Evening star., 1900-10-19
IF BRYAN WERE PRESIDENT.

remove them from under its authority, and
to sustain this refusal to consent by force
of arms though justified by the abstrac-
tions of the Declaration of Independence
under the Bryanite construction of that in
strument, Is condemned as treason by the
Constitution and laws of the land.
The United States, though it was estab-
lished through a rebellion against British
authority, has never on that account en-
couraged or yielded to rebellion against its
own authority, whether the revolt took the
shape Of riots within states, or the seces-
sion Of states, or outbreaks in non-consent-
ing territory belonging to the United States.
The Philippines were annexed by purchase
and under treaty just as Louisiana, New
Mexico and Alaska were annexed. An
armed force saw to it that the governed
did not dissent in Louisiana; our soldiers
killed the people in New Mexico and Cali
fornia who attempted by rifle shots to In
dicate their non-consent, and our army oc-
cupied Alaska, and for sixteen years over
awed the non-consenting. Alaskans.
Thus whenever the Declaration of Inde-
pendence has been brandished threatening
ly in the republics face by the on-consent-
ing governed among the people subject to
its jurisdiction it has sent soldiers to pre-
serve order and to quell what 1T called riot
o. insurrection, whether in Louisiana, New
Mexico, Alaska or in the south at the out
break of the civil war; and now it pursues
the same course in the Philippines. Ma
ticnal self preservation and maintenance
of the national authority have been
throughout the gulQlnS principles.
A Vindication of Secession.
There are historic precedents for Bryan's
use of the Declaration of Independence to
encourage men in arms to defy American
authority and to shoot down the soldiers OF
the United States. His construction OF the
instrument is not that Of Abraham Lincoln.
whom he cites and eulogiZes, but that OF
Jefferson Davis.
Charles G. Memminger, later the southern
ccnfederacy's secretary Of the treasury,
prepared in 1850 the approved draft Of
South Caroli~a's declaration of indepen-
dence, which adopted and utilized as
justification of the secession ordinance the
declarations in the original document OF the
American colonists Of 1776.
During the civil war Representative Alex
ander Long Of Ohio, in the Congress Of the
United States, denounced the imperialism
of the despot, Lincoln, and hurled at him
the Declaration of Independence. He SAID:
"If we cannot rise above the Austro-Rus-
sian principle of holding subject provinces
by the power Of force and coercion "hal
becomes of the Declaration of Indepen-
dence?
'It is enough to know that they tthe Sc
ceding states) have withdrawn, ana my
purpose is to convince others of that Whlch
to my own mind is clear, that they cannot
be forced back into the Union by coercion
:. The doctrines laid down as self
evident truths in the Declaration of 1nde-
pendence are that all rightful government
springs from the consent of the governed
that any people have the right to alter,
change, or amend their form Of government
at pleasure.
The president of the southern confeder-
acy agreed with his secretary or the treas
ury, Memminger, and Candidate Bryan IN
their construction of the Declarat ton of In
dependence, and the document was quoted
against the Union and in favor of secession
and national disintegration by JeHerson
Davis, president of the confederate states
of America, in his inaugural address, Feb
ruary 1S, 1861. He said that the states of
serted right which the Declaration Of In
dependence Of 1776 had defined to be I'M
alienable."
The biographer of Jefferson Davis (Al-
frienD quotes Horace Greeley as saying: IN
the Tribune of December II, 1860, If 1t
(the Declaration of independence just1led
the secession Of three millions OF coionlsts
in 1776, we do not see why 1t would not
justify the secession of five millions OF
southerners from the federal Union in
1861
"And on the same principle" Bryan adds.
I'VE do not see why it would not JUSTIFY
the secession of several hundred thousand
Tagalogs in 1898"
Bryan would give new life to theory
which was buried in the agony and plood,
shed Of civil war; and would revive II
at time when its logical effect would be to
incite to armed revolt the ex-slaVes, no"
citizens whom the civil war set free.
AS construed by Memminger and Jeffer-
son Davis, and w. ]. Bryan, the Declara-
ton Of Independence Is vindicatton OF
secession and rebellion and an apologist for
so-called treason; and If this sort of Decia-
ration has become an integral principle OF
the body polite, the republic carries In Its
bosom the seeds Of its own destruction.
The effect of this doctrine of Organism Is
to raise the distractions of misconstrued
and misapplied Declaration OF Independence
above the Constitution and laws OF the
land, above the dictates of love OF coun-
try. and above the Instinct Of national self
preservation.
Adoption Of this perversiorl Of the Decia-
ration Of Independence as the supreme law
by a people and government already tnde-
pendent is a Declaration Of D1sintegration,
and the action on this line urged at Kansas
City adds free secession to free trade. free
riot and free coinage in the list of the coal
ition party's shibboleths.
THEODORE W. MOVES.