Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-07-08
Champ Clark's Speech.

was TedulIlS the RepuDllCdH PLATFORM,
he would, no doubt, have pronounced
the same opinion more leisurely, for
surely there was never more mendacity
packed into the same space in any
document purporting to be grave
state paper.
Shakespeare says:
Thrice is he armed, that hath his
quarrel just;
"And he but naked. though locked UP
in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is
corrupted
In the impending conflict our quarrel
is just and we are in the right beyond
all cavil.
To state it in general way, our con-
tention is that the government shall be
restored to the Democratic Republican
basis on which the fathers of the re-
public intended it to rest, and shall be
| made once more a government of the
people, by the people and for the people,
| instead of a government of the classes,
by the classes, and for the class.
To state it with more particularly
we insist that exorbitant taxation shall
he reduced to just and reasonable
rates; that extravaganza in appropria-
| tions shall cease; that economy shall
| prevail in all the transactions of the
government; that all departments shall
| be thoroughly investigated from top
to bottom by congressional committees;
that all evil-doers of whatever degree
shall he driven from the public service
| hot l,n
shall be proceeded against by indict =
ment as are common and smaller
criminals; that the constitution ac-
companies the American flag into our
new possessions.
The proposition that we must support
President Roosevelt's Philippine pOlic.'
if he has any, right or wronS-iS the
vcricst rot-a tale told by an idiot. I
am willing to go as far any any one in
patriotism; | will support my country
in any emergency, but the President i J
not the country. The time has not ar
rivcd-I pray Almighty God that it will
never arrive-whcn the American pco-
pie will accept the arrogant dictum Of
Louis NV. if repeated by an American
President: Il am the state" If Prcsi-
dent Roosevelt is at all worthy of his
high position he must entertain a SUI
prcmc contempt for those political
supple jacks, particularly for those
claiming to be Democrats, who go
about with sanctimonious moan, say
ing:
THE President is wrong in his
Philippine policy, but we must support
the PRESIDENT"
Out upon all such cringing idiocy.
Suppose Il case: Suppose that when
George III. undertake to force our
fathers to pay the stamp tax, Patrick
Henry, instead of delivering that great
lyric speech before the Virginia House
of Burgesses, which percipitated the
Revolution and which still stirs the
heart like strains of martial music, had
| arisen in his place and said gently as Il
sucking dove: His most Gracious Ma =
jesty is wrong about this stamp bust
ness but we must as loyal subjects,
| support him. right or wrong" and sup
pose Washington, Jefferson, Warren,
| Adams, Greene, Lee, HamiltOn-all thai
glorious host of warriors and sages-
| had weakly agreed to that-what would
we be today-instcad of being the rich
est, most puissant republic in all the
| flood of time, we would still be English
colonies, ruled by British pro-cOnsuls
and generals without any voice what
ever in the government under which we
live.
Those immortal state builders were
reared on the fiction that the king can
| In mr. hIIf wi no
wrong they boldly and iconiclastically
tramplcd that preposterous falsehood
under their feet and wrestling CONT
nent from his iron grasp, dedicated it
as the home of freedom and to the twin
propositions that governments derive
their just powers from the consent of
the governed" and that all men are
created equal
| There were men in the land in 1176.
Are they only manikins now? l do
not believe such monstrous libel
| George III did wrong. Our fathers
fought and conquered him. Theodore
Roosevelt does wrong. We will oppose
| and overthrow him.
Support the Presidents policy, Ell?
viii some gentleman please tell us what
that policy is? Has he any? If so. why
doesn't he say so? The truth is. he has
none. He is an opportunist waiting for
something to turn up. He is letting
| things drift and they are drifting to the
duce. Meantime our soldiers are being
killed and are dying of disease in shoals.
For what purpose? Will anybody I'M
dertake to say? 1 defy any lingo to
stand up and declare with a straight
face what the Presidents policy or the
Republican policy is. No one will say,
no one can say; but some way-more's
the pity and shame-"the President is
willing; but we must support the Pres
ident."
To this complexion has it come at
last by reason of the new tangled jim
goism that we must shut up out think
ers, close our mouths and chloroform
our consciences in order to be consid-
cred patriots.
1t avails nothing to claim-as some do
THAT Col. Roosevelt is better than his
party. 1t is to be hoped most fervently
that he is-a great deal better; but truth