The Peace Jubilee.
The Lessons of War in the Joy Over Peace in the Celebrations at Chicago
and Philadelphia--Orations by Archbishop Ireland and Judge Emory
Speer--The President's Few Words of Thrilling Significance--The Parade
of the Loyal League, and Clover Club Banquet at Philadelphia--Address
by the President--The Hero Hobson Makes a Speech--Fighting Bob Evans'
Startling Battle Picture--The Destruction of Cervera's Fleet--The
Proclamation of Thanksgiving.
The lessons of war--that which has been through it accomplished for the
country--the new lands over which our sovereignty is established--the
gain in the national character--the increased immensity of the outlook
of destiny, found impressive expression in the peace jubilee, the
President of the United States participating, and interpreting history
with dignity, in great Chicago, the giant of the West and North, and
Philadelphia, the holy city of Independence Hall and the liberty bell.
Of the celebrations of Peace with honor and victory, the first was
that at Chicago, and it will be memorable for remarkable speeches in
which many orators rose to the height of the occasion, their speeches
worthy of celebrity and certain to give imperishable passages to the
school books of the future. We have to pass over much of meritorious
distinction, and confine ourselves in the selections for these pages,
to the utterances of the President--Archbishop Ireland, whose golden
periods of Americanism ring through the land, and the Southern orator,
Judge Emory Speer, of Georgia, whose patriotism springs forth and
elevates the nobility of his thought, and touches with sacred fire
the ruddy glow of his eloquence.
"Lead, my country, in peace!" was Archbishop Ireland's passionate
exclamation, the key-note of his oration. He said:
"War has passed; peace reigns. Stilled over land and sea is the
clang of arms; from San Juan to Manila, fearless and triumphant,
floats the star spangled banner. America, 'Be glad and rejoice, for
the Lord hath done great things.' America, with whole heart and soul,
celebrate thy jubilee of peace.
"Welcome to America, sweet, beloved peace; welcome to America, honored,
glorious victory. Oh, peace, thou art heaven's gift to men. When
the Savior of humanity was born in Bethlehem the sky sang forth,
'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good will to
men.' Peace was offered to the world through Christ, and when the
spirit of Christ is supreme, there is universal peace--peace among men,
peace among nations.
"Oh, peace, so precious art thou to humanity that our highest ideal
of social felicity must ever be thy sovereignty upon earth. Pagan
statesmanship, speaking through pagan poetry, exclaims: 'The best of
things which it is given to know is peace; better than a thousand
triumphs is the simple gift of peace.' The regenerated world shall
not lift up sword against sword; neither shall they he exercised any
more in war.
"Peace is the normal flow of humanity's life, the healthy pulsation of
humanity's social organism, the vital condition of humanity's growth
and happiness.
"'O first of human blessings and supreme,
Fair Peace! how lovely, how delightful thou.
Oh peace! thou soul and source of social life,
Beneath whose calm inspiring influence
Science his views enlarges, art refines,
And swelling commerce opens all her ports.
Blessed be the man divine who gave us thee.'
"The praise of peace is proclaimed beyond need of other words,
when men confess that the only possible justification of war is the
establishment of peace. Peace, we prize thee.
"'But the better thou,
The richer of delight, sometime the more
Inevitable war.'
"'Pasis imponero morem'--to enforce the law of peace: this, the
sole moral argument which God and humanity allow for war. O peace,
welcome again to America.
"War--how dreadful thou art! I shall not, indeed, declare thee to be
immoral, ever unnecessary, ever accursed. No; I shall not so arraign
thee as to mete plenary condemnation to the whole past history of
nations, to the whole past history of my own America. But that thou
art ever dreadful, ever barbarous, I shall not deny. War! Is it
by cunning design--in order to hide from men thy true nature--that
pomp and circumstance attend thy march; that poetry and music set
in brightest colors, the rays of light struggling through thy heavy
darkness, that history weaves into threads of richest glory the woes
and virtues of thy victims? Stripped of thy show and tinsel, what art
thou but the slaying of men?--the slaying of men by the thousands,
aye, often by the tens, by the hundreds of thousands.
