Mr. President, it is not a pleasant thing to suggest that there may be a limit beyond which the United States may not safely go. It is a much easier task to tickle the ear of the American people with high-flown panegyrics and to excite the popular enthusiasm with the glittering recital of the dazzling dreams of empire. But those officially charged with the responsibility, the peace, the safety and the future of a great nation, and with the duty of preserving its principles and its institutions will find the discharge of the highest duty not always in the field most inviting to personal gratification or pleasing to the love of personal applause.

But, sir, it is not simply in the contemplation of the possibility of a war entailing great sacrifices and possible reverses that I am opposed to a policy which will bring wars. War at best, even victorious war, in a righteous cause, is a great curse. It always works a change in the civil institutions of a free country, and endangers the liberties of the people. It accustoms the people to the excesses of arbitrary power, and weakens loyalty to the authority of law. It familiarizes them with the contemplation of blood and carnage; brutalizes the instincts, and destroys the gentler and nobler humanities. It even invades the pulpit; and, strange to say, some of those called to minister in holy things endeavor to paint the good God as a God delighting in war and bloodshed, forgetting that the new dispensation was ushered in with the divine message, "Peace on earth, good will to man," and scarcely remembering that even under the old dispensation David was not allowed to build the temple because he was a man of blood.

The people of the United States to-day know less of

war than those of thirty-five years ago, and the people of the North, as closely as the great war of that time came to their homes and their firesides, know less of it than the people of the South. Because they know what it is they are opposed to unnecessary war. And yet, sir, the people of my section, as much as they deprecate war, recognize that wars are sometimes necessary and that there are some things worse than war. They recognize that the loss of national liberty is worse than war; they recognize that no war is too great a sacrifice to secure and protect liberty; and, what is more, whenever the country is engaged in war they give it their active support, regardless of whether it is or is not a war which they approve. If the published reports are correct, the State which in proportion to population furnished the greatest number of soldiers to the late war was the State of Georgia. And although her people in general deprecate and deplore the present war in the Philippines and believe it could have been and should have been avoided, it is nevertheless true that twothirds of the men of one of the volunteer regiments raised during the past year for that service and now serving in the Philippines were enlisted in Georgia.

Again, sir, among the imperialists, those who soar on a loftier wing are fond of appealing to the patriotic emotions and pride of the American people by the oft-repeated statement that the results of the Spanish war have made the United States a world power. What a wonderful discovery, Mr. President, that we have become a world power. Why, sir, when in the result of the Revolutionary War we made good the great Declaration of the Fourth of July, 1776, we became the greatest of world powers; the greatest of world powers, sir, because in spite of the

fewness of our numbers and the smallness of our resources, we had not only announced, but maintained and secured, a great principle, thereafter to stand as the menace of every tyrant, the hope and inspiration of every people, however humble, who longed for liberty. Just become, sir, a world power? A nation whose flag has never gone down in defeat just become a world power, when for seventy-five years it has stood as the guardian of the whole western hemisphere and said to the whole world, "Not one step further on this hemisphere,” and for seventy-five years the whole world has obeyed the command?

And this discovery that we have just become a world power is due to a mere skirmish in which we overcame the weak and decayed power of Spain, when in truth we had so recently with our own blood written the history of the greatest and fiercest and bloodiest battles of modern times. Why, sir, within your memory there occurred within eighty miles of this capitol a battle in which more men were killed and wounded in half an hour than were killed and wounded in both American and Spanish armies during the entire Spanish war. And the highest demonstration that we were a world power was when the division ended and when there stood again united for all time the people who when divided had between themselves fought battles under the shock of which the earth quaked and the very mountains rocked.-A. O. Bacon.

[Extract from an address delivered in the United States Senate on January 30, 1900, against the retention of the Philippines.]

THE FUTURE OF CUBA.

If we but perform the duty of to-day-the duty to conscience and to Cuba, the duty to our own people-the man does not live who can foresee or foretell the possible results that from this small beginning may eventually come. It is more than probable that when the dream of "Cuba libre" is transformed into a reality; when groans and blood and suffering are supplanted by smiles and blossoms and ease; when poverty gives way to wealth; when anarchy is driven from every corner, and law and order sit in supreme command; when oppression and undue exactions are finally and completely succeeded by freedom and liberty and justice, that there will come as if by magic a new and a regenerated Cuba.

As the new Cuba unfolds to the world, its beauty and its richness will dazzle the most high. Favored by sun and soil, blessed by wind and climate, endowed with all the gifts that a bountiful and generous nature can bestow, Cuba needs but the revivifying touch of just laws and stable government to bloom and thrive and grow as no country has ever done before. No man can measure her possibilities and none foresee the heights to which she may climb. For four hundred years she has been the prey of Spanish plunderers and the victims of cruelty, treachery and crime. Her hills and valleys are rich in the bones of her martyred sons who have died to throw off the hated. yoke.

Amid the ravages of war and pestilence and oppression her riches have been obscured and her beauties trampled under foot, but they have not been destroyed. Thev but

await the summons to come forth, increased, enhanced and glorified by the baptism of blood and tears through which they have passed. Four hundred years of darkness. of despair, of hopeless struggle, and then freedom! Who can paint the picture?

From glorious America came the freedom that to-day illumines the blood-stained island and throws into the background the long, dark night, and from the same glorious America must come the help by which the means can be had to use and enjoy the priceless freedom she gave. Our duty leads us on until we have fulfilled our high mission-until the means have been given to enable Cuba. "the gem of the Antilles," to come into her inheritance and to stand forth in the plenitude of her long-denied glory and power.

When we have done this we must ever exult and be glad at the excellence of our handiwork, for if she be a part of us, she will be a rich and incomparable part, and if she be but a sister republic, nestling close beside us, we will be proud to call her our friend and ally.—Wm. G. Brantley. [Extract from a speech delivered in the National House of Representatives on March 11, 1902.]

IN FLORIDA BY THE SEA.

I am standing alone by the sea. The sea that stretches away and away, till the eyes can see no farther, and the canopy of heaven, with its curtains of blue, joins the waters, and makes to our vision the end of the world. The ocean is so old and yet so new-like the old sweet story that was whispered in the garden by our first parents and