Arizona republican., 1917-01-05

continued, England had already given | indications of her willingness 10 aid 1 the south in the success of secession : She hal extended both her sympa- | thies and her approval. She there | fore was no longer neutral. Her at 1 utUde was known to our government. | It was not tender of their good of [ fees IL was an offer to mediate. 1 They terdered themselves, both France 1 ana England, to mediate and them 1 selves offered the terms of the peace | between the states
 Senator Lewis said that previously l France had indicated that in this | time of American disoord she might recover all she lost in the Louisiana purchase and England proclaimed from | Canada that she would be able to re- cover the country in the northwest ! previously ceded to the United States. ! Tt was because of that" said the 1 senator, that the United States de- clined any suggestion whatever of mediation
 1 So far as I am concerned he added, T am not much interested whether the president of the United { States confoTmed to precedent or
 whether he did not or all offenses | that have been committed against l liberty in America it has been that idolizing of precedent which has no
 application to modern events and
 which stays the spirit Of things by
 too much adherence to the letter ] but if the president of the United
 States is to he adjudged by prece-
 dents, then there must be truth to
 the historical facts that men may be
 judged truthfullv and justly
 ! Reviewing the vast forces arrayed
 in the present conflict ready to fight
 to the death.' the senator con- 1 tinued:
 Surely the scholar of the day. the l casual man of the times, would re- i gard it as recreancy on the part of
 any man in power if he could have spoken to avoid the consequences | which must surely befall all civili-
 zation by the decimation of the
 human race had he failed to .Co SO. He said the president had not
 asked the belligerents to submit | peace terms nor suggested those | terms, but that he asked them to
 get together among themselves on | anything which to either would he
 satisfactory as the terms of peace" If the position of the senator be well taken he added, then there | can never be an hour when any man
 any place could appropriately ap- ! proach the question of peace. There 1 would be none to speak for those who have the desire. There would
 be no agency in the world. Parties would be left to the conflict, to the 1 interminable end. and unless death
 was the inheritance of all. and ] the silent voice of civilization in destruction would be all that was i left to mankind
 ! Turning to the criticism that the note had been construed as favorable 1 to Germany, Senator Lewis said: q
 can hardly imagine any document in
 q crisis like this that would not re- ceive it's construction from one side [ or another. There are always those
 interests from one viewpoint or the
 other. Surely there can be no ex-
 pressiOn from the president of the United States in a matter so grave , as this but that those interested
 would readily draw from it con-
 struction and thus indulge the con
 structiOr by making accusations. But
 if all that be true. shall that defeat
 the purpose merely because there
 might arise a construction from con-