"With the steady aim and relentless energy tasking science to its
utmost ingenuity, the multitudes of men to their utmost endurance,
whole nations work day and night, fitting ourselves for the quick
and extensive killing of men. This preparation for war. Armies
meet on the field of battle; shot and shell rend the air; men fall
to the ground like leaves in autumnal storms, bleeding, agonizing,
dying; the earth is reddened by human blood; the more gory the earth
beneath the tread of one army the louder the revel of victory in the
ranks of the other. This, the actual conflict of war. From north to
south, from east to west, through both countries whose flags were
raised over the field of battle, homes not to be numbered mourned in
soul-wrecking grief, for husband, father, son or brother who sank
beneath the foeman's steel or yielded life within the fever tent,
or who, surviving shot and malady, carries back to his loved ones a
maimed or weakened body. This, the result of war.
"Reduced to the smallest sacrifice of human life the carnage of the
battlefields, some one has died and some one is bereft. 'Only one
killed,' the headline reads. The glad news speeds. The newsboys cry:
'Killed only one.' 'He was my son. What were a thousand to this
one--my only son.'
"It was Wellington who said: 'Take my word for it, if you had seen
but one day of war you would pray to Almighty God that you might
never see such a thing again.' It was Napoleon who said: 'The sight
of a battlefield after the fight is enough to inspire princes with
a love of peace and a horror of war.'
"War, be thou gone from my soul's sight! I thank the good God that
thy ghastly specter stands no longer upon the thresholds of the homes
of my fellow countrymen in America, or my fellow beings in distant
Andalusia. When, I ask heaven, shall humanity rise to such heights
of reason and of religion that war shall be impossible, and stories
of battlefields but the saddening echoes of primitive ages of the race?
"And yet, while we await that blessed day, when embodied justice shall
sit in judgment between peoples as between individuals, from time to
time conditions more repellant than war may confront a nation, and to
remove such conditions as the solemn dictates of reason and religion
impose was as righteous and obligatory. Let the life of a nation or
the integrity of its territory be menaced, let the honor of a nation
be assailed, let the grievous crime against humanity be perpetrated
within reach of a nation's flag or a nation's arm, reiterated appeals
or argument and diplomacy failing, what else remains to a nation which
is not so base as to court death or dishonor but to challenge the
fortunes of war and give battle while strength remains in defense of
'its hearthstones and its altars'? War, indeed, is dreadful; but let
it come; the sky may fall, but let justice be done. War is no longer
a repudiation of peace, but the means to peace--to the soul peace a
self-sacrificing people may enjoy--peace with honor.
"A just and necessary war is holy. The men who at country's call
engage in such a war are the country's heroes, to whom must be given
unstinted gratitude and unstinted praise. The sword in their hands is
the emblem of self-sacrifice and of valor; the flag which bears them
betokens their country and bids them pour out in oblation to purest
patriotism the life blood of their hearts; the shroud which spreads
over the dead of the battlefield is the mantle of fame and of glory.
"Happy the nation which has the courage of a just war, no less than
that of a just peace, whose sons are able and willing to serve her
with honor alike in war and in peace. Happy the nation whose jubilee
of peace, when war has ceased, is also a jubilee of victory.
"'We love peace, not war, but when we go to war we send it the best
and bravest of the country.' These words, spoken a few days ago by the
chief magistrate of America, embody a great principle of American life.
Six months ago the congress of the United States declared that in the
name of humanity war should be waged in order to give to the island
of Cuba a stable and independent government. Magnificent patriotism
of America. The people of the United States at once rose in their
might. They argued not, they hesitated not. America had spoken;
theirs was not to judge but to obey. In a moment the money of America,
the lives of America, were at the disposal of the chief magistrate of
the nation, whose embarrassment was the too generous response to his
appeal for means to bring victory to the nation's flag. America had
spoken. Partisan politics, sectional disputes instantly were stilled
beneath the majesty of her voice. Oft it had been whispered that we
had a North and a South. When America spoke we knew that we were but
one people; that all were Americans. It had been whispered that social
and economic lines were hopelessly dividing the American people, and
that patriotism was retreating before the growth of class interests
and class prejudices.
