ation.

~.

X A F 18, 1899

NEW PORK,

The Week.
-

-~

The subjects to be brought before the

Peace Conference at TheHague are multiplying in number. A few days ago the
announcement was made that th* Finns
in the United Stateshad secured rom
President McKinley a promise that the
cause of the Finns in their own country
should be broughtbeforethe
Conference by the delegates of the United
States. Thisstatementmustbe
wide of the mark. However keenly our
sympathies
may
be
enlisted for
the
Finns, we^ have no more right to bring
that subject before the Conference than
the Russian delegates would h a v e ~ t ointroduce-resolutions deprecating the practlce of lynching negroes in the United
States.The Poles of the United States
have sent out a pamphlet entitled, The
Cause of PolandandItsRelation
to
theInternational Peace Conference. It
presents in a pathetic manner the truths
of hlstory touching the subdugation and
dismemberment of Poland by Russia,
Austria, andPrussia,and
It maintains
that the peace of the world cannot be
considered secure until those wrongs are
righted, but I t does not seek to have the
cause of Poland brought t o the attention
of the Conference by the representatives
of our Government. It is a temperate,
x-ell-consldered, and well-composed memorial addressed to the consciences of
all nations, and not to those of any one
in particular. It is an appeal for nationality such as the Filipinos might address to the same tribunal. In
fact, the
whole argument of the Poles, except so
far as it i s based upon history, would
be equally appropriate if sentout by
Aguinaldo and his Congress. But the
only Power competent t o bring the matterformally before the Conference a t
The Hague would be one of the three
which are guilty of the crime against
Poland. Of theseit happens that one
(Austria-Hungary)hasitsforelgn
af:
fairs directed by aPole (Goluchowskl),
while the last Premier was also a Pole
(Badeni). The pamphlet informs
further that thepresent Czar was moved
to call t h e Peace Conference by reading
the works of the Polish economist Bloch.
So
seems that honors and
influence
are not wanting to Poland, although her
nationality has departed.
It is gratifying to learn that our representatpesattheDisarmamentconference at The Hague are-instructed to
advocate t h e exemption, of private property .from capture at sea upder all circumstances; that is, the application of
the same rule whichgoverns on-1an.d.
time, of war, -private property is ex-

empt fromcapture on land, and there should enterthe Peace Conference a t

IS no reasonwhy
a different principle The Hague with thedeclared purpose .to
should prevail on the water. When the promote internatlonal arbitration when
Unlted Stateswas
invited in 1856 t o they were unabletosettlethis
trifling
jolninthe
Declaration of Paris abo- dispute in the way whlch both of them
lishing privnteering, Mr. Marcy replied approve. And here we must admit that
thatthe
Government of the United our position was not the more defensible
States would gladly do so on condition of the two, i f we refused the -offer
that the private property of belligerents of arbitration unless the arbitrator were
on the water, except contraband of war, chosen fro-m one of the countries of
should be placed on the same footlng as SouthAmerica;
the Canadiansobjectprivate property on land. This proposal ing, that-since we claim a kind of suzewas not agreed to. The anomalous con- rainty over South America, underthe
dition remainsthat,
whenwar
is de- Monroe Doctrine, this was only a n oEer
clared between two nations, all theprop- to refer the question t o a -prejudiced
erty of their citizens which is afloat on judge. There wasground forthiscriti.
the common highway of nations becomes cism, although it might have been found
liable to plunder, while?none of their in practice that the prejudice was the
propertycan be seized or molested on other way. The Spanish-American r e
land, even thoughtheterritory
where publics arenot a little piqued by our
It is sltuatedhas
been overrun by the claim of suzerainty, whlch looks to them
enemy Our recent war with Spain suplike an impairment of their own indw
plied many Illustrations, some of them pendence.~and it is not improbable that
painful and humiliating, of this bar- a n umpire chosen fromamongthem
barous
Spanish vessels cam)-lng would have leaned against us. On the
lumber fromtheport
of Mobile, their other hand, there is no reason to suppose
officers belng ignorant of the existence that an arbitratorchosen by Switzerland,
of war, were seized and-broughtinto
Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Italy, Russia,
Key West and held aspnzes of war. or France would be under prejudices in
The cupidity of our sailors was natural- favor of England.
ly excited, and the captures became
merous as the war prosessed. If this
The immediate result and direct conrule had been applicable on land, we
should have-been entitledto sell the sequence of the Postmaster-Generals
whole city of Santiago after it was cap- order t o take Mr. Edward Atkinsons
tured, and divide the proceeds among pamphlets from the mails destined for
enormous
the soldiers. Thls would have been a Manila, has been to create
transaction too- monstrousto contem- demand for those documents in theUnitplate, yet, in amoralpoint
of view, it sd States. This demand has risen to1,000
would have been in no wise different per day, and is far beyond Mr. Atkinfrom what was actually done in respect sons present ability to supply them. His
of theSpanishshipsin
pursuance of mail has grown t o such proportions that
and 1n strict accord withthelaws
of he has been-obliged to employ a privata
war then and now in force. Let us hope secretary to open andanswerletters.
that our representatives at The Hague Some of his correspondents want t o
will spare no effort t o bringabout
a know what were the treasonable utterances which led totheextraordinary
:hange in this barbarous custom.
action of the Postmaster-General, -and,
It was
rumored
a few days ago Sfter reading the^ documents.,and iindingthat the Anglo-American Commission nothing in them but the usual arguments
would not resume its sessions at the ap- xgainst-theLpolicy of foreign annexation
pointed timenext August, there being md conquest, are moved by the spirit of
no reason to suppose that the two coun- American liberty to aid as much as postries would be any hearer to an agree- rible in the circulation of the pamphlets.
t is altogether likely that this demmd
ment thenthanthey
werewhen they C
separatedlastFebruary.Tbis
rum01 lor Atlrinsonian literature will increase,.
is now
contradicted
at Washington and that in the next political camp@gn
where it is affirmed, apparently b j It will be found in the hands.of many
who
will
be
authority,thatveryliberal
views arc stump-speakers,
what
it
was
that
led
the
Postmaster-Geentertained respecting trade relation::
wlth Canada and everything else except neral to issue his order requiring that
question of the Alaska the pamphlets be removed fromthe
perhaps,
boundary. It isunfortunatethat
the mail-bags going to Manila.
~

