Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-08-17

go convention. Informing the presi-
dent of his nomination by the repub-
lican party to succeed himself, Mr..
Cannon said: BY blood by inheri-
tance, by education and by practice,
we are a self-governing people" Are
we to believe that Mr.. Cannon meant
to intimate, converse, that nobody
was of self-gOvening capacity unless
by blood, education or successful prac-
tice? If so. il is feared that he is get
ting back to our ancestors blunder
and may incur the danger of receiving
the appreciation of some of those be-
knighted creatures known as southern
democrats We wonder if our anceS-
tors in New England, New York and
Virginia had been stupid enough TO
have some notion the converse of Mr..
CannOn's utterance in their heads, and
if they had based their action on the
fact that the noble red man had
none of the blood" of self-gOverning
races in his veins, none of that subtle
force of heredity," which accounts for
so much and which is so hard to be
accounted for itself, if they thought
that he had not for any sufficient
length of time been educated for the
task of governing white men, or had
had no practice" in it, except such as
seemed TO lead 10 the conclusion that
he was not capable of it.
Revolution IA Mistake.
The next great blunder in our early
history consisted in their taking up
arms against King George and his
forcae u-ban rho latrar v-ara actuatad
as they themselves confessed only by
the kindest designs of ''benevOlently
assimilating" to themselves our re
sources and our opportunities. You, sir.
who have a republican sOn-in-law and.
therefore. possess culture by affinity at
least. will hardly believe that our an
cestors were stupid enough to fight
against the principle. which we so
frankly recognize in the Philippines.
viz: that ii is perfectly right, self-evi-
dcntly proper. Tor a flag to cover and
cmblemize two entirely different sorts
of government, one for ourselves 'at
home" protecting individual. civil and
political liberty and pretending TO fur
nish full and equal opportunities for
industrial development. and another
for others lin the colonies s-absolutc
and discretionary in its character and
avowedly limiting industrial develop
n1ent there by the necessities of com
mercial exploitation for the benefit of
the home" merchant and the home
manufacturer. We know, now, of
course. that all our ancestors talk
about ''inalienable rights of self-gOv-
ernment. no taxation without repre-
sentation," habeas corpus and right of
trial by jury. freedom of the press, free
dom of speech and freedom of assem-
bly,. were only preteXt resorted to by
ranting insurgents" in order TO throw
of the "civilizing influences" of the
best government which the world had
that far witnessed. We have not been
stupid enough TO confine to mere words
our apology for this mistake in our his
tory; We have apologized by deeds of
confession: il seems strange that we
could. as a people. have prospered in
| dustrially and otherwise, as we have
| prospered: so marvelously, sir. in al
| our history. both as colonies and as
states. in spite Of the monstrous error
this unholy rebellion.
The Boston Tea Party.
Coming on down the current of time
we found another period of popular
| Mysteries. that is incomprehensibIe tC
US of a wiser generation. in view ot
! some enlightening facts N our recent
| history Some men in the trouble
! some little town of Boston. masquerad
| ing as Indians. seized and threw int
| the sea, certain cases of tea belonging
| to certain merchants of the East In
| dia company. That this was a viola
ton of the law. no man in England o.