"But when America spoke there was no one in the land who was not an
American; the laborer dropped his hammer; the farmer turned from his
plow; the merchant forgot his counting-room; the millionaire closed the
door of his mansion; and side by side, equal in love of country; their
resolve to serve her, they marched to danger and to death. America
can never doubt the united loyalty of her whole population, nor the
power which such united loyalty puts into her hand.
"And what may I not say in eulogy of the sentiment of humanity, that in
union with their patriotism swayed the hearts of the American people,
and in their vision invested the war with the halo of highest and
most sacred duty to fellow-men? I speak of the great multitude, whom
we name the American people. They had been told of dire suffering by
neighboring people--struggling for peace and liberty; they believed
that only through war could they acquit themselves of the sacred
duty of rescuing that people from their sufferings. I state a broad,
undeniable fact. The dominating, impelling motive of the war in
the depths of the national heart of America was the sentiment of
humanity. The people of America offered their lives through no sordid
ambition of pecuniary gain, of conquest of territory, of national
aggrandizement. Theirs was the high-born ambition to succor fellowmen.
"What strength and power America was found to possess. When war was
declared, so small was her army, so small her navy that the thought of
war coming upon the country affrighted for the moment her own citizens
and excited the derisive smiles of foreigners. Of her latent resources
no doubt was possible; but how much time was needed to utilize them,
and, meanwhile, how much humiliation was possible. The President waved
his wand; instantly armies and navies were created as by magic. Within
a few weeks a quarter of a million of men were formed into regiments
and army corps; vessels of war and transport ships were covering the
seas; upon water and land battles were fought and great victories won,
from one side of the globe to the other. I know not of similar feats
in history. What if in this bewildering rush of a nation to arms
one department or another of the national administration was unable
to put in a moment its hand upon all the details which a thoroughly
rounded equipment required? The wonder is that the things that were
done could at all have been done, and that what was done so quickly
could have been done so well. The wonder is that this sudden creation
of such vast military forces was possible, even in America.
"What prowess in action, what intellect in planning, what skill
in execution, were displayed by soldiers and seamen, by men and
officers. Magnificent the sweep of Dewey's squadron in Manila
harbor. Magnificent the broadsides from Sampson's fleet upon Cervera's
fleeing ships. Magnificent the charge of regiments of regular infantry,
and of Roosevelt's riders up the hills of El Caney. Never daunted,
never calculating defeat, every man determined to die or conquer, every
man knowing his duty, how to do it--the soldiers and seamen of America
were invincible. Spanish fleets and Spanish armies vanished before
them as mists before the morning sun; the nations of the earth stood
amazed in the presence of such quick and decisive triumphs, at what
America had done and at what, they now understood, America could do.
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 accumulation 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
shipping, 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 participated 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 God 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 ships 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 God, 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
superstitious for monarchy, and regard republican institutions
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 sturdy
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 rushing 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 title 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,
Washington Irving, with melodious prose and gentle humor, surpassed 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 assigned 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.
"All of South America save Brazil and the two Guineas, all Central
America, Mexico, the entire territory west of the Mississippi, now
embraced by the United States, beautiful Cuba, from whose eastern
province of Santiago Ponce de Leon across the lucent waves of the
tropical sea coveted the ambrosial forests and fertile meadows of Porto
Rico, whence he was to sail to the floral empire of Florida. But this
was not all of Spain's magnificent domain. Far across the waters of
the South Pacific was the now famous cluster of islands bearing the
name of the Spanish king. And from their great cities, via Guam, and
Hawaii, and San Francisco, to Acapulco, sailed the famous Manila fleet,
huge galleons, loaded to the gunwales with the silken and golden wealth
of the orient. Where are her colonies now? The declaration of the
senior senator from the noble state of Illinois has been fulfilled:
No race outside of her own borders, even if Spanish by origin, has
ever been able to endure her reign, and every race which has resisted
her ultimately succeeded in withdrawing from her control.