latter question was not referred to arbitration. It is peculiarly suitedtoarbitration, especially i n vlew of the facl
that the lastboundary dlspute which wc
had on the Paclfic Coast was so referred
that the decision was in
favor,
It is unfortunate that the two Powers

The reasonalleged wasthat theytended

to promote desertlon or to discourage the
reenlistment of soldiers.Yet
the only
pamphlets sent wereaddressed to Admiral Dewey, to three generals, and to
three ciirilians. Now,, no Cabinet- 01%

366

3 ? h e Nation.

and parcels and telegram messages

cer, in his most hysterical
moments,
could imaginethatone
of Atkinsons from the soldlers of t h ~ sday. He himself enlisted in the autumn of 1863, a n d
pamphlets, or any pamphlet forthat
matter, could shake the loyalty of Ad- was in the army during the Presidential
miral Dewey, lead Gen.
Gen.Law- cameaign of 2864, when the soldiers were
ton, or Gen. Miller to desert. Of course, allowed to vote, and did vote by the
no such consequences could flow from thousands, for McClellan on theplatwas
failure, a n d
the perusal of the Gocumentsby Presi- formthatthewar
there
should be an immediate
dent Schurman, Prof. Worcester, or Mr. that
Bass. Therefore, the whole s e i z u r e ef- cessation of hostilities. -He says.
fected at SanFrancisco was a deadI recall distmctly that nothmg was withof that mostbltter
water haul. Moreover, word was given heldfromthesoldiers
andcriticalperiod.
1861-1865. I remember
outatWashingtonthattheorder
of the
on hlsponywlthpapers
of
seizure did not apply to letters,but only every sort beforehimpiledup
to his chln.
He furnished whatever paper was
Called for
to-pamphlets and other printed matter.
until the supply was
I remember,
It follows that if
Atkinson had put
in skirmlshing ~n the Valley campaign, 1864,
thescenes
of thepicketline.
W h e n our
his paaphlets under seal and
paidletlines
were
near togetherandtherewere
ter Dostage on them, he could have sent periods
of lull ~n thefirlng, we exchanged
them t o every private soldier inthe
ourcoffeeforthe
reb tobacco. The rebs
cheered for- McClellan, the Democratlc canarmy.
We haveexamined
themwith
didate for the Presidency, and we responded
some caTe, and we can say with a clear for Lincoln.
We
.exchanged
our
papers,
Whatever wascalledfor,
we had it,
conscience that
the
most
censurable
the
papers
of
rebeldom
We
were
men
paragraph in them (the most censurable who hadmlnds
of our own, wholikedto
according to Charles
Emory
Smiths know all that was being done and said, and
theory) 1s a passage quoted from Ad- could draw our own conclusions.
miral Dewey himself in-these words:
-

Thesepeople, theFil~pinos,arefarsuperior 1n theirintelllgenceandmorecapable

of self-government, than t-he natives of Cuba,
and I am familiar with both races.

