The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-04-16
\ CHASTITY DEAL.

of unconditional surrender to Great
Britain, or, rather than give over the
defense of their respective countries, to
continue to emulate the spirit of
Ethan Allen in his characteristic dec
laration to the Continental Congress
81 am as resolutely determined to
defend the independence of Vermont
as Congress is that of the United
States, and, rather than fail, will re-
tire with my hardy Green Mountain
Boys into the desolate caverns of the
mountains and wage war with human
nature at large. "
The same resolute spirit that ami
mated Allen and his fellow colonists
in Vermont, and which for fourteen
years steadfastly maintained their in
dependence against Congress, New
York, New Hampshire, and Massa-
chusetts, for some three years has
been exhibited by the Transvaalers
and their brethren of the Orange Free
State, and never more conspicuously
than during the last year or two OF
the tragic conflict. The determine
ton Numbered in Parliament, in the
defence of the colonists by Pitt-if he
were an American as he was an En-
glishman-the lofty resolution dis
played by Washington and his CO.
patriots in the direst straits of seven
years war, the logged persistence OF
Allen and the men of the Green Noun
tain republic, till each was victorious,
found early expression i'll the grim
declaration of President Kruger that
England's conquest of the South Al
rican republics would be at a cost
that would "stagger mankind. "
That prophecy has been fulfilled.
The old spirit and the old battle for
freedom that animated Americans and
Vermonters a century and quarter
later has reappeared in the regions
of South Africa. Never has the battle
been fought more desperately, or
heroically, or at greater odds. And
who shall say that the Beers might
not have triumphed ultimately had
the United States government faith
fully observed it's obligations of neu-
trality? We will not say as faithfully
as that government would have been
compelled to observe them had the
war been between England and con-
tinental power, but had the govern
ment observed at all the binding re-
quirements of neutrality?
Now that England has crushed the
republics and the completion of her
ignominious work is only matter of
time and detail, a great stir is made
over the continued purchase of mules
and horses in this country by agents
of the British war Office and their
shipment to South Africa for military
uses. The horse for remounts of Brit
ish cavalry and the mule for trans
portation Of supplies and equipments
have been for the British army what
cruisers and blockade runners were for
the Confederates in the war Of the
rebellion England paid the United
States ,Sl5, 900, 900, the penalty for
turning loose on American commerce
the Alabama and her brood of sister
destroyers-built, armed and supplied
with stores and ammunition in Eng
land and by Englishmen, and manned
by British seamen. If the Transvaal
and the Orange Free State were
France or Germany, and had survived
the conflict, under the circumstances
existing in respect of the United
States government and South Africa
in the pending war, the United States
government would be asked - and
would be compelled to answer, Here
am l." to. pay to that power the
penalty exacted at Geneva from the
government of Great Britain-and the
people of the United States, them
selves would say Amen
In plain violation of treaty stipula-
tion the Mckinley administration per
mitted Great Britain to use the Unit
ed States as base of supplies for her
South African army. That region has
been the grave yard Of hundreds OF
thousands of the horse kind, The
horse has been for the British in this
land war what ships would be in
naval war-what ships were to the
United States in the war with Spain.
Without the horses and mules the
Americas - and chiefly the United
States-have furnished England, her
warfare against the former patriots
might have been indefinitely prolong-
ed-and, in the end, might have been
as Intellectual as the war for the sub
jugation of the American colonists-
as effectual as Vermont's stand for
independence.
The subjugation of the burghers of
South Africa is the price paid for
Cuban indepenence and the acquisi-
ton of Porto Rico and the Philippine
Islands. 1t was a CHASTITY recompense
the Mckinley administration made