The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1900-08-10

good citizens, but I am eternally op-
posed to owning Asiatic territory
10000 miles away, more thickly in
habited than any state in the Union,
inhabited by people alien to us in color,
only such places in Asia as we need
for coaling and naval stations. am
opposed to expanding our territory in
Asia because it is dangerous to our
institutions.
Louis Napoleon and Roosevelt.
The old proverb. Great minds run in
the same channel" finds new and
startling vindication in the sameness
of thought and language Of a famous
mot by Louis Napoleon and a recent ut
terance by Colonel Theodore Roosevelt.
when "the imperial nephew Of his
uncle" or Napoleon the Little" as
Victor Hugo contemptuously dubbed
him, was endeavoring to Justify his
betrayal and murder of the second
French republic and his establishment
Of the second French empire, he sol
emnly and falsely denied that the re-
stored empire meant war. but erigrnm,
matically and vehemently exclaimed.
"The empire is peace"
Colonel Roosevelt is not only both q
voluminous writer and voluble speaker,
but is also an omnivorous reader.
Whether during any of his incursions
into history and literature he ever read
Louis Napoleon's famous speech to the
chamber Of commerce of Bordeaux.
Oct. 8, 1S52-the speech containing the
imperial maxim just quoted-I do not
know: but, if he never perused that
remarkable GRAFTON, he, by strange
concatenation of events and mental
processes, performed the most astound-
ing piece of paralleling both thought
and expression to be found in the an.
nails of oratory.
In his speech before the National
League Of Republican Clubs Colonel
Roosevelt earnestly enjoins his coun-
trymen to remember that expansion
does not bring war; it ultimately
brings peace"
''The empire is peace" asseverates
the dreaming, scheming, ambitious son
of Hortense. Expansion ultimately
brings peace.' echoes the dreaming
schcming, ambitious goyernor-colonel
of New York.
Two lovely berries nodded on one
stem, the stem of imperialism; twin
statesmen reveling in iridescent
by quantum sutficit of throat cut.
ting and bloodletting-the Identical
sort of peace which reigned in War.
saw on memorable occasion and
which damned to everlasting fame
the men who secured it by sword and
fire.
The Empire Is blood.
Now, be it remembered that l am not
accusing Colonel Roosevelt of plagiar.
iZing from Napoleon III. l would not
even in the estimation of hair, de
tract from his just fame, but one of
two things is true-either he had read
Louis Napoleon's Bordeaux speech and
boldly appropriated or unconsciously
assimilated both his ideas and his Ian
guage or the eXigencies of the case
compelled Colonel Roosevelt to use the
same argument in favor of his i'm
perialism as the French emperor USED
in defense of his imperialism.
l like epigrams. ''The empire is
peace" is splendid, sonorous, striking
sentence. 1t appeals to the imagina
tion, it soothes the troubled spirit, bu
1t was lie when uttered by the willy
Frenchman. 1t is lie today, and il
never can be the truth.
The entire history of Louis Napo
,, Icons tawdry, tinsel empire demon
strates the utter falseness and hollow
ness of his terse epigram, "J'he empire
| is peace" 1t began in blood; it flour
ished in blood; it perished in blood
| The coup d'etat, which gave it birth
| was one of the bloodiest and most mon
strous crimes recorded in the files o
| time and brought death, Imprisonment
and exile to nearly every Frenchmal
| of that generation at all worthy of re
| membfance.
Instead of bringing peace to France
i the empire brought the unprecedented
humiliation of Metz and the awful ca
tastrophe of Sedan. 1t sent Louis Ma
! poleon himself to die an exile at CHS
elhurst and his son to die in South AT
/! rica, a soldier of fortune, fighting say
| age Zulus under the cross of ST. Georg
in the service of that country whicl
had Gagged the great Napoleon like
| savage beast upon the sullen rock o
| st. Helena.
! That's the sort of peace which I.oui
Napoleon's empire brought to France.
The Money Question.
We stand today on the money ques
tion precisely where we stood fou
! years ago. Truth does not change t
falsehood in four short years. TIL
men who wrote the Chicago platform
had the courage of their convictions
and they have had no reason to chang
their conclusions since.
i Consequently at Kansas City we re
adopted, not merely reatfirmed, but re
adopted, the financial plank of tn
4 Chicago platform in all it's integrit
i and all it's force, in spite of all cajo
ings, all threatenings and all tempta
tions to do otherwise. From the bot
tom Of my heart l rejoice that we di
so, for IL we were right then we al