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of the complete establishment of a business Civil Service in the Nation, the States, the Towns and the Municipalities, the fair treatment of all men born with "certain inalienable rights;" the endowment of the people of all the States with the new possessions, won by the sword and fixed by treaty, including the islands of the seas around us to be held sacred as the foundations the Fathers laid, and cemented with blood and iron; the strengthening of our Army and Navy, for the sake of Peace and Good Will to Men; that we shall employ our ample resources for the preservation of the forests and fertilization of the fields of the Central Lands of the Continent, that need only the water falling on our mountains in the vast West, shall find channels through the deserts, that they may bloom at the touch of the streams; and alongside this miracle of life, provide for the promotion of commerce by the joint policy of Protection and Reciprocity; this that the increase of the products of our industries shall find markets at home and abroad, and we may be prosperous in fortune as in situation, and resourceful equal to our strength, realizing that we have the Opportunity of the Primacy of the Great Powers, and, with enlightened effort, the certainty of it.
The conservatism of President Roosevelt could not, under any conceivable circumstances, mean stagnation. The maxim "leave well enough alone" is uttered as a caution against the indiscretion of impetuosity. A precaution against growth would serve notice of decay.
The message of President Roosevelt to Congress is one of the most conservative of the whole series of messages and is all around caretaking and progressive. The ideas of reviving reciprocity as Blaine understood it, advanced almost simultaneously by McKinley and Roosevelt, meant that the principle of protection was safe; that it is no more an issue, and should be held as the broad base of a mighty structure, the outlines already drawn by the increase of our export trade of manufactured articles, as well as products of mining and agriculture. Not only is protection established, the gold standard of money has come to stay; and each day vindicates that of all victories of the industrial people for themselves, it is the most important for the wageearner, and the strongest defense of the producers of value against the arts of money changers. The merit of gold is that it is the closest approximation to the unchangeable standard. It not only betters money, but cheapens it in loans, and provides most amply for the greater abundance of stable currency. So much is settled. The Monroe Doctrine is the law of our hemisphere. It will be neither extended nor disturbed, and works for peace, not for war. Opposition to American expansion in territory never was in form to better the Republic; and the policy of extension is as victorious as protection and as prophetic as reciprocity.
The answer to the imperialism illusion, is found in the peremptory declaration of the President, that our army is not to be enlarged in numbers, but increased in efficiency by special training, so that our military power may be multiplied by three, without augmentation of expenditure. The President has put his stamp of ardent, urgent progression upon the navy; and instead of telegrams that ironclads must not be risked, we shall have orders that our warships should be worn out with ceaseless activity and instead of resting and rusting in harbors shall roll in the stormy seas. A new theme of enormous interest shines from the message—it is to preserve the forests, purify the water, irrigate the arid lands. In the swiftly coming on Great Hereafter, our land and waters in the North American Continent will be the centre of the Earth.
SUGGESTION OF OPPOSITION.
The Senate and Cabinet as Factors Is a Senator a Boss, or a Secretary a Clerk?
Anarchists Criticize Roosevelt-How to Make Them Harmless-Strength of Roosevelt's Position--His Denunciation of Dynamiters-His Methods of Politics -Holds Friendship of the Disappointed-Some Sorrows of the Old GuardRepresentative Character of the President.
HE natural expression of the opinion of the people of a country who
govern themselves, is in Administration and Opposition parties. The
division into those substantially for and against the Government, is the simplest form of the people's rule.
Party organizations, to have endurance beyond the terms of office of the chief functionaries, must, at least, begin with the formulation of principles. Hence, party meetings, addresses, platforms. Parties through outliving terms of official service, rise and fall. It is well if they appear and disappear, with the new issues that become, in the popular name, "problems.” The parties that endure longer than the organizers, must have purposes that take shape in policies.
President Roosevelt was speaking with the candor that is one of his highest distinctions, when he took the oath of office as President, his purpose to carry out the McKinley policy. There was the note of complete sincerity in his invitation to the Cabinet officers to remain and not pass through a ceremony of resignation.