"In the meantime the Americans, as declared by the German philosopher,
Lessing, were building in the new world the lodge of humanity. The
determined malignity of the Spaniard toward the adventurous men of
our race who were fringing the Atlantic coast with sparsely peopled
and widely separated settlements was promptly disclosed. They had
threatened to send an armed ship to remove the Virginia planters. They
laid claim to Carolina, and they directed powerful armed expeditions
against the young colony of Georgia. They were now to meet, not the
helpless savages who had been their victims, but men of that same
fighting strain who in this good year breasted the hail of death,
swarmed up the heights and planted the colors on the intrenchments
of Santiago.
"That field where the Georgian and Spaniards on that momentous day
in 1742 met is yet called the Blood Marsh. The commander of our
colonial forces was James Edward Oglethorpe. To his military genius
and the heroism of his slender force is due the fact that the southern
territory of the United States was not added to the dependencies of
Spain. That illustrious Englishman should ever live in the memory and
veneration of the American people. He did more to exclude the Spaniards
from American soil than any other man of the English speaking race,
save that successor of Washington, the president, who evinces his
fervid love of country and graces the occasion by his presence to-day.
"Defeated in their scheme of invasion, the Spaniards remained intensely
inimical to our fathers. What more striking demonstration of that
superintending providence, which administers justice, not only to
individuals, but to nations, than the spectacle in this mighty city,
builded on the heritage of which Spain would have deprived this people
of this gathering of Americans to mark the epoch when the last Spanish
soldier has been driven from the last foot of soil of that hemisphere
discovered by Columbus. May we not justly exclaim with the psalmist
of old: 'Oh, clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the
voice of triumph.'
"It is perhaps impossible for Americans of this day and time to
conceive how vast was the control Spain might have exerted over the
destinies of our republic. The independence of the United States had
been recognized, the constitution had been adopted and the government
organized, and yet for many years she claimed without dispute the
peninsula of Florida, thence a strip along the gulf extending to and
including the city of New Orleans, and she held all of that territory
west of the Mississippi extending from the Father of Waters to the
Pacific ocean, and from the Gulf of Mexico northward to the undefined
boundaries of the British possessions.
"Even as it is to-day, that empire mentioned in Bishop Berkely's
prophetic stanza, 'Westward the course of empire takes its way,' which
sprang into being with the first shot of the simple, God-fearing
husbandmen on the green at Lexington extends more than half way
across the Pacific ocean, and the miner or the fisherman standing
on the ultimate island of Alaska and gazing eastward across the icy
waters may with the naked eye behold the dominions of the czar. Nor
in this do we include those distant islands, where one May morning,
ever to be famous in the annals of our race, the spicy breezes that
blow o'er Manila bay were rent by the guns of the noble Dewey as they
proclaimed that the genius of liberty had come to rid of cruelty and
avarice and crime that charming land 'where every prospect pleases
and only man is vile.'
"In this connection may it not be well for us and for some of our
distinguished representatives now in Paris to consider if it can
be ever possible for men with the American and Spanish ideas of
government to live in proximity and in peace? Contrast the character
of the average American citizen with that of the Spaniard. The
native and distinctive modesty of the national character forbids
me to pronounce an extravagant eulogium upon the American citizen,
but behold him and see what he has done and can do.
"While the human intellect has been making prodigious and unheard-of
strides, while the world is ringing with the noise of intellectual
achievements, Spain sleeps on untroubled, unheeding, impassive,
receiving no impression upon it. There she lies at the farther
extremity of the continent, a huge and torpid mass, the sole
representative now remaining of the feelings and knowledge of the
middle ages. And, what is the worst symptom of all, she is satisfied
with her own condition. Though she is the most backward country
in Europe she believes herself to be the foremost. She is proud of
everything of which she ought to be ashamed.
"How incompatible is the temperament of the American and the Spaniard.
"May the worn and wasted followers of Gomez and Garcia come to
appreciate the blessings of liberty under the law. No other wish is in
consonance with the aims of the American people. We would not, if we
could, be their masters. The gigantic power of the country has been
put forth for their salvation and for their pacification. Connected
with them by bonds of genuine sympathy and indissoluble interest,
we will labor with them to secure for them established justice,
domestic tranquility, general welfare and the blessings of liberty
to themselves and to their posterity. For the common defense, in the
blue ether above the beautiful island of Cuba is poised the eagle.'
