The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1919-08-22
T4E TREATMENT or TREATIES


Indeed, it has been the fate Of all
treaties, under all administrations, 20
meet with opposition more or less VIC
lent and prolonged.
Our irst treaty was with England.
Hon. Johd Jay was commissioned
by President Washington minister
pIenipotautiary 20 act for our govern
ment
Jay va. tie frat obiaf justice of TIE
United States supreme court, and is
reputed/to have been . stuguiarly
pure ard upright man. and was to The
last degree q patriot.
The aQnouncement Of the pr0vls-
ions Of the treaty which WIS given
out by D. member of the senate 10
whom it had been communicated in
confidence, caused on outburst OF
popular wrath.
Jay was hanged ana burned n eff
gy from Maine to Georgia; Alexan-
der Hamilton, while defending the
treaty at public meeting in the city
OF New York, was stoned and had TO
seek shelter.
State legislatures, political conven-
tions and indignation mass meetings
condemned the treaty as q trucuIent
surrender to dfeat Britain, and an
affront and offehse to France-our al
iy in the revolutionary war
Washington, now so venerated,
was reviled in language which he
said could scarcely be applied 90
Nero, to a notorious defauIter, or
even to a common pick-pocket."
Yet in his History Of the United
States" MT. Henry Cabot Lodge, who
is so bitter against our present treaty,
says that jays treaty with England
proved of immense benefit to the
country"
The hostility to IL proved to be "a
tempest in a teapot"
The treaty was concluded in No
vember 1894. and was not ratified by
the senate until the following June.
The ratification Of the treaty con-
corning the Louisiana purchase met
with the same ranturous opposition
in the senate.
The Lodges and the Borahs of that
day said that it would lead to the
subversion of the republic. That the
boundaries were not we'll defined and
the dispute over them would lead TO
war. That the regioh beyond the
Mississippi was unfit for human hab-
itation. That there was no warrant
in the constitution for its purchase
and a disregard of the constitution.
would lead to anarchy.
Like opposition has been the fate
of every treaty that has been laid be-
fore the senate for ratification from
the beginning Of the government un-
til now All encountered bitterly hos
tile opposition to be id the end rati~
fed by very pronounced and popu-
lar majority
Many of Us no doubt remember the
objections our treaty with Spain met
with in the senate, which ceded to us
Porto Rico cud the Philippine Islands.
Does one call to mind the obiec-
tons 20 the present treaty.
They seem so frivolous; or will a
little later on.
At first the chief objection was be-
cause the treaty 90 &c Great Britain
six votes to our one
Because Of which the very atmos-
phere of the senate and outside th4
nate was made suIhhlrions =: ii
wrath.
Wilson was not hanged aud burned
in effigy, but he could have said with
Washington that If he had been "a
common pick-pocket he could not
have been reviled more bitterly"
When it was shown that it was all
bunk about Great Britain having
six votes to our one the covenant was
next attacked on lhe ground that it
was a knockout" blow til the Mon
roe doctrine
That criticism was an error, but to
place it beyond cavil OF dispute a
clause was added specifically safe
guarding, enIarging and extending the
Monroe doctrine
But still the covenant was not sat
isfying.
The batteries Of the obstructionists
were then launched at article x Of
the covenant
1t was contended that the ratifica