Mr. H. H. Van Meter of Chicago recently sentan inquiry tothe General

Manager of the Associated Press as to
thecharacter
of the censorshlp exercised by our Government in the Philippines, and received .this reply:Thefe
1s a verystrict censorship at Manila.
Thereupon Mr. Van Meter addressed an
open letter on thesubjectto President
McKinley, as a n American citizen who
loves his country and vaiues his birthright of liberty above all other earthly
blessmgs; as a Republican who voted for
you
Congress in your old home district of Ohio whenyouweredefeated
there; as a man who believes in You as
a Christfan, a patrlot, and a statesman,
and who voted for yak for President.
He points-out that the war which Congress declared a g a n s t Spain t o free
Cuba
over before thistrouble began, -and that Congress has declared no
other;. sa we cannot call this war, but
Weylerism;. andhe
proceeds toask
such searching questions as these:

That imperialist demonstration out at

Chicago
Sunday week-proves, on the
~evevldence
of the localpapers,
to have
been a very different sort of thing from
What it was
represented
to be in
dlspatches sent from that city to Eastern
organs
of the expansion policy.
Great preparationshad been madefor
Immense crowds. the First Methodist
Church having been engaged for-the expected overflow meeting, in addition to
the Auditorium andtheCentral
Music
Hall. But the Twnes-Herald, the special
champion of the McKmley Admmlstration, admitsthatthe
Auditorium was
not filled, and that twice as many peopIe could have been comfortably seated
a t t h e Central Music Hall,while the
meeting at the church had to be abandoned because only fourteen persons entered the audience-room. The imperialist newspapers try to blame it on the
weather, because it rained. The TimesHerdd excuses the lack of interest on
the curious theory-that the-Chicago people are so enthnslastic in their support
of imperialism thatthey
feel no neoessity of- showing their
sentiments;
perhaps, even despite therain,there
would have been people enough for all
three halls and for a big open-air meeting too, had it not been that everybody
was so sure that eversbbds else would
_ .
attend.!
-

Is It not possible that, but

thm mihtary ocnSorship, it wouldnotbe?
Had our
hQme Government and the American people
known all,.would I t have been? Is not this
the klnd
we went to war with Spain
to put a stop to? Have we not simply supplanted the standard of Spain with the starspangledbanner?Arenot
now
doing what they fought Spanlards
dolug
The demonstrationwas as lacking in
before? . Have we not slain many times more moralforce as in physical impressiveFilipinos In a fewmonthsthan
Spain has
slam In centuries? Have we not destroyed ness. Thechairman of the Auditorium
more homes and left far more desolation than meeting laidstress upon the necessity
the Spaniards? Are these the reasons for the
speech i f the nation
mllitarycensorshlpbeing
so very strid i n of abolishing
Maulla?
pursues the expansion policy. He ad-

A Captain in theU,mon Army wrltes

an interesting letter to t h e Boston
:in regard to the new policy of
a strict censorship,. so r,igorous and s o
paternal that it yithholds mails in pa-

mitted, to be sure, that every man has

a right to his convictlons upon public
questions, but he insisted that he must
keep such con-ciictim t o himself if they
do not agree with those of the MCK-inley
Administration. :No man
to pub-

[Vol. 68, No. 1768

licly utter sentiments which tend t o hu-millate or discourage- the countrys defenders in the field, or to lessen his countrys influence in the family of nations
It was~-not,a,long-step from thep o s i u n
of this ex-judge tothat
of anactive
clergyman of theLyman
A,bbott and
Wayland H o s t school, who
pitched
into the antiquated Declaration of Independence as played out in this progressiveera.Said
the Rev. Dr. P. S
Henson:
And s o to-day there are -those- that wave
the
Declaration
of hdepenclence
our
faces,andtell
thatthethlhg
a0 IS
todeliver over s those island6 of thearchipelago I n ~ t h eEasttothe
people who a r e
theirrightfulmasters,
f o t dl governments
derive thew jyst powers from the-con-sent of
thegoverned.
So wroteThomasJefferson
Do you,remembertbat
the Lordsaidto
Joshua, My servant IS dead? And 60 is
ThomasJefferson.Letthedeadburythe
dead As tothathalloweddocumentthat
declaresthat
a11 governmentsderivetheir
just powers from the consent of t h e governed. if that is to be hterally construed, there
neTCr w a s - a
falsehoodpalmed
by the devil upon a credulous world.