'Whose golden plume
Floats moveless on the storm and in the blaze
Of sunrise gleams when earth is wrapt in gloom.'
"It was not enough, however, for the American people to recognize
the independence of the Spanish-American republics. It soon became
our duty to notify the world that in certain eventualities it was
our purpose to defend their national existence. The holy alliance,
as it was termed, had been formed. The great powers who signed the
famous compact declared its purpose to maintain as Christian doctrine
the proposition that useful or necessary changes in legislation, or in
the administration of states, can only emanate from the free will and
well-weighed convictions of those whom God has rendered responsible for
power. Whom had God made responsible for power? What is a well-weighed
conviction? These are questions about which the irreverent Americans
might perchance differ with royalty. We had been lead to believe, and
yet believe, that the voice of the people is the voice of God. When,
therefore, the absolution of the holy alliance, not content with
smothering a feeble spark of liberty in Spain, initiated a joint
movement of their arms against the Spanish-American republics, it
gave the people of our country the gravest concern. In the meantime
our relations with Great Britain had grown cordial. That they may
grow ever stronger and more cordial should be the prayer of every man
of the English speaking race. An unspeakable blessing to mankind of
the struggle from which we are now emerging is the genuine brotherly
sympathy for the people of the United States flowing from that land.
"And it is returned in no unstinted measure. But two months ago
the flagship of Admiral Dewey steamed slowly into the battle line
at Manila. As she passed the British flagship Immortalite its band
rang out the inspiring air 'See the Conquering Hero Comes,' and as
the gorgeous ensign of the republic was flung to the breeze at the
peak of the Olympia there now came thrilling o'er the waters from
our kinsmen's ship the martial strains of the 'Star Spangled Banner.'
"Finally, when our gallant seamen, reposing in fancied security in
the scorching blast of the treacherous explosion were cruelly and
remorselessly slain, and calm investigation had developed the truth,
we had been despicable on the historic page had we not appealed to the
god of battle for retribution. The pious rage of seventy millions of
people cried aloud to heaven for the piteous agony, for the shameful
slaughter of our brethren. Our noble navy was swiftly speeding to its
duty. Poetic genius bodied forth the spirit of our gallant seamen as
the mighty ships sped on their way.
"Let the waters of the orient as they moan through the shell-riven
wrecks at Cavite, the booming waves of the Caribbean as fathoms
deep it sweeps over Pluton and Furor and breaks into spray on the
shapeless and fire-distorted steel of Vizcaya and Oquendo, tell how
the navy has paid our debt to Spain. Nor is the renown which crowns
the standards of our army one whit less glorious. Nothing in the
lucid page of Thucydides nor in the terse commentaries of Caesar,
nothing in the vivid narrative of Napier or the glowing battle scenes
of Allison, can surpass the story how, spurning the chapparal and the
barbed wire, pressing their rifles to their throbbing hearts, toiling
up the heights, and all the while the machine guns and the Mausers
mowing the jungle as if with a mighty reaper, on and yet right on,
they won the fiery crests, and Santiago fell. Well may we exclaim
with the royal poet of Israel:
"'Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvelous things;
his right hand and his holy arm hath gotten him the victory.'
"America! Humane in the hour of triumph, gentle to the vanquished,
grateful to the Lord of Hosts, a reunited people forever:
"'Great people. As the sands shalt thou become;
Thy growth is swift as morn, when night must fade
The multitudinous earth shall sleep beneath thy shade.'"
The band burst into the strains of "Dixie" in honor of the Southern
birth of Judge Speer, as he concluded his oration. President
McKinley, as on other occasions during the program, joined in the
hearty applause. Cries of "McKinley," "McKinley," "The President,"
"The President," were heard all over the hall, and in a moment it
was seen that the President was going to respond. Every one stood
up. Ex-Governor Oglesby approached the front of the box, and said, "I
have the honor to introduce the guest of the occasion, the President."
