The Seward gateway., 1922-04-11

the Russian Alexander himself pos
 sessed or was capable of passing The
 Alaskan people of that time, and their
 remaining unappropriated property,
 having been appraised by the alien !, contractors. and the bargain and sale Il having been ratified by the United
 States Senate with but two dissenting votes, there can be no effective attack
 upon the pure1y artificial title contriv- ! ed by that precipitate. midnight Sew ,rd-Stoeckl deal however unpleasantly |. some of its phrases clash with long \ established, or at least long -advertis- ed fundamentals of American polity. Il This artificial title. originally acquired by Russian force and fraud, conveyed by virtue of technical fiction, and Il since supported by the resistless phy-
 sical might of the American Republic, is indefensible and therefore non-ex- istent in the realm of morals and good conscience, and is badly clouded in the realm of technical law
 Il The man who believes that moral
 and ethical considerations have no weight with our money-mad people has P dug but slightly into the fundamentals
 of American character. While we have
 had one Cataline appear in our recent \ political life, let no man overlook the significant fact that he disappeared quickly beneath an avalanche of dis :. approval such as no other figure in
 history provoked. Never doubt for one moment hat the woods are full of pa- ! triots to whom such phrases as con- l sent of the governed. the establish
 ment of justice, and the blessings Of Ii liberty, still have present rather than a purely historical significance.
 | Alaska can be free if Alaskans have
 not lost the spirit of their fathers, and
 are worthy to be free. The American
 people will respond to our cry for jus | tice. Let me once gain the vantage point of a seat in Congress and I will
 send out a Macedonian cry that will
 bring the decent men of America in 8 solid phalanx to help us. And in freedom is our only hope. For my | part I should rather be a slave in fet- l tars and preserve my self respect than j be the imitation citizen l am forced to be under the government of beaura- cracy, even were I clothed in the off, cial robes of the alien carpet-bagger, \ whose presence in the gubernatorial
 office at Juneau wrongfuily deprives some worthy Alaskan of his right, . and wrongfully humiliates a brave, a generous. noble people.
 Il Now in conclusion of this phase of Il the discussion, let me lay down one principle for the bureaucrats to rave l about, but which will offend no man imbued with the earlier traditions Of
 the American Republic, and which can- not be successfully assailed by any ar gument based on reason or abstract
 justice, or common sense, or good morals, or good statesmanship. I lay down the simple and academic propo- sition as unassailable political phil
 osophy that the habitual unjust op- I pression of a subject people by the | Sovereign State morally divests the oppressor of title, and, on that hypoth-
 esis, shall claim the right of Alaska
 to be a free and independent State | except so far as she herself elects to
 continue relations with the mother
 country And in support of that con
 tention I call your attention to bit
 of familiar terminology, said to be now
 largely eclipsed but once eminently
 respectable among Americans in their q own homeland: These truths are self
 evident, that just governments are in
 stituted among men, through the con-
 sent of the governed, to secure certain
 unalienable rights; among which are
 life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- 1
 ernment becomes destructive of those
 ends it is the right of the people to
 alter or abolish it, and institute new
 government, laying it's foundations on
 such principles, and organizing it's
 powers in such form, as to them shall
 seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Instead of maintaining
 these principles in Alaska the United
 States government has renounced the
 principle and practice of free govern
 ment in the administration of Alaska,
 and in lieu thereof has instituted al
 permanently y-intrenched bureaucratic
 despotism. That this despotism has been destructive of all the ends forl which just governments are establish ed among men and is itself constant