Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1900-07-07
ord our God hath given us

nexation of Texas said: He who-au-
other Thucydides, another Sismondi--
shall observe and shall paint a union dis,
solved, the silver cord loosened, the gold
en- bowl broken at the fountain; who
shall observe and shall paint the nation's
flag folded mournfully and laid aside in
the silent chamber where the memorials
of renown and grace, now dead, are
gathered together; who shall record the
| ferocious factions, the prohigate ambi.
tion, the hot rivalry, the wars of hate,
the traces of perjury-which shall furn-
ish the matter of a history of the alien
ated states, till one after another burns
out and falls from its place on high-he
shall eMitle the stained and mournful
chapter. "The Consequences of Annex
alton"
"How earnest must have been the
cultured Massachusetts lawyer as he
pourd forth his logic like molten lava,
whitening, crushing everything before it,
except that unfaltering faith and mex
P'SSeioiS tSHuShSy VI tHc Coil1iioH
people. They said: Let Texas come
in; we neither distrust our institutions
nor fear expansion
"But how puerile and ephemeral seem
the logic and the wisdom and the pro-
phesies of those intellectual giants in the
| light of history. The constitution still
lives and is the Magma Charta ofnpwards
of 70, 900 900 of people, our institutions
sufficient and efficient for SO 1000 900
guarantee the same protection to all as
was given to the sparsely settled states
of the Atlantic, the same guarantee of
personal freedom and religious liberty,
the same meeting out of equal and exact
justice as when the imperturbable soul of
Washington stilled into obedience the
warning factions of his day.
"The fathers, in announcing to the
world their political creed, declared
among other things that governments
derive their just powers from the consent
of the governed, thus giving expression
to an ideal principle, principle for
which, as people, we strive, principle
which must never be ignored, either
with reference to ourselves or with
reference to the people with whom,
through the incidents of war, we are
brought in contact. But it never occurred
to Washington or Jefferson or Franklin
or their compatriots that this principle Of
government could be applied to all
people regardless of their rating upon
the intellectual thermometer OF the world.
They no more thought Of applying it to
the savage and the half civilized than
they would have contemplated giving to
the Iriquois Indians the right of manhood
suffrage and thereby making the presi-
dental election dependent upon the re-
suit. Yet we know there were, in those
days, some of those highly wrought and
sensitive souls who profaned common
sense by extending the Christian sacra-
ment to the Choctaw, by dilating upon
the Sermon on the Mount before the
half-cannibals, reeking with the blood of
women and children, and by claiming
the crown Of nartyrdom for the forest
chiefs whom law and order had checked
in their treacherous careers Of crime.
But even those men were Of godly race
compared with the prating POLITICAL
/ pharisees of today, who, standing in
high places that they may be seen Of
men, and congratulating themselves that
they are not as others compare Washing
ton, Jefferson and Adams with the cor
rupt adventurer who planned the assassi-
nation Of American soldiers while they
i were maintaining our sovereignty in a
territory made Ours by the highest law
making body Of the land.
i I'VE are patient with the man who diff
fers from us upon any question which is
to be settled among ourselves, and what
we ourselves shall conclude, as matter
of expediency, is best to be done with all
or any part Of our new possessions is a
subject for grave consideration, but the
man who encourages, by word or deed,
those in open rebellion against our flag
/ is bartering with the lives Of his country
men, and neither the senatorial toga nor
exclusive Bostonian culture exempt him
from the contempt Of the American
. people"