Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-06-16

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ilton thought only of country they think
only of self Where Hamilton placed
patriotism above partisanship they plac
ed partisanship above patriotism. How
then do they dare to speak for the great
body of American citizens who form the
rank and file of the Republican party? Do
these leaders believe that their Repub-
licanism is a better Republicanism than
Hamilton's. their Americanism a purer
Americanism than that of Washington?
Unless craftsmanship has fallen into
disrepute among Republicans, the men
who controlled the Chicago convention
cannot read Alexander Hamilton out of
the Republican party. Unless | mis-
take the temper of the American peo-
pie the Republican bosses can no more
lead their adherents away from the
neutrality for which Washington and
Hamilton struggled than they can lead
them away from the flag for which
Washington and Hamilton fought.
If Washington was right, if Jeffer-
son was right, if Hamilton was right,
if Lincoln was right, then the presi-
dent of the United States is right today;
if the Republican leaders are right then
Lincoln was wrong and jefferson was
wrong and Hamilton was wrong and
washington was wrong.
NO POLICY so GREAT
AS AMERICAN NEUTRALITY.
In all the history of the world there
is no other national policy that has
justified itself so completely and en-
tirely as the American policy of neutral
ity and isolation from the quarrels of
European powers. Before we declared
our neutrality we were embroiled in all
the troubles of Great Britain, France
and Spain; since then we have had less
than three years of war with Europe
and 116 years of amity and peace.
Before this declaration every war was
a world-war; since this declaration
nearly every war has been a local war.
Before this declaration war was a
whirlpool, ever-increasing in area and in
it's whirl dragging down the nations of
the earth; since this declaration war
has become a sea of trouble upon which
nations embark only from self-will,
from self-interest or the necessity of
geographical position, of financial
obligation or political alliance.
Neutrality is the policy which has
kept us at peace while Europe has
been driving the nails of war through
the hands and feet of a cruciied hu-
manity.
/. 1t has banished conquest from our
program of national greatness and has
made us find our destiny at home. 1t
has forced US to build on the Drawn of
our sons and the energy of our d. Ugh
ters rather than upon the tears of con-
quered women and the blood of con-
quered men. II has made us seek treas
ure in our harvests, wealth in our fields
by staying our hands from wars blood
stained pot of gold. 1t has been the
haming sword which forbade us to
devastate the Eden of others and COM
PEELED us to make an Eden of our own.
1t has been freed from the paralyzing
touch of Europe's balance of power,
leaving to Europe the things that are
Europe's and preserving for America
the independence, the peace and the
happiness that now are hers.
AS result of this policy America
stands serene and confident, mighty and
proud, temple of peace and liberty in
world afiame, sanctuary where the
lamp of civilization burns clear and
strong, a living, breathing monument to
the craftsmanship of the great Ameri-
cans who kept it free from the menace
of European war.
WE HAVE MAINTAINED NATION
DEDICATED TO IDEALS OF PEACE.
Wealth has come to us, power has
come to us, but better than wealth Or
power we have maintained for ourselves
and for our children nation dedicated
to the ideals of peace rather than to the
gospel of selishness and slaughter.
The praises of this policy are not
written in the ruins of American homes,
not in the wreck of American indus
tries, not in the mourning of American
families; they are found in the myriad
evidences of prosperity and plenty that
make this contented land. From every
whirling spindle in America, from every
factory wheel that turns, from every
growing thing that breathes its pray
err of plenty to the skies, from every
quiet school, from every crowded mart,
from every peaceful home goes up
song of praise, a paean of thanksgiving
to hymn a nations tribute, to the states
manship that has brought these things
to pass.
No American who knows the facts can
honestly oppose or criticise the policy of
neutrality which the present Democratic
administration has pursued. Driven
from this position, by the logic of our
history and the lesson of our prosperity
carpers and defamers rush to the oppo-
site extreme and assert that this policy
has not been enforced with sufficient Wig
or by the present administration.
Standing here with the eyes of nation
upon this convention, with the cold light
of reason, the piercing shafts of logic
streaming upon all that we may say OF
do, l declare, with history as my wit
ness and with fact as my proof that the
neutral rights of American citizens have
never been so vigorously asserted or SO
successfully maintained as they have
been asserted and maintained by the
president of he United States during the
present war.
Americas doctrine of neutrality never
meant that this nation must rush head
long into war at the first invasion of
its neutral rights. Neutrality is not a
hair-triggered policy that explodes in
violence at the first assault. 1t is a pol
icy that has proved successful because
II has always been asserted through ne
gotiation rather than through force,
through diplomacy rather than by an
appeal to arms. This does not mean
that America will not resort to war when
all other means of protecting its neutral
rights have failed. but 1t does mean that
America will exhaust every peaceful
means of protecting those rights
before it takes the step from which
there is no appeal Just as in domes-
tic affairs the penal statutes cannot
wholly suppress crime, so in foreign af-
fairs the law of neutrality cannot
entirely prevent the breach of neutral
rights There has scarcely been a war
since the principle of neutrality was
embodied in international law, in which