Part 27 (1/2)
The war is ended. It would ill become me to say what details shall enter into the treaty of peace which America is concluding with her vanquished foe. I stand in the presence of the chief magistrate of the republic. To him it belongs by right of official position and of personal wisdom to prescribe those details. The country has learned from the acts of his administration that to his patriotism, his courage, his prudence, she may well confide her safety, her honor, her destiny, her peace. Whatever the treaty of Sapin, America will be pleased when appended to this treaty is the name of William McKinley.
”What I may speak of on this occasion is the results of the war, manifest even in this hour to America and to the world, transcending and independent of all treaties of peace, possessing for America and the world a meaning far mightier than mere acc.u.mulation of material wealth or commercial concessions or territorial extension.
”To do great things, to meet fitly great responsibilities, a nation, like a person, must be conscious of its dignity and its power. The consciousness of what she is and what she may be has come to America. She knows that she is a great nation. The elements of greatness were not imparted by the war; but they were revealed to her by the war, and their vitality and their significance were increased through the war.
”To take its proper place among the older nations of the earth a nation must be known as she is to those nations. The world to-day as ne'er before knows and confesses the greatness and the power of America. The world to-day admires and respects America. The young giant of the West, heretofore neglected and almost despised in his remoteness and isolation, has begun to move as becomes his stature; the world sees what he is and pictures what he may be.
”All this does not happen by chance or accident. An all-ruling Providence directs the movements of humanity. What we witness is a momentous dispensation from the master of men. 'Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo--with the revolution of centuries there is born to the world a new order of things,' sang the Mantuan poet at the birth of the Augustan age. So to-day we proclaim a new order of things has appeared.
”America is too great to be isolated from the world around her and beyond her. She is a world power, to whom no world interest is alien, whose voice reaches afar, whose spirit travels across seas and mountain ranges to most distant continents and islands--and with America goes far and wide what America in the grandest ideal represents--democracy and liberty, a government of the people, by the people, for the people. This is Americanism more than American territory, or American s.h.i.+pping, or American soldiery. Where this grandest ideal of American life is not held supreme America has not reached, where this ideal is supreme America reigns. The vital significance of America's triumphs is not understood unless by those triumphs is understood the triumph of democracy and of liberty.
”If it was ever allowed to nations to rejoice over the result of their wars, America may rejoice to-day. Shall we then chant the praises of war and change this jubilee of peace into a jubilee of war? Heaven forbid!
”'We love peace, not war.' The greatness of America makes it imperative upon her to profess peace--peace to-day, peace to-morrow. Her mission as a world power demands that she be a messenger, an advocate of peace before the world. Fain would we make her jubilee of peace a jubilee of peace for all nations. At least the message from it to the world shall be a message of peace.
”That at times wonderful things come through war, we must admit; but that they come through war and not through the methods of peaceful justice, we must ever regret. When they do come through war, their beauty and grandeur are dimmed by the memory of the sufferings and carnage which were their price.
”We say in defense of war that its purpose is justice; but is it worthy of Christian civilization that there is no other way to justice than war, that nations are forced to stoop to the methods of the animal and savage? Time was when individuals gave battle to one another in the name of justice; it was the time of social barbarism. Tribunals have since taken to themselves the administration of justice, and how much better it is for the happiness and progress of mankind.
”It is force, or chance, that decides the issue of the battle. Justice herself is not heard; the decision of justice is what it was before the battle, the judgment of one party. Must we not hope that with the widening influence of reason and of religion among men, the day is approaching when justice shall be enthroned upon a great international tribunal, before which nations shall bow, demanding from it judgment and peace? Say what we will, our civilization is a vain boast.
”'Till the war drum throbs no longer, and the battle flags are furled In the parliament of man, the federation of the world.
There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe, And the kindly earth shall slumber, wrapt in universal law.'
”It is America's great soldier who said:
”'Though I have been trained as a soldier, and have partic.i.p.ated in many battles, there never was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not have been found of preventing the drawing of the sword. I look forward to an epoch when a court, recognized by all nations, will settle international differences, instead of keeping large standing armies, as they do in Europe.' Shall we not allow the words of General Grant to go forth as the message of America?