I t having been asserted by

ardent
Imperialiststhatallmissionariesana
missionary
societies
arewiththem,the
Rev. Dr. Barton, one of t h e Secretaries
of the American Board in Boston, wrote
a letter t o the Herald, in which
declared:

,.

I know t h e opinion of a large number of

the mmionaries of our board and of others, .
and I do uot h o w one who is IU favor of a n
imperialisticpolicy,and,
more than
I
haveneverheardthis
policy advocated by
the officers of
board or of any other
. . . O n theotherhand, I haveconstantly
heardthe
officers and missmnarles of the
American Board express regret that the
licy of imperlahsm was likely to prevail.

Thepublication
of thisletterhad
a
very practical sequel. It brought a gift
of $10,000 into-the
Boards treasury. . The donor remained anonymous, simply
congratulating Dr. Barton on his letter
as reflectlng thetrueattitude
of the
church, saying that it hadstrengthBoard asan
ened thevalue of
agency for the
of missionary funds,
and offering hisgift
as a substantial
token of this feeling. But a still more
remarkable sequel came later. The
had been a hot champion
of conversions by killing, and the attention of its edltor was called to this gift
for missions and the reasons for it. But
he simply informed his readers that the
donation was no doubt the result of the
special season of prayer in behalf of t h e
American Board.
editor whom Satan
hath so evidently desired that he might
sifthimlike
wheat, is himself the
test ,subject we knbw of for special
prayer.
The Manila correspondent ot h e
ning
states that the volunteers who
have fought so bravely i n Luzonwere
sent into battle with short-range
field rifles, ahd black,smoky powder,
against an engmy armed with long-range
,Mausers and smokeless powder: What
is ,the ekplanation of .the iact.

May18
ported by thiswriter,thattheKragJorgensen rifles which reached the volunteersafterthehardest
fightingwas
over, have been lying unused since 1897,
as was disclosed by thedate on their
cases?Whywere
theyieft unpacked
Our
during the entire war with Spain?
correspondent says of the volunteers:
These soldiers have, hour after hour and
day after day, marched
agamst intrenchments from which fire was bemg poured
upon them at a range of 2,000 yards, and
could not
because their guns were mferior in range t o those of the enemy They
have been fired upon by a concealed foe with
deadlyeffect, the smokelesspowdermaklng
it
to tell where their assailants
were, and yeteverytimethey
fired their
Springlields a great cloud of smokearoseto
disclose their exact posltionto thc enemy,
and to obscure their own vision and prevent
accurate shooting
Is Secretary Alger the man who IS responsible for this needless slaughter of
soldiers? If not, who can be held respons~ble?

367

T h e Nat-ion.
tesy, which was by no me,ms-the *silence
of contempt,since all the accounts recelved of his speech-making tour agreed
that it was very effective, especially
among the farmers of the West.