"Leaning forward," we quote the Tribune, "from his box in the
earnestness of his utterance, speaking in the tones of emotion
having birth in the fullness of heart, President William McKinley,
at the Auditorium jubilee meeting yesterday morning gave to the
people a message of simple thanks and significant augury. Save for
a wave of applause at the mention of American charity, the terse,
reverent address was heard in silence. An added hush fell upon the
intent throng when the President began the portentous concluding
paragraph, and when he ceased speaking and stood before them grave
and masterful, the quiet was breathless, tense under the force of
repression. Then the meaning of the words of the Executive coursed
from heart to brain, and men's minds grasped the fact that they had
heard the President's lips declare that he had seen the direction of
the flow of the currents of destiny, that he recognized their majesty,
and that his purpose was in harmony with the common will--the force
working for the retention of the conquered islands in the distant
Pacific and for the policy of national growth.
"The applause broke the louder for the preceding calm and the deeper
for the inspiring motive. Hats were swung and handkerchiefs waved. Men
climbed on chairs to lead the cheering and women forgot gloved hands
and applauded with energy. At the last, ex-Governor Richard J. Oglesby,
who had a seat in the President's box, led in three cheers."
The message of the President was:
"My Fellow Citizens: I have been deeply moved by this great
demonstration. I have been deeply touched by the words of patriotism
that have been uttered by the distinguished men so eloquently in your
presence. It is gratifying to all of us to know that this has never
ceased to be a war of humanity. The last ship that went out of the
harbor of Havana before war was declared was an American ship that
had taken to the suffering people of Cuba the supplies furnished
by American charity, and the first ship to sail into the harbor
of Santiago was another American ship bearing food supplies to the
suffering Cubans.
"I am sure it is the universal prayer of American citizens that
justice and humanity and civilization shall characterize the final
settlement of peace as they have distinguished the progress of the war.
"My countrymen, the currents of destiny flow through the hearts
of the people. Who will check them? Who will divert them? Who will
stop them? And the movements of men, planned by the master of men,
will never be interrupted by the American people."
The Philadelphia celebration was a scene of a demonstration of
popular interest and patriotic feeling amazing in its multitudinous
enthusiasm. The Loyal League was out in full force, the parade was
a prodigy of display, and the Clover Club gave a brilliant dinner,
and the cleverness of the President's speech carried the club by
storm. He said:
"I cannot forego making acknowledgment to this far-famed club for the
permission it has granted me to meet with you here to-night. You do
not seem half so bad at this stage as you have been pictured. No one
can unfold the future of the Clover Club. (Laughter.)
It has been so gratifying to me to participate with the people of the
city of Philadelphia in this great patriotic celebration. It was a
pageant the like of which I do not believe has been seen since the
close of the great Civil War, when the army of Grant, Sherman and
Sheridan, and the navy of Dupont, Dahlgren and Porter gave the great
review in the capital city of the nation. And I know of no more fitting
place to have a patriotic celebration than in this great city, which
witnessed the first consecration of liberty and of the Republic. As
I stood on the great reviewing stand, witnessing the soldiers and
sailors passing by, my heart was filled only with gratitude to the
God of battles, who has so favored us, and gratitude to the brave
soldiers and sailors who had won such signal victories on land and
on sea, and had given a new meaning to American valor.
"It has been especially gratifying to me to participate not only with
the people of Philadelphia, but with the people of the great West,
where I have recently visited, in doing honor to the American army
and the American navy. No nobler soldiers or sailors ever assembled
under any flag. You had with you to-day the leaders of Santiago,
Porto Rico and Guantanamo. We unfortunately had none of the heroes of
Manila with us. But I am sure that our hearts go out to them to-night
and to the brave Dewey and Otis and Merritt, and all the other gallant
men that are now sustaining the flag in the harbor city of Manila."
(A voice, "How about Hobson?")
"The American people are always ready for any emergency, and if
the Merrimac is to be sunk there is an American officer to do it. He
succeeded in doing what our foe has been unable to do, sink an American
ship. (Applause.)
"I ask you, gentlemen of the Clover Club, to unite with me in
toasting the Army and Navy of the United States, without whose
valor and sacrifice we could not celebrate the victory we have been
celebrating to-day. Not only the men at the front, not only the men
on the battleships and in the battle line, but the men at home with
ambition to go to fight the battles of American civilization, should
be the recipients of the gratitude of the American people."
