New-York tribune., 1901-01-10
PATRIOTISM IN MISSOURI

In the year 1914 the United States was at
war with Great Britain. Many excellent and
pious men believed il was engaged in foolish
war, brought on by Western and Southern
jingoes and French sympathizing Jacobins
Our campaigning on land had been for the most
part a failure, and the outlook for honorable
peace was gloomy. The righteous men whose
business was being ruined by a war which they
did not approve, carried on by party to which
they were in opposition, gathered themselves
into convention at Hartford, Conn, lin order
ito decide on the course which a crisis so
''momentOus might seem TO demand" 1t is not
recorded that they ever did any overt act of
treason or that they even passed resolutions
favorable TO the British But their friends and
sympathizers had from the outbreak of the war
been unmeasured in their condemnation of their
country, and some of them had gone so far
TO argue unfinchingly for the English right of
search-John Lowell, for instance, calling it
"consecrated right'-and TO declare that they
would refuse TO obey some war measures If the
Government took them. Everybody knows the
result. The Essex Junto and the Hartford Con-
vention passed into history as types Of unpatri-
otic political professionalism. No FederaliSt poll
tician who did not, like John Quincy Adams,
distinctly repudiate the efforts of his party TO
obstruct the policy OF the opposition engaged in
war ever emerged from retirement. The blight
Of reputed treason shrivelled the Federal party,
in spite of its splendid earlier service in start
ing the United States on its career as a nation,
and it never again was a force in American
politics.
This bit of history is recalled by telegram
from Jefferson City, Mo-, giving account Of the
adoption by the Missouri House of Representa-
tives, by a vote of "A to A. of resolution pro-
may perhaps be remembered hereafter. The
resolution was as follows:
Whereas, The sympathies of the American
people go out to all nations and all people strug-
Cling for liberty; therefore, be ii
Resolved, That the House of Representatives
Of the XLIst General Assembly of Missouri ex
tend sympathy to the people of the Philippine
Archipelago in their heroic struggle for freedom.
1t is not necessary to characterize that reso-
luton or the men who voted for it. Article Ill
Section 3. of the Constitution of the United
States does this with great clearness. If this is
not a case of adheriDg to the enemies of the
United States II would be interesting to have
Mr.. Edward Atkinson or Mr.. William Lloyd
Garrison tell why not. Anxious as they have
been to secure our withdrawal from the Philip
pines. and extravagant as have been their indi-
yidual utterances Of admiration for Aguinaldo
and the consecrated rights Of his followers we
doubt if they will be prepared TO commend pub
licly the formal action of a State legislative
body extending sympathy to persons engaged in
conflict with the armies of the United States
The attention Of the Hon. George G. Vest Sen
ator from Missouri, should also be given TO
this resolution. He is one of the leaders Of
the party which says and is now trying to get
the Supreme Court TO say that the Philippines
are an integral part of this country under its
hat tboSo
citizens of the United States. If that is the
these Filipinos in their heroic struggle for
freedom" are not striving to throw off a foreign
yoke, but are in domestic rebellion against their
own country. Does the Missouri House wish TO
encourage rebellion and break I'D the Union?
We do not suppose the Government at Wash
ington will care to take notice of such mad
extremes of partisan opposition, but the Ameri-
can people will. If in the day of almost en-
bryonic nationality, when large bodies Of men
doubted the permanence of the Union and
thought it not unpatriotic to make plans counter
TO the general action-if in that day the sus-
picion of unfaithfulness to the Government
could ruin the Federal party, is il possible to
suppose that the people who went through the
Civil War and established the claim Of this
Nation upon the loyalty of its citizens will take
any more lenient view of the persons respon-
sible for the Missouri Endorsement of the Fill
pino insurgents, who are killing men of the
American Army engaged in maintaining their
countrys authority over its lawful territory?
South Carolina conscientiously disapproved of
the tariff Of 1892, just as some conscientiously
disapprove Of subduing the Filipinos, but the
people never ceased to honor Jackson for his
threat TO hang the Nullifers. The right of the
Missouri representatives to their opinion of their
Governments acts is conceded But an attempt
to ally their State with that Governments
armed enemies is quite another thing.