Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-07
BfSMIRChING THEIR own RECORDS.

The dominant hope of great minds
that their works may live after them
has been cited as an evidence Of the i'm
mortality Of the soul, since the thought
implies an inherent faith in man, not
only in the continuance of individual
consciousness beyond the grave, but in
the spiritual enjoyment of the ennobling
triumphs of physical life. This faith is
substantially universal, and has ever
been as marked in the pagan worshipers
of the symbols of nature as in those who
have bent the knee alone to Israel's God
or to the Christian Trinity. But what
ever may have been or still may be the
inspiration of this laudable hope, the
unquestioned desire of man is that the
story of his frailties may at his death
be written in water and the record of
his good deeds be engraven in brass
Apart however. from considerations at
fecting his spiritual future, he is
prompted by the instincts of consan-
s;,nity to leave as a legacy to those of
his blood who may survive him a rec
Crd that will prove to them more of q
blessing than a curse. The man who is
moved by no such impulse and is indf-
fcrent to the reproach which his mis-
deeds may cast upon kindred and fam
lily name has drifted downward to a
state of depravity lower than that of the
average barbarian, and but a grade
above that of the brute.
What self-respecting American fails
to hide the record that his great grand
father joined Benedict Arnold in raiding
the homes of his neighbors during the
struggle for independence, or fled across
the line into New Brunswick to evade a
PATRIOTS duty? Is there an American
V no will boast that one of his ancestors
kndled blueights along the coasts of
Connecticut to save English ships from
capture at the hands of Paul Jones? Is
kinship claimed with any one Of the de-
serters from the American army in
Mexico in 1916, who was captured in
arms in the ranks of the enemy and
hanged for treason? Where lis the
American who will admit that either he
or his father was a member of the
Il nights of the Golden Circle in 1864, or
that he secretly rejoiced at the assassin
ton of Lincoln and silently mourned
over the surrender of Lee? The son of
what congressman feels gloritied in the
record that his father voted against the
acquisition of California. Arizona. Ne
vada. Utah and part of New Mexico,
Colorado and Wyoming? And in an
other generation no patriotic son in
America will refer, except in humilia-
ton. to his fathers hostility to the an
nexation Of the Hawaiian islands and
the retention of the war-won islands Of
Torto Rico and the Philippines or his
attempted justification of the Tagal re-
volt through slanderous assaults upon
| the acts and purposes of the govern
nent of which he claimed to be loyal
| citizen and ungenerous and cowardly
reflections upon the courage and hui
manity of its soldiery.
Exasperated at the popular repudia-
| ton of their dishonest statements of
| fact, as we'll as their short-sighted par
tisan policies. and blinded by the venom
Of their malignity, these discredited op-
pcnents Of national advancement fail to
| understand that they have carried the
advocacy of their anti-expansion theor-
les far beyond the limits of discretion.