The age-herald., 1900-08-09

tors at once sought to lay the blame upon those who had delayed the ratific2t tion of the treaty, and, during the progress of the war the same Republicans have accused the opponents of imperialism of giving en- couragement to the Filipinos This Is a coWardly evasion of responsibility.
 Ii 1t Is right for the United States to hold the Philippine Islands permanently and initiate the European empires in the gov- ernment of the colonies, the Republican party ought to state its position and de- fend 1t, but it must expect the subject races to protest against such a policy and to resist to the extent of their ability. The F'ilipinos do not need any encouragement from Amer jeans now living. Our whole history has been an encouragement, not only to the ffipinos, but to all who are denied voice in their own government. If the Republi- cans are prepared to censure all who have used language calculated to make Filipinos hate foreign domination, let them condemn the speech of Patrick Henry. When he uttered that passionate appeal, Give me liberty or give me death," he expressed sentiment which still echoes in the hearts of men. Let them censure Jefferson; of all the statesmen of history, none have used words so offensive to those who would hold their fellows in political bondage. Let them censure Washington who declared that the colonies must choose between liberty and slavery. Or if the statute of limitations has run against the sins of Henry and Jefferson and Washington, let them censure Lincoln, whose Gettysburg speech will be quoted in defense of popular government when the present advocates of force and conquest are forgotten.
 Truth Can't He Recalled
 Some one has said that a truth once spoken can never be recalled. It is true It goes on and on, and no one can set a limit to it's overwhelming influence. But if it were possible to obliterate every word written or spoken in defense of the prin ciples set forth in the Declaration of h. dependence, q war of conquest would still leave its legacy of perpetual hatred, for it was God Himself who placed in every hu man heart the love of liberty. He never made a race of people so low in the scale of civilization or intelligence that 1t would welcome foreign master.
 Lincoln said that the safety of this na ton was not in its fleets, its armies or it's forts, but in the spirit which prizes liberty and the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere; and he warned his country men that they could not destroy this spirit without planting the seeds of despotism at their own doors.
 Those who would have this nation enter upon a career of empire must consider not only the effect of imperialism on the Filipinos, but they must also calculate it's effect upon our own nation. We cannot re- pudiate the principle of self-government in the Philippines without weakening that principle here.
 Even now we are beginning to see the paralyzing influence of imperialism. Here tofore this nation has been prompt to ex- press its sympathy with those who were fighting for civil liberty. While our sphere of activity has been limited to the Western hemisphere, our sympathies have not been bounded by the seas. We have felt it due to ourselves and to the world as well as to those who were struggling for the right to govern themselves to proclaim the in- terest which our people have, from the date of their own independence, felt in every contest between. human rights and arbi- trary power. Three-quarters of a century ago, when our nation was small, the strug- sies of Greece aroused our people, and Webster and Clay gave eloquent express sion to the universal desire for Grecian independence. In 1896, all arties mani fested lively interest in the success of the Cubans, but now when a war is in pro- gress in South Africa, which must result in the extension of the monarchial idea of in the triumph of republic, the advo- cates of imperialism in this country dare not say word in behalf of the Boers.
 Sympathy for the Boers does not arise from any unfriendliness toward England; the American people are not unfrlendly to-