”Some weeks ago the Czar of Russia said: 'The maintenance of general peace and possible reduction of the excessive armaments which weigh upon all nations present themselves in the existing condition of the whole world as an ideal towards which the endeavors of all governments should be directed,' and in accordance with those views he invited all nations to send representatives to an international peace congress, in which the question of reducing the armaments of the several countries of the world and otherwise preparing some plan for the prevention of wars might be discussed.
”Shall not America send to St. Petersburg a message of good will, a promise of earnest co-operation? America, great and powerful, can afford to speak of peace. Words of peace from her will be the more gracious and timely, as they who do not know her say that, maddened by her recent triumphs, she is now committed beyond return to a policy of militarism and of conquest.
”Lead, my country, in peace--in peace for thyself, in peace for the world. When war is necessary, lead, we pray thee, in war; but when peace is possible, lead, we pray thee yet more, lead in peace; lead in all that makes for peace, that prepares the world for peace.
”America, the eyes of the world are upon thee. Thou livest for the world. The new era is shedding its light upon thee, and through thee upon the whole world. Thy greatness and thy power daze me; even more, thy responsibilities to G.o.d and to humanity daze me--I would say affright me. America, thou failing, democracy and liberty fail throughout the world.
”And now know, in the day of thy triumphs and victories, what guards democracy and liberty, what is thy true grandeur. Not in commerce and industry, not in s.h.i.+ps and in armies, are the safety and the grandeur of nations, and, more especially, of republics. Intelligence and virtue build up nations and save them; without intelligence and virtue, material wealth and victorious armies bring corruption to nations and precipitate the ruin of liberty.
”And now, America, the country of our pride, our love, our hope, we remit thee for to-day and for to-morrow into the hands of the Almighty G.o.d, under whose protecting hand thou canst not fail, whose commandments are the supreme rules of truth and righteousness.”
The Archbishop was followed by Judge Speer, of Georgia:
”Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: Spain had long been our near and dangerous neighbor. Its people have a degree of reverence almost superst.i.tious for monarchy, and regard republican inst.i.tutions with great disfavor. It has been said of Spain that some incurable vice in her organization, or it may be in the temper of her people, neutralizes all of the advantages she ought to derive from her st.u.r.dy hardihood, her nearly perfect capacity for endurance and the somber genius alike for war, for art and for literature, which has so often marked her sons. While this seems to be true, the Spaniard is not only a formidable antagonist, but there is a wealth of interest and charm in his rich, romantic history which commands the admiration of a generous foeman. This must be accorded, whether we contemplate that ancient people as they alternately resist the aggressions of Carthage and of Rome, the fierce cavalry of Hamilcar, the legions of Scipio, of Pompey and of Caesar, or in more recent times the achievements of their renowned infantry which broke to fragments the best armies of Europe, or the infuriated people in arms against the hitherto unconquered veterans of Napoleon, or but now as with patient and dogged courage, with flaming volleys, they vainly strive to hold the works of Caney and San Juan against the irresistible and rus.h.i.+ng valor of the American soldier. In art the Spaniard has been not less famous. In the royal collection of Madrid, in the venerable cathedrals of Seville, in the Louvre, in the London National Gallery, the lover of the beautiful may be charmed by the warmth of color, the accuracy of technique, the rounded outline and saintly salvation of Murillo.
”Many a quaint moralist, many a stately poet, many a priestly chronicler attests the genius of Spanish literature, but if these had not been, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza had been its t.i.tle to immortality. The admirable attributes of Spanish character nowhere found warmer appreciation than with our own countrymen. What Prescott did for the statecraft, and stern martial renown of the Spaniards, Was.h.i.+ngton Irving, with melodious prose and gentle humor, surpa.s.sed in his kindly portrayal of Spanish character in his charming romance, The Conquest of Granada. It is perhaps due to the drollery and Addisonian humor of that gifted American that we have never been able to estimate the Spaniard quite so seriously as he estimates himself, or, indeed, as his stern and uncompromising nature deserves. The truth is, Spanish policy has ever been insidiously and persistently inimical to the American people, and has culminated in deeds more atrocious than those which have rendered infamous the baleful memory of Pedro the Cruel.
”We all know how in 1492 his holiness, Alexander VI., in order to prevent unseemly collisions between Christian princes, published a bull by which he a.s.signed to Spain all discoveries lying west of an imaginary line drawn 300 leagues to the westward of the Cape Verde islands. All discoveries to the east were confined to Portugal.