The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1902-03-26

are likely 10 To!HdlA III pO"0i 1oi q
generation at least. Suppose we can
not get all that the most ultra-Demo-
Gratis want in 1904: suppose we can
not unite the party on any radical as
sertion of mere doctrinal policies, is it
not worth the while of conscientious
and thinking men to stay the tide OF
absolutism which is stealing upon
the administration of every department
of the pubic service in its present
hands, to get at the truth of what is
going on in the Philippines, and to
establish vantage ground for such
changes of policy as the good sense and
good feeling of the people may decide
after we have taken stock, as it were,
and know just where we stand?
think so surely, and I put it to
every Democrat, whatever his ante
cedents or opinions, whether we should
net bottle up our theories along with
our dissensions, and with our backs
to the past, our eyes to the future,
begin once again the fight against
Federalism masquerading as Republi-
canism, while mere opportunism and
jobbery, flying the flag of the republic
as if it belonged to them, let the ma
tional credit out at usance for their
own benefit making monkeys of our
soldiers in the field and, regardless OF
obligation and duty leaving the fu-
tnre to pay the bills.
AS events are lining up in congress
the paramount issue, the issue of
issues. in 1904 will be the Philippines.
We shall hear something about ship
subsidies and the tariff of course. We
shall hear something Of Cuba and
Porto Rico and Hawaii, of course.
Whether the sugar trust is to rule, or
the beet ring shall make US the vassals
of vegetable and the slaves of a
chemical process-as MI. Dooley OBJ
serves-will vary the tones of the Aeo-
Ian harp of popular oratory and con-
tribute little. .humor to the otherwise
sombre, perhaps acrimonious. charac-
ter of the canvass. But about the
Philippines all that can be said for
and against the Republican party will
range itself.
The Republicans claim absolute
sovereignty over the Philippines They
propose to do precisely as they please
with the Filipinos. They bave set up
a government, half civil, half military,
at Manila. They proclaim the per-
manency of this and declare that its
impeachment is high treason. Crit
cism in Congress is assault upon our
soldiers in the fields. Even Mr. Hoar
is told that if he said in Luzon what
he says in the Senate ne would be
tried by drum-head court-martial and
shot.
This is perfectly characteristic of
Republican methods and the Republi-
can spirit. The Republican party is
the lineal descendant of the old FEEDER
alist party. The old Federalist party
was conceived in aristocracy. Force
became the reason of it's being. In its
very birth the Republican party ap-
pealed to "the higher law" It.devel-
oped into a war party. 1t is a war
party still It cannot exist without
some kind of bloody shirt or other.
In order to hold its own it must
satisfy majority of the people that it
stands between the country and its
dishonor; that it is the party both of
the nations glory and progress: that
expansion, which is but another name
for glory and progress, must be up
held, if need be, by force and the
higher law; and that to question its
proceeding in the Philippines is to
raise a standard of revolt against con-
stituted authority, to associate ones
self with the enemies of the country,
and, in word, to be disloyal to the
flag. Thus they hope to make cop
perhead affair of the presidential bat
tie of 1904.
Abraham Lincoln is dead. If he
were living, be would be standing by
the side of George Fisbie Hoar. The
Union is whole again-safe, intact.
The flag rains down from forty-6ve
stars of equal magnitude its glorious
light upon the just and the unjust,
even as the dews of heaven. Things
have come to pretty pass when a pa
triotic american may not challenge
the doings of a selfish party ring
without exposing himself to the accu-
stations of treason from pot-wollapers
who, from Theodore Roosevelt to
Matthew Stanley Quay, are in politics,
and always have been in politics, for