Hobson and his men were a great feature of the parade in the
four-in-hand. Hobson, during this visit to Philadelphia was caught,
surrounded and captured at his hotel and was forced to make a speech,
of which there is this report:
"The young officer was plainly embarrassed. His red face suggested it,
his trembling voice told it. In a low tone and frequently pausing,
as if from a loss of a word, he said:
"'Your reception has been so very kind that it seems almost as if I
had lost the power to say anything.'
"Someone called out: 'Never mind, you had nerve enough to go into
Santiago Harbor,' and then the crowd gave three cheers for Hobson.
"He began again. 'The incident you have referred to is one you unduly
magnify. Believe me, it was really nothing more than a little bit of
work, which came to my men and to me to do in the ordinary course
of strategy in warfare. That was all it was, a little bit of work,
and it is sheer exaggeration to say anything else.'
"'Can't agree with you! Can't agree with you!' was the shouted answer
from the crowd."
At the Clover Club jubilee dinner, Captain "Fighting Bob" Evans gave a
wonderfully interesting account of the destruction of Cervera's fleet,
closing with a grim picture of war the celebration of peace. He had
been speaking of the blockade of Cuba, and insistently called upon
to tell about Santiago, said:
"Of our little scrap, it was the prettiest mix-up that was ever
seen. I want to say that no fleet ever met a braver enemy than we
did at Santiago. Those Spaniards stood up and got killed in the best
possible shape. Six hundred of them died in less than thirty minutes,
so you can see that there was very little flinching on Cervera's ships.
"During the fight there were two very interesting moments, the
first when the four big cruisers of the enemy came outside of the
harbor, firing away with mechanical regularity and presenting a most
magnificent spectacle. They were not hitting anything, but that made
little difference at that time, they tried hard enough. As we closed
in, there came a moment when the fleeing Spanish ships had an almost
perfect chance to use their rams on our vessels. I submit now that
not a single one changed his course a single inch. They came out
of that harbor and ran away, and that was all they attempted to do,
fighting as they went.
"The second point was when 'Dick' Wainwright misread a signal. I
know he won't admit that he did misread it; however, I'll tell you
the incident. In the Gloucester Wainwright was just off the harbor
mouth when the two Spanish torpedo boat destroyers were noticed making
straight at him. The Indiana signaled 'The enemy's torpedo boats are
coming out.' Wainwright read it 'Close in and attack enemy's torpedo
boats,' and you know the rest of the story.
"There was a dramatic picture which I want to call your attention
to. It was after the Vizcaya had run ashore, and I had to stop the
Iowa, some 400 yards away. I saw the survivors on a sand bar, which
was merely a narrow strip of about 200 yards from shore, on either
side of a small inlet. On one side a school of hungry sharks were
making fierce rushes toward the men, and on the other, the Cubans were
shooting away, utterly regardless of the fact that they were fighting
a helpless foe. Out in front we were not supposed to be very friendly.
"Finally, I saw Captain Eulate, of the destroyed ship, coming toward my
vessel in a small boat. Now Eulate is what you call a black Spaniard,
one of those fellows that would cry as though his heart would break
every few minutes when in trouble. He sat in the stern of a small
boat that had belonged to his vessel. She was partly stove in and had
about a foot of water, or I should say blood and water, in her bottom.
"As I looked down in the gangway I think it was the most horrible
sight that I ever witnessed. In the bottom of the boat lay two dead
Spaniards, one with his head completely shot away. The Spanish Captain
was wounded in three places, and each of the four men who rowed his
boat was more or less cut up. We slung a chair over the side and
carefully hauled him on board.
"As he came up to the starboard gangway the marine guard saluted and
he was received with all the honors of his rank. As he stepped toward
me he burst into tears, threw his hands up in the air, and then,
with a gesture of utter despair, but with all the grace of the pretty
gentleman, loosed his sword belt and pressing a fervent kiss on the
hilt of the weapon he extended it toward me. Every man on that ship
knew that that Spaniard was giving up something of value equal to
his life. I am not very good-natured, but I could not take that sword."
