Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1904-03-14
AN ARRANGEMENT
THE WASHINGTON SPIRIT TO
WARDS OTHER NATIONS.
A Spirited Address Delivered by Walter II.
Beecher at the Vine Street Congres ationaI
Church, Cincinnati. on Washinstons Birth.
day, 1904.

This anniversary is a fitting time, and
this old Church, our Temple of Liberty,
the very place for us to ask again and
again this question: Are those wise
principles on which our fathers aimed
to found the American Republic, Justice,
Liberty and Brotherhood faithfully ex-
pressed in the foreign policy Of our gov
eminent? Have they tempered as they
ought the official acts of our public
servants towards the people of other
lands? Do we sincerely respect the
rights of our neighbor nations? If not,
then it behooves us to remember well
that
Laws OF changeless justice bind
The oppressor with the oppressed;
And close as sin and suffering joined
We march to fate abreast.
Deny the rights of another people and
you have already begun to destroy your
own, And since our foreign policy dur
ing the last four years has been ordered
in fragrant violation of the Golden Rule,
in contemptuous disregard o! the PIE
cepts of Washington and that kindler
spirit which sees. as Washington saw,
the possibility of brotherhood among
the nations; since our public officials
have sown fear, hate and war where
there should have been trust, friendship
and peace, it is no less wise than right
that we should care greatly whether we
have been loyal to our country's early
ideals, the ideals of Washington, or
have forsaken them.
What were the Washington ideals?
Here is one OF them: 81 consider"
said he, that mankind may be con.
nected like one great family in frat ernal
ties. indulge the fond hope tn at the
benefits of free commerce shall pretty
generally succeed to the devastations
and horrors Of war" Now, rec al Some
of the modern depa' lures from this ideal
OF Washington; scan them in the spirit
OF this noble hope. and you will. find:
l. That in our dealings with the re-
public OF Colum bia We have not done az
we should have wished, ii we had been
in Columbia's place, a stronger nation
should do by us. We have denied her
the right of control and t.preserva alton
within her own borders; the right to
suppress conspiracy Of secession and
theft; and have accepted from her
traitors the stolen Panama canal, which
she was unwilling to deliver TO us at the
price which We had offered.
2. That we have denied to Porto Rico
even that degree of self.government
which she had enjoyed under Spain; and
having fastened upon her an alien
control, we make no ackno wledgment OF
responsibility for the corruption, oppres-
sion and unwonted distress we have
thus wrought upon her, and no promise
to enlarge her liberties and establish the
full rights Of her people.
3. That by our career Of despotism
in the Philippine Islands, we have
seemed to publish to the world that we
no longer believe that freedom is the
gift OF God to all mankind. Ought We
not to protest now and here against this
modern infidelity?
When. after five years OF criminal
effort to "bestow" any kind Of govern
ment at all upon the Fllipinos; after five
years Of muzzled Filipino press; aftel
five years OF treason law that doOmt
the Filipino to fine, Imprisonment ant
exile for the mere utterance Of the hope
that his country will some day be free
that there should still be Americans ant
Cincinnatians 50 insensible OF thei
country's disgrace that they are willing
to pay honor to fellow townsman whose
greatest distinction at this present mo.
ment is that he has helped to frame ant
enforce such laws, and that as an alier
governor OF the Philippine Islands, hi
has helped to destroy a native republic
and rear in its stead benevolent des
potism-is it not especially fitting, l say
that now and here, we disclaim and con
denim the faithless, skulking ruffiai
policy that has authrized or allotted this
kind of government in the name o
freedom loving Americans? That pub
lie servant OF ours. just retiring from al
Office wherein to unknown hundreds o
Filipinos who have had the courage t.
say to him: "Give us liberty or give u
DEATH" he has answered in our NAM
by giving them exile and death-tha
such a public servant should return to
day to the civic hearthstone, whose yer.
name, Cincinnati, commentaries tn
virtue OF defending native land agains
foreign rule-return with the flippant re
tort: "That the Filipinos are not We
fit to govern themselves" yea, and will
such an insult on his lips to the intelli