The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1900-07-28
VOL. XXXV.--NO. 10.


it has put premium upon 'tthose twin
relics of barbarism'' by paying him
yearly stipend for continuing to be law
breaker, And by way of sarcasm on your
campaign cry of 1896, it pays him the
bounty in those siuful and utterly ''dis-
homes" Mexican dollarsl 1t is a little
curious to see how a government can make
treaty with one of its own subjects, for
you will perceive that our country, under
the ''benevolent" extra unconstitutional doc
trine, has progressed far enough to have
subjects as well as citizens.
The convention of 1900 will be expected
to, and SO will, loudly indorse the foreign
policy of the Administration, which has
been so far recreant to all our traditions of
national independence of action and Amer
lean manhood as to negotiate and ask the
Senate to ratify treaty whereby, at
time when Congress has made provision
for waterway designed also to bring US
nearer to our Pacific possessions, over ter
ritory conceded to us by an independent
power, and hence as much ours as if it
were passing over one of our own water
sheds, we obligate ourselves to Great
Britain never to fortify the canal thus to
be built with our own means on territory
not at all under her Jurisdiction, thus sur
rendering to her navy in advance in time
of war a potential title to our OWE property.
And the same Administration has re-
fused to allow the bill for the construction
of the canal to come to vote in the Sen
ate, in order that time may be gained and
the requisite pressure brought to bear upon
legislators to consummate this abject funk
eyism which has become characteristic of
our State Department as now occupied and
administered. To a Republican of 1856
this fawning sycophancy to the most selfish
of nations is nauseating.
The Republican party of that early day,
and long afterwards, was upon every con-
sideration the friend of and the sympa-
thizer with the oppressed and downtrodden
everywhere And it so went on record
time and again. In the convention of this
year there will be no word of rebuke
heard for the course of an Administration
which has stood calmly but coldly by in
sight of the death struggles Of two repub
lies in another hemisphere, crushed beneath
the blows of ornaments too overwhelming
for hope of resistance, we all the while ut
tering no word of cheer and rendering in
the meantime no good Offices looking to an
honorable peace, which, by the express
terms of The Hague convention, we would
have been warranted in doing without
giving any just cause of offense to either
belligerent. On the contrary, it is too
notorious for controversy that our Govern
ment not only had no good offices to tender,
being itself engaged in a like enterprise
elsewhere, but it resolutely suppressed to
the measure of its ability all public expires
sion of sympathy with the South African
Republics in their mortal agonies
The newspaper oracles of the Admins
tration were as dumb as oysters, in strange
contrast to their effusiveness when reach
ing out for the Irish vote and when the
accredited representatives of the Transvaal
Government reached the shores of land,
as they supposed, of liberty, they were at
the State Department treated as outlaws,
being refused other than an un- official re-
ception, although the refuser then had his
own son at their capital, receiving official
recognition for the benefit of our citizens,
sojourners there; and the Secretary of
State hastened to advertise the cold shoul-
der he had given the ENJOYS, in order that
his London friends might seasonably know
of his good services, and the President
consoled the reception supplieants for their
chilly by showing them the fine view from
the portico of the White House. No effort
was spared to keep the sympathetic heart
beat of the American people from their ear.
This is not the Republicanism of the
heroic age of the party.
The Republican party of 1856 addressed
its appeal to the conscience, to the reason,
to the Judgment of the people. The Re-
publican party of today is wholly intolerant
of criticism or discussion of partisan mea
sures within its own ranks, and any dis
sent from them is promptly stigmatized as
treason, not indeed to the nation or even
to the party, but the men who CONTROL it,
so that all independence of thought is stiHed
and all manly expression of opinion is
dragooned into cowed and discreet silence.