This met with loud cries of "You did right, Bob," and one lusty-lunged
individual announced that there was not a man in the country that
would take it. Captain Evans, who recognized the speaker, a friend
from the rural districts, answered: "Oh, you don't know what some of
those up-country Pennsylvanians would do. It was a pretty good sword."
Continuing, Captain Evans said: "I didn't know exactly what to do
with the Spanish Captain to get him into our sick bay. As I was about
to ask him of his wound he stepped toward the gangway and looked
shoreward. About a quarter of a mile off lay the once magnificent
vessel in which he had boasted he would tow the Brooklyn back to Spain.
"She was burning fore and aft, terrific columns of flame shooting
up around her, and suddenly, with a burst of tears, Captain Eulate
kissed his hand and bade fond farewell to the burning hulk and said
with impassioned voice, 'Adios Viscaya.' As he did this the very same
instant there came a tremendous roar and the Vizcaya's magazine blew
her superstructure hundreds of feet into the air. Had the incident
occurred that way on the stage anybody would have said it was too
well timed.
"He turned back and we got him into the ship's hospital, where the
surgeons placed him on his stomach to shave the hair around a small
cut on the back of his head. I stood alongside of him, and rolling his
eyes into the starboard corner he said to me, with a rather comical
expression, 'I think I have heard of you before.' I told him I did
not know how that could have been, and he asked: 'Did you not command
the Indiana?' 'Yes,' I said; then he said, shaking his head as well
as circumstances would permit, 'Yes, I have heard of you. You are
"Bob" Evans.'
"I have often wondered just what he referred to. I have a notion
that it would fit certain remarks regarding certain language that I
was credited with having used in reference to an attack on Havana;
language, by the way, which I never used. As I said before, the battle
before Santiago was the prettiest imaginable kind of effect. Why,
two torpedo boat destroyers came out, and inside of ten minutes we
had them sounding. One sounded in 200 fathoms of water and sunk to
rest there. The other preferred a berth with her nose on the beach.
"The Maria Teresa and Admiral Oquendo were on fire inside of five
minutes after the fight had started. They made beautiful sweeps toward
the shore, and were regular Fourth of July processions as they swept
in on the beach. We helped them along a bit by landing a few shells
in the stern. It was a pretty fight, but it should never be forgotten
that the Spaniards fought their ships as hard and with as much valor
as any men in any ships ever fought."
After the first cabinet meeting succeeding the peace jubilee, the
President issued his annual Thanksgiving proclamation:
"_By the President of the United States_.
_A Proclamation_.
"The approaching November brings to mind the custom of our ancestors,
hallowed by time and rooted in our most sacred traditions, of giving
thanks to Almighty God for all the blessings he has vouchsafed to us
during the past year.
"Few years in our history have afforded such cause for thanksgiving as
this. We have been blessed by abundant harvests, our trade and commerce
have been wonderfully increased, our public credit has been improved
and strengthened, all sections of our common country have been brought
together and knitted into closer bonds of national purpose and unity.
"The skies have been for a time darkened by the cloud of war; but as
we were compelled to take up the sword in the cause of humanity, we
are permitted to rejoice that the conflict has been of brief duration
and the losses we have had to mourn, though grievous and important,
have been so few, considering the great results accomplished, as to
inspire us with gratitude and praise to the Lord of Hosts. We may laud
and magnify His holy name that the cessation of hostilities came so
soon as to spare both sides the countless sorrows and disasters that
attend protracted war.
"I do, therefore, invite all my fellow citizens, as well those at
home as those who may be at sea or sojourning in foreign lands, to
set apart and observe Thursday, the twenty-fourth day of November,
as a day of national thanksgiving, to come together in their several
places of worship, for a service of praise and thanks to Almighty
God for all the blessings of the year, for the mildness of seasons
and the fruitfulness of the soil, for the continued prosperity of the
people, for the devotion and valor of our countrymen, for the glory
of our victory and the hope of a righteous peace, and to pray that the
Divine guidance, which has brought us heretofore to safety and honor,
may be graciously continued in the years to come.
"In witness whereof, etc.
(Signed)
"_William M'Kinley_.
"By the President:
"_John Hay_, Secretary of State."