Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1918-10-30
How George Washington
Was Maigned By Radicals

In the Oregon State Library (Salem)
| is an interesting fine volume called
'sThe Making of the Nation" donated
to the library by the Oregon Society Of
the Sons of the Revolution. Francis A
Walker, Ph.D.L.L.L., president of the
Massachusetts Institute of Archology
| is the author. The following extract is
repeated from this work and it seems
timely now in view of the partisan
criticism of President Wilson:
Measures so outrageous made wal
(lT94), in the then feeling of the ma
tion, imminent and seemingly inevita-
BILE. More than all others the United
States had come, by force both of ira
ditien and of interest, to represent aid
champion the rights of neutral trade
Our carrying business was very
large; and our people were fully deter
mined to protect it, not only from mo
tives of gain but from sentiments Of
Galional pride. A Temporal. embargo
upon American ports was voted in
March, 1894, in order that our ships
might not be caught at sea in the event
of war. A bill was passed for fortify-
ing certain rivers and harbors, and a
report was adopted largely increasing
the army. War would have been Justi-
fable but the great interest of the ma
tion was peace So Washington saw
it; so we now see it to have been, and
in spite of clamor, in the face Of pas
sion, the president determined upon a
last effort for a peaceful solution of
the difficulties. To this end he select
ed Chief Justice Jay, a federalist, and
therefore esteemed by the opposition a
friend of England, but a man of the
loftiest character and the most fervent
patriotism, to proceed to England and
open negotiations. In November, 1894,
Judge Jay concluded treaty; and in
same.
"We should despair Of giving the
reader an idea of the intensity Of the
indignation with which the republican
party opposed the mission of Jay and
denounced the outcome. The debates
on the British treaty. are among the
most memorable of the senate, while
the agitation in the house of represen-
tutives, which was republican, and
throughout the country, was wholly un-
para1lelcd. Then it was that the house
struck out the phrase sundiminished
confidence from an address to the
president; then it was that Virginia,
by her legislature, refused to declare
her trust in Washington; then il was
that vituperation spared not the au-
gust chief who had conducted the
states thus far in war and in peace
with the universal acclaim of his coun-
trymen. Anti-treaty niobs filled the
streets of New York and Boston; Jay
was burned in effigy; Hamilton stoned.
Looking back calmly at this series
of events we can say that, while the
treaty sacrificed no American rights, it
granted far less than our people were
entitled to claim; and was therefore
open to criticism. The western posts
were, indeed, to be surrendered, and
indemnity granted to the sufferers by
search or capture. A few concessions,
also were made to American commerce.
But, in the main, the British govern
ment maintained its commercial system
in full rigor, and by no means re-
nounced the right Of search and inn
prcssment On the high seas. Those
great questions the Jay treaty still left
to be decided later, as it proved, by
the arbitrament Of war; but we cannot
doubt that the United States were for
tunate in attaining a postponement Of
that contest until twenty years more
had nearly doubled their population and
had compacted the national strength. "