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

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pointed to this American policy of neu-
trality as a model for the world; and
eighty years later, after approval by
various statutes and agreements, it was
written almost word for word in the
treaty wherewith we settled our diff
ferences with England over the viola
ton of neutrality throughout the Civil
war.
And so neutrality is American in its
contamination
And today in this hall, so that all the
world may hear, We proclaim that this
American policy of neutrality is the pol
lev which the present administration
pursues with patriotic zeal and religious
devotion; while Europe's skies blaze red
from fires of war, Europe's soil turns
red from blood of men, Europe's eyes
see red from tears of mourning women
and from sobs of starving children.
The men who say this policy is not
American appeal to passion and to preju-
dice and ignore the facts of history.
Neutrality is Americas contribution
to the laws of the world. Sir Henry
Maine says so. Charles Francis Adams
says so. Henry Clay says so, Daniel
Webster says 80 and upon the evidence
of these witnesses We rest our Amerl-
canism against the splutterings of pep
per-pot politicians or the fabrications
of those with whom a false issue is a
good issue until its falsity is shown, its
righteousness exposed.
FOR ENFORCING NEUTRALITY
WASHINGTON WAS HooTED.
For enforcing this policy of neutrali-
ty George Washington was booted by
a bowling mob of 10000 war fanatics
who threatened to pull him from tho
presidential chair and start revolu-
tion. But half a century later Charles
Sumner said that Washington uphold
ing the peaceful neutrality of this coun-
try, while he met unmoved the clamor
of the people wickedly crying for war,
is a greater man than Washington cross
ing the Delaware or taking CORVALLIS
sword at Yorktown"
For supporting this policy of neutral
ity in a speech in the city of New York
Alexander Hamilton was stoned almost
to death, John Jay burned in effigy, JEFF
ferson called a spineless poltroon and
Lincoln pictured as a craven. Today,
however the nation goes to all these
men for it's every conception Of all that
is best in American citizenship.
The fate of the fathers of our coun'
try at the hands of a noisy minority
is the fate of the president of the Unit
ed States today. But their reward of
dignities merited and lionors conferred
will be his reward, when the people
speak on the Sth of next November.
To win this priceless right of neutral
ity this nation had to undergo a long
and painful struggle.
1t took Washington with his allies
and sword eight years to win recogni-
ton of his countrys liberty; it took
Washington and his successors eighty
years of endless negotiation to win rec
of American neutrality. And
this eighty years of struggle wove the
/ doctrine of neutrality so closely into
the warp and wool of our national life
that to tear il out now would unravel
the very threads of our existence.
Where is the American hardy enough
to challenge a policy so firmly fixed in
the nations traditions? Is there among
US any man bold enough to set his wis
dom above that of Washington, his pa
triotism above that of Hamilton and his
| Americanism above that of Jefferson? is
there any American so blind to our past,
so hostile TO our future, that, departing
from our policy of neutrality, he would
hurl us headlong into the maelstrom OF
the war across the sea?
PRESIDENT STANDS WHERE
GREAT PREDECESSORS STOOD.
The president of the United States
stands today where stood the men who
made America, and who saved America.
He stands where John Adams stood,
when he told King George that America
was the land he loved and that peace
was her granduer and her welfare. He
stands where General Grant stood when
he said there never was a war that
could not have been settled better some
other way, and he has shown his will
lingness to try the ways of peace be-
/ fore he seeks the paths of war. He
stands where George Washington stood
when he prayed that this country would
never unsheath the sword except in
self-defense so long as justice and our
essential rights could be preserved with
out il.
For vain glory or for selfish purposes,
others may cry up a policy of blood
and iron, but the president Of the United
States has acted on the belief that the
leader of a nation who plunges his peo-
pie into an unnecessary war, like Pom
thus PLATE vainly washes his hands of
innocent blood while the earth quakes
and thousands give up the ghost.
Only by standing on this rock of
Americanism, against which dashed the
waves of conflict, could the president
of the United States, faced by a world
in arms, save this country from being
drawn into the whirlpool of disaster. One
false step in any direction and he would
have carried the nation with him over
the precipice.
This difference, my friends, between
what is" and what might be" is well
/ illustrated by two pictures which hung
on the walls of the art museum here
in the city of ST. Louis during the Louis
lana Purchase exposition.
One of these pictures portrayed the
famous warriors who have stricken ter
ror into the hearts of mankind since the
dawn of history. Alexander the Great
was there, Caesar was there, Hannibal
was there, Napoleon was there, and on
either side of this sinister group lay
in endless rows the sheeted dead of war.
The other picture represented hands.
myriads of hands, humanity's hands,
stretching upwards toward the sky
gnarled hands of labor and wrinkled
hands of age, smooth hands of youth
and tiny hands of babyhood, strong
hands of men and delicate hands of
women-hands of aspiration stretching
upward from divine inspiration toward
/ betterment and peace
LET THOSE WHO WILL
FOLLOW LORDS OF WAR.
| These two pictures symbolic the
| hammers of tbfg raY