
were assured.
And again / echo the Presidents
query, "Who would haul down the
fiag" Who planted it there? What
Cabinet council? What warrior? What
statesman? What Senator or Repre-
lBluasive? What body of men framed
any plan of conquest? The cries of
suffering humanity, ground down be-
meath the iron heel Of oppression, rang
in our ears. and we stopped our ears
Their groans we heard, but we answer
ed not. We saw them stripped and
wounded on our way to Jericho, and
like the priest and Levite passed by on
the other side. Not unheard at the
throne of heaven were those groans
and prayers.
In order to awaken us from our tor
por and almost criminal indifference
the Almighty permitted the enemies of
His wrath to hurtle their thunderbolts
under the bows of the Maine lying
peacefully at anchorin Habana Harbor.
Nor keenest sighted statesman nor
most daring warrior had even contem-
plated the possibility of gain, growth,
or greatness to us as nation to come
out of the war of which the blowing up
of the Maine was the first declaration.
These lands and people, unworthily
ruled, were, in the wisdom of the AL
mighty. to pass from the house of Saul
to that of David God and the valor
ofAmerican arms gave US this territory,
not because we are nation altogether
free, altogether pure and blameless, but
because, working through human in
strumentalities, He has given it to the
boldest, freest, most progressive, most
enlightened, and most Christian of all
the nations of the present age.
Sir, / am an optimist. Nv belief is
that on this continent God has willed
TO plant people who shall carry the
arts of peace and the story of the cross
preciate war not more than myself: but,
sir, under certain conditions war is to
the body polite what the plowshare in
the melowed mold is to the husband
man. Noxious growths and thorns and
briars must be exterminated and up-
rooted, that the fairer fruitage NAV
develop.
Within the bosom of our coil the AL
mighty has stored, through countless
ages, the treasures of minerals From
her breast, clothed with forests and
golden with ripening harvest, He will
house and feed race which will hasten
the dawn of that morning when
through thousand cycles war shall be
banished, the swords beat into plow-
shares and the spears into pruning
hooks, and men, until time shall be no
more, shall look into the eyes of each
other and recognize the bonds of broth.
erhood. We. go forth as nation, not
to teach the doctrine of the survival of
the fittest, but to make men fit to sur
vive.
Do gentlemen recognize the fact that
in one hundred years from to day this