We are glad to see that the Bar Asso,

ciatlon hastakenupthe
question of,
campaign
contributions
from judicial,
candidates, already passed upon by the
C I ~ YClub andthe
Chamber of Commerce. The Association proposes the
appointment of a committee to draft the,
necessary legislation forbidding all such,
In theform
-of
contributions,either
assessments or voluntary, It is most
fittmg that the legal profession should
take the lead in t h x reform, for they
have most reason for wishhg to put an
end to the present practice of selling
diclal nommations to the highest bldder
forthe benefit of the Tammany boss.
Not only does Croker decide who shall
be the favored bidder, but he claims the
It isinterestingto
observe thatthe
section from which a soldier went to the right tocontrol the conduct of the judges
aftertheyget
upon the bench. If the
Philippines-has nothing to do with his
did not
revolt
sentiments regarding the work which he members of thebar
against this scandal upon their profesis compelled to do there. Many letters
have been published from members of sion, it would be difficult to imagine any
provocation which would cause them to
various Western and Southernregiments
revolt. All
candidates
for the bench
our
protesting againstthe warwhlch
should be prohibited from contributing
forces are now waging, as one whlch Ells
a penny in any way, either in return for
them wlth a sense of shame. The Pittsa nomination or a n election, on penalty
burgh
also a Republican news0
: losing theirseatsafter
election. A
paper, prints a strikingletterfrom
a
bill containingsuch proh~bitionshould
captaininthe
Pennsylvaniaregiment,
be drawn and presented to the next Lewho says,in so many words, thathe
gislature, and should be passed in spite
thinks It is a burning shame that he
of all opposition, secret or open.
and his comrades have been forced, by
so-called statesmen, that should at this
particular time be in our places, to fight
Bishop Potters quiet statement of his
i n order to take froma people what the reasons for ordaining Prof. Briggs is as
American forefathers fought for-indecreditable t o him as it is mouth-stopping
pendence. It becomes every day more tothe clerical objectors. The Bishop
plain that it is a great mistake or the shows that he has complete technical
American Government to try carrying right on his side, and, moreover, that
out an imperial policy with volunteers hls head and heart go with hlsaction.
who think,and who are not afrald to
What he thmks of the leaders- of the
say what they think.
outcry against Prof. Briggs he freely indicates i n his direct assertion that they
ignorance,
The sudden death of ex-Governor Ros- havebetrayedlamentable
andthat some of their perversions of
well P. Flower
recalls
his
part
in
the last Presidential campaigp, when he Prof. Briggss words. are as malignant
surprised his critics by the independent, as they are unscrupulous. This is offimanly, and very able saeeches which he cial. It comes from the Right Reverend
made against the nominee and platform Father in God of the protesting clergyof his party and in favor of sound mo- men, and carriesapostolic authority. If
ney. His argumentationhad a telling anything wa.s needed t o complete the exeffect by reason of itsintrinsic merits posure of the agitation as a silly busiinto its frothy
and of his prominence in the former ness-largely blown
councils of his party. Very few such ex- proportions by the press, never so happy
as when it is scoring a theological
amples are found.
They
betoken
of a
moral courage. Ex-Governor Flowers scoop or flatteringthevanity
course in this behalf was so bold and foolish cleric-it would be this judicial
of the
cantand self- utterance of thespiritualruler
outspoken, so free
seeking, that even theBryanites were diocese of New Pork.
compelled to respect
him.
Although
Cleveland and Carlisle, Palmer and
F o r the real and larger significance of
Buckner, and even David B.Hill (who did this Briggs controversy,one need only
notdistinguish himself inthat
,cam- read Prof. Adolf Harnacks little book,
paign) came in for volleys of abuse, Thoughts on Protestantism. One of
Governor Flower w m treated with
the greatest dangers now besetting

testant churches is that of treating theh

creeds as legal ordinances As Prof.
Harnack says, the fact is that no
1s any longer expected to take over the
old Protestant teaching in its hard entirety. In truth, it is a common experience .to End that church newspa-.
pers and men who consider themselves
orthodox areguilty of gross -offences
against the old doctrines. Yet, strangely enough, at thesametimethe
demand that the creed should be authoritative is advanced allthe moreloudly
and sans plyase. The creed, that i.s,
may no longer be. believed, but it must
be obeyed.
question any part of it is
to be hostile to the church. Now this,
asHarnack says, is to Catholicize the
Protestant Church. It is to make dogma
a rule of obedience, not a rule of faith. And the moment theProtestants
about this, that moment the Catholics
will beat- them off the field. When it
comes.to imposing doctrine as a dose to
be swallowed, whether you llke it or not,
the Catholicchurch hasan experience
and facility which no Protestant can
hope t o rival. If he cannot stand resolutely for free inquiry, and be ready to
follow the argument wherever it may
leadhim, hehas no real place in the
spiritual economy.

A good deal of sophistical reasoning

about the English Conventions with the
Transvaal
is
coming from. those wJio
want Mr. Chamberlain tostep inand
make President Kriiger redress Outlander grievances. The Pretoria Convention
of 1S81 declared an Engllsh suzerainty
over the Transyaal. But in the succeeding London Convention of 1884 the word
suzerainty was omitted. Those Englishmen who want to do as they please with
the,Transvaal
say,nevertheless,
that
suzerainty was n o t renounced. What
was not expressly given up may still be
asserted.
21,000 British subjects in
the Transvaal appeal, as they have appealed, totheEnglish
Government to
interferewiththe
Boer Government,
is the good of
why may it not? What
bemgasuzerain,eqen
by implication,
unless you can order somebody about?
Well, as a matter of right and law, saying nothing of policy or force, the debate is illusory, There is an official declaration of the sense in which England
understood the London Convention. It
was given by Lord Derby to the Boer
delegates in 1884, and, of course, England cannot now retreat from it without
disgrace. Lord Derby wrote specifically:
By the omission of those articles- of the
.convention df Pretoria which assigned to her
MaJesty and to the Brltlsh Resident certain
specldc powers and functions connected with
the internal government and the foreign relations of the Transvaal State,
government will' be left free to govern the country
without interference. and to conduct its ~ I P lomatlc lntercourse and shape its foreign pol x y subject only tothereaulrement
embodled in the fourth article of the new draft,
that any treaty with a foreign state shall
nothave
wlthout the approval of the
.