The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-08-11

come incorporates, III suUseahce anu e1- | State. as well as into the Fourteenth | Amendment to the Constitution of the | United States? Can we. hope for the respect Of the clVllzed world | every w citizen of the United States that no laws shall be made or enforced which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, or deny to any person the equal protection of the laws. and at the same time not only deny, similar rights to the inhabitants of the Philippines. but take away from them the right of trial by jury. and place their lives and the dis position of their property in the keep ing of those whom we send to them to be their governors? We shall certainly rue it as a nation if we make any such attempt. Viewing the question even from the standpoint ot national selfish ness there Is no prospect that the tweny millions of ,iolla-s expended in the purchase of the islands and the six hundred and fifty millions saio tv have been since disbursed will ever come back to us The accident of war brought the Philippines into our posses sion and we are not at liberty to disre- gard the responsibility which thus came to us, but that responsibility will be best subserved by preparing the is- lands as rapidly as possible for self government and giving to them the assurance that 1t will come as soon as they are reasonably prepared for it There need be no fear that the asser- ton so often made of late. that we have now become a world power, will then be without support. Ours Is a world power, and as such it must be maintained. but deny that 1t Is at all recently that the United States has attained that eminence. Our country became a world power over a century ago. when, having thrown off foreign domination. the people established a free government. the source of whose authority sprung, and was continuously to proceed, from the will of the people themselves It grew as a world power as its sturdy citizens, to whose natural increase were added immigrants from the old world seeking to obtain here the liberty and prosperity denied them in their owf, countries, spread over the race of the land. reduced the prairies and forest to cultivation built cities, constructed highways and railroads. till now a nation which at tn formation of the government number ed only three millions in population. has become eighty mfsffors, and from ocean to ocean and the lakes to the gulf. the country is the abode of free and prosperous people. advanced in the highest degree in the learning and arts of civilization. It is the liber- ty the advancement and the prosper ity of its citizens. not any career of conquest, that make. the country world power. This condition we owe to the bounty of Providence. unfolded in the great natural resources of the country, to the wisdom of our fathers manifested fin the furm of government established by them. to the energy. industry. moral character and law abiding spirit of the people them selves.
 Warning Against Miiitarism.
 We are not a military people. bent on conquest. or engaged in extending uor domains in foreign lands. or de- sirous of securing natural advantages. however. great, by force; but people loving peace, not only for ourselves. but for all the nations of the earth.
 The display of great military arma- ments may please the eye and. for the moment, excite the pride of the citizen. but it cannot bring to the country the brains, brawn and muscle of single immigrants, nor induce the investment here of a dollar of capital Of course such armament as may be necessary for the security of the country and the protection of the rights of its citizens, at home or abroad, must be maintain ed. Any other course would be not only false ecnomy, but pusillanimous. I protest, however. against the feeling' now far too prevalent. that by reason of the commanding position we have assumed in the world, we must take part in the disputes and broils of for eign countries and that because we have grown great %e should intervene in every important question that aries in other parts of the world. l also pro test against the erection of any such military establishment as would be re- uuired to maintain The country Tn that attitude. We should confine our inter vIsoItsm:edoafih rdluhrdl uhrdlu hrdlu national activities solely to matters in which the rights of the country or or our citizens are directly involved. Ihat is not a situation of isclaticn, put or independence.
 was organized Solely for the people Of the United States. While It was con templated that this country should be- come a refuge for the oppressed or every land. who might be fit to dis charge the duties of our citizenship, and while We have always symp1thized with the people of every nation ir their struggles for self govcrnme mt, the government was not created for q ca reer of political civilization evangeliza tion in foreign countries or among allen races
 The most efficient work we can do in uplifting the people of other countries is by the presentation of happy, pros. porous, self governing nation as an ideal to be emulated. model to be followed. The general occupation of our citizens in the arts of peace, or the absence of large military arma ments, tends to impair neither patri- otism nor physical courage, and for the truth of this I refer the young men of today to the history of the Civil War. For fifty years. with the excep- ton of the war with Mexico this coun- try had been at peace. with standing army most of the time of less than ten thousand men. He who thinks that the nation had grown effeminate durin,; that period should road the casualty rolls of the armies on either side at Shiloh, Antietam, fredericksburg and Gettysburg, at stone River and Chick amauga. I would be the last man 10 pluck a single laurel from the crown of any one of the military heroes to whom this country owes so much, bat I insist that their most heroic deeds proceeded infinitely more from deVotio1 to the country, than from martial spirit.
 Move in Letter of Acceptance.
 As I have already proceeded at too great length. other questions suggested in the platform, must await my letter of acceptance.
 MT. Chairman, in most graceful speech you have reminded me of the great responsibility az well as the great honor of the nomination bestow- ed upon me by the convention you rep resent this day. Be assured that both l are appI rcia ted-so kernly appreciated | that am humblcd in their presence.
 l accept, gentlemen of thr commit tee, the nomination. and If the action | of the convention shall he endorsed hv !