The Irish standard., 1902-06-07

"Now. all this cost, all these Young
men gone 10 their graves, all these
wrecked lives, all this national dis
honor. the repeal of the Declaration Of
independence. the overthrow of the
principle on which the Monroe Doc
vaStatinn of provinces. the shooting Of
cnptivrs. the torture of prisoners and
of ul,armcl and peaceful citizens. the
hanging men up by the thumbs, the
ear loads of maniac soldiers that you
bring home. all are because you will
not tell now whether you mean in the
future to stand upon the principles
which you aINl your fathers always
declared in the past.
'',Thc senator from Ohio says it is not
wise to declare what YOU will do Mt
some future time. Mr.. President, we
| do not ask you to declare what you
will do ut some future time. We ask
YOU To declare an eternal principle good
at the present time ana good Mt all
times. We ask you to rcaflirm ii, be-
cause the men most clnmOrous in sup
port of what you are doing deny it.
That principle, il you act upon lit, pre-
vents you from crushing out weak
nation because of your fanccd interest
now or hereafter 1t prevents you
from undertaking to judge what insti-
| flJt rns .Nfl t1,~
poor plea that you are the strongest
We nrc asking you at least to go no
| further than to declare what you
would not do now or hereafter, and
the reason for declaring it is that half
of you declare you will hold this peo-
pie in subtcction and the othc' hale h.
on this matter arc dumb. !;
"You declared what you would nor
do at some future time when you all
voted that You would not take Cuba
against the will of her people, did you
not? We ask you TO declare not ut
what moment you will get out Of, the
Philippine Islands, but only on what
eternal principles you will act, in them
or out Of them. Such declarations are
made in all history. They are made in
every Important treaty between ma
tions.
'"rhe Constitution of the United
States is itself but declaration of
what this country will do and will not
do in all future times. The Declaration
of Independence, if 1t has the practical
meaning it has had for hundred
years, is n declaration of what this
country would do through all future
times.
'Thc Monroe Doctrine, to which six
teen republics south of us owe their
lives and their safety, was Il declara-
tion to mankind of what we would do
in all future time. Among all the shall
low prctenscs Of imperialism this state
mcnt that we will not say what we
will do in the future is the most shall.
low of all.
"Was there ever such flimsy pre-
text faunted in the face of the Ameri-
can people as that of gentlemen who
say, If any other nation on the face Of
the earth or all other nations together
attempt to overthrow the independence
} of any people to the south Of us in this
!. hemisphere we will fight and prevent
them, and at the same time think It
: dsEonorable to declare whether we
} will overthrow the independence of a
weaker nation in another hemisphere? :?
II suppose, according to this modern
doctrine, that if when the holy alliance
threatened to reduce the colonies which
had thrown off the yoke Of Spain in
South America, not whit more com.
pletely than the Philippine people had
thrown off the yoke of Spain in Asia;
If they had undertaken to subdue them
all at once, John Quincy Adams and
James Monroe would have held their
pence and would at least have said It
was not wise to say what we would do
in the future. f5
'Tf we had the right to protect mas
cent republics from the tyranny Of
other neonIo md to HfAcIaro TINT xuo