Clemson University - Taps Yearbook (Clemson, SC)

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THE CLEMSON COLLEGE CHRONICLE 389 The fifth and last fact to which I wish to call your atten- tion is this : That a colonial system of government will pro- duce an empire at home. I take it that there is not a man or woman in this house who would say, Let us make the Fili- pino citizens. They are a people, alien to us in blood, tradi- tions, religion, race and character, and we cannot hope to make them an integral part of our citizenship. Then we must treat them as subjects and govern them as possessions. This is imperialism. The advocates of the colonial policy, conscious of the weakness of their cause, seek to confuse expansion with imperialism. The forcible annexation of territory to be governed by an arbitrary power differs as much from the acquisition of territory to be built up into States as a monarchy differs from democracv. ' The acqui- sition of Louisiana, Florida, Texas, and other tracts which have been secured from time to time, enlarged the republic and the Constitution followed the flag into the new territory. It is now proposed to seize upon distant territory and to force upon the inhabitants a form of government for which there is no warrant either in our Constitution or in our laws. A continual violation by a nation of the fundamental prin- ciples of its government cannot but soon result in a radical change in its government. We cannot have a republican government for ourselves and an imperialistic government for our colonies. Sooner or later republican government must extend over the colonies or imperialistic government over the States. Why? Because there must of necessity arise two schools of politics — the one claiming the equality of all men and the other advocating the power of some to rule others. The first will contain the humble citizens. The second, the Imperial school, will contain the people of wealth and their dependents. These two schools will battle not only for a recognition of their principles, but for an extension of the same ; and it is one of the saddest lessons in the history

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n $s • ' O THE C LEMSON COLLEGE CHRONICLE sacred right. It was in behalf of this right that Patrick Henry declared, ' ' Give me liberty, or give me death. When Monroe said to the European governments in 1803, You shall not colonize any more of the territory of the Western Hemisphere, he said it in behalf of the American people. Alas! how different our ideas are from what they were a hundred years ago! Then we protected liberty. Now we are endeavoring to crush it. The love of liberty, the aspirations for freedom, are nat- ural passions of the human heart. In all ages of the world, in all lands and climes, these passions have lived. They have defied the edict of kings. They have paid the last full measure of devotion at the stake. They have shed undying lustre upon countless fields of battle in all the dark and gloomy past. They are pouring out the life-blood of an unfortunate people upon the thirsty ground of the Philip- pine Islands. How long shall this be allowed to continue? How long will the people of the United States permit the subjugation of those islanders? The shades of our fore- fathers, of Patrick Henry, of George Washington, say, ' ' Stop it now ! ' I am not alarmed by the statements of any one who says that we are bound in honor to remain in the Philippines. Listen to him as he appeals to the nation ' s pride: Would you pull down our honored flag from the ramparts of Ma- nila after it has been placed there by our brave soldiers? Would you flee from the face of the enemy? The Ameri- can soldier has never before run from an enemy, though ever so formidable; would you have us flee from a small body t Filipinos? I can conceive of no greater service done in be- half of my country than to pull down its flag from where it has ceased to represenl the sentiments of its first defenders. Better a thousand times that our flag in the Philippines give way to a flag representing self-government than that it should become the emblem of an empire.

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390 THE CLEMSON COLLEGE CHRONICLE of the old republics that whenever these two schools have met the Imperialistic school by its dazzling influence of wealth has always won. Let us hope that our admiration for the patriots of ' 76 and our love for those inalienable rights of men embodied in the Declaration of Independence will prevent such a calamity from befalling our country. Our forefathers founded the most benign government ever established by man. Its example has done more for down-trodden humanity than all the acts of charity since time began. Its principles of liberty have produced a civili- zation more splendid than could ever have been imagined. To jeopardize those principles would, in my opinion, be the most fatal error ever committed by the American people. Let us, then, have done with this un-American policy of colonization. In the name of the great American Republic, the only great republic ever founded upon the principles of liberty, let us turn away from the tint and tinsel, pomp and splendor of the God of Imperialism and return once more to the God of our fathers to worship at the more congenial shrine of freedom and liberty. G. F. N., ' 03. John ' s First Trip to College We shall call the Rat, whose story we are about to tell, John. He lived in the country not many miles from D — . His father had lived on the farm from early childhood, and, as the war came on during his boyhood days, he had but little chance to go to school. This did not make him as narrow, however, as some of his neighbors, who held that they were getting on very well without any schooling, and that they did not see the use of letting any young fellow lose SO much time at school. As stated before, John ' s father did not look