Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1919-05-29
An Appeal to the Senate
The League of Nations Guise of
Europe's Diplomacy

in the orderly processes OF our repres-
entative institutions of free govern
ment, the American people have en-
trusted to you the preservation of
that national independence and of tho
Sc Constitutional rights and libertesi
which our fathetrs won for us with
arms in their manly hands, and which
their sons, after them, have hitherto
maintained by wisdom in council and
| hardihood in war.
"Not in one hundred and thirty ye-
ars which have elapsed, Senators, sin
ce the SPLENDID edifice of our indepen-
dence and our liberties was completed
by the construction of the Constitutional
Union, has body of representatives
of the American people been confront
ed with proposal so dangerous to our
national life, so fatal to our national
/ independence, so abhorrent to our nat
ional traditions and our national spirit,
as the proposal with which you must
soon deal-the proposal, Senators,
that this country of ours shall SURF
ender it sovereign freedom of dom
este and foreign policy and conduck
to the distation of heterogeneous
J oilgarchy-of another Council of Ten
worse, indeed, that tyrannical in
sitution in that the Venetian oligarchs
could at least speak a common lang
/. Il int nm
holding against all corners the severe
lignty of their State.
But we, Senators, we are to be
placed at the disposal of an alien ass
emily, to whose ears our very lang
uage must be interpreted, to whom
our increase and our prosperity are
objects not of solicitude, but of envy
and jealousy, and whose intrigues and
secret aims will infallibly be directed
to the diminuton of our commerce and
of our riches and power.
Senators, if we abide in the wis
dom Of our fathers; if we maintain
the policy under which our country has
grown so prosperous and so powerful ;
if we jealousy guard our individual
sovereignty; if we rely manfully upon
our own good sense; upon our OWE
right-dealing, upon our own strength,
upon our own course, we need fear
nothing. @
There will always be American
men eager and able to guard Amer
lean shors, to protect American rights
to win American wars, to enforce re-
spect for American sovereignty.
SIN our own just quarrels, incur owr
just defence, who among you, Sena-
tors, doughts that we can face the
world, if need be, in arms and breal
. in peaces and tread under foot any
; alliance that comes with hostile ban
ners to assail the Republic?
"And what else does either self-in-
) terest or public duty or internationa
! morality demand of US, save that we
l should act upright with all the worlC
] and be ready always to compel from
? others the same justice and fair play
A which we stand extend, without com
pulsion, to them?
Z" Was there ever heard before il
the civilized world the preposterou'
. theory that one people should set a
! side all thir national interests, disre
Y gard all their domestic welfare, sur
e render their own sovereignty, and Civ
r their wealth, their lives and their lab
!. or to a species of bootless and lunati
! knight-errantry-to become the Dol
= Quizote of the nations?
:. "For, make on mistake, Senators
: this is exactly the role which the I'm
: scrupulous and cunning diplomats o
4 Europe have prepared for US, an
d which they propose to the vanity an
the creduility of our inexperience
!: and easily deceived diplomacy in tn
guise Of a League of Nations.
n Senators, you know history.
there one among you who has not be
: en- impressed by the exact parallelisr
between the Congress of Vienna, i
p the second decade of the Nineteent
f. Century, and this Congress of Pari:
n in this second decade of the Twentiet
II Century?
y Except that in 1919 Germany
= playing at Paris the role of defea
= and ACKNOWLEDGMENT that France wa
" playing at Vienna in 1914, the re
II cord of the proceeding at Paris coul
% be used as transcript of the procs
ID eding at Vienna, almost word for wor
"The Congress of Vienna also form
ulated a League of Nations, upon tt
insistence of Alexander, an idealist {
:. tie extreme type. There was also
- Big Four, and the diplomats of II
=. three Powers permitted Alexander |
:. occupy his time with his scheme {
IS League of Nations, while they il