The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1914-11-19
Gladstone and Slavery.
E. (. LEWIS.

"While Ajax strives some rocks vast
weight to throw,
slow.
Not SO when swift Camilla scours the
plain,
Flies Ger the u%nbending corn and skins
along the main"
Solomon says. IA word fifty spoken is
like apples of gold in pictures of silver"
What a marvelously expressive language
is ours! No one can read aloud the first
two lines of the above quotation from
Pope without feeling instinctively that he
Is tugg1ng at some terrific task-nor can
you repeat the last two lines without ex-
peTlenclng the opposite sensation of light
ness and buoyancy. DR.. Gunsaulus in his
splendld lecture upon Gladstone has no
break In his ready flow of %eloquence
though there are some rocky protuber-
ances In the life of his hero which oblge
him to do somewhat as the old English
school master did with hard words: Skip
them boys. skip them-no man in England
can spell them"
Good man and true, Mr.. Gladstone was
yet a politician rather than a statesman,
and the hustings' story seems quite an In
d1cator to his character.
At a meeting where he strove for cleo
ton to parliament a burly elector pushed
forward and demanded. 'Mr. Gladstone
II you are elected will you support such
and such a measure?' 81 WILL" said
Gladstone deliberately, upon which one
party set up a great cheer. Not" came
cheered, tell you," concluded the speak
er, and all laughed though there was con-
siderable CONSERVATION.
Even the three volume ~apotheosis OF
John Morley cannot endow him with the
breadth of Robert Peel. nor clothe him
with the international figure of Pitt, nor
gid him with the imperial manner of Bea-
consfeld. Mr.. Morley speaks of him as
one whose ensign was human freedom
Yet Mr.. Gladstone opposed the eman-
cfpation of England's slaves in 1899 and
in 1888, after the adjustment of slavery In
Jamaica and the adoption Of apprentice
ship, he defended the planters in parlia-
ment without even affecting to look al
the other side.
In 1852 at Newcastle in a great speech
he said that Jefferson Davis and his col.
eagues have made an army-are making
a navy-and what Is more han either
have made a nation"
OF course he soon saw his error n ex,
pressed his regrets, but he did not stant
on the broad ground Of human freedom
giving as his reasons for regret that {
cabinet officer should not make such {
statement and that, 'It was made upor
a false estimate of the facts" In othel
words that the confederate nation wa
not quite made. Even in his autobiog
raphy In 1896 his roundabout way of ex
cusing himself was purely political ant
puts him in the category of the FAST an,
loose.
How much more magnificent was tn
position of Queen Victorla! When sh
learned that Mr.. Gladstone and his cab
met We're considering the recognition o
the confederacy, she sent for the premie
and asked him point blank whether h
was contemplating such a step, and uuo
Mr.. Gladstone's admitting it, she arose j
her glory and said: Then, sir, you wi
stop at once for I will never recognize
nation whose cornerstone is slavery"
After the premier's ill-timed utteranc
in 1862 it was Immediately understood the
the confederacy would be recognized an
Charles Francis Adams within 10 days tr
tinlated to Lord Russell that he though
he had better pack his trunk." But Lor
Russell assured him that strict neutralit
would be observed. 81 asked" said M
Adams, whether I was to understan
that the policy was not to be changed ?
Yes" was the reply. In the meantim
Mr.. Gladstone had been summoned
Windsor and the queen had peremptoril
ended the whole scheme, as above mel
toned. Mr.. Adams wrote in his diary o.
tober 'S-'If Gladstone be any exponent (
his cabinet my term is likely to be yer
short"
To the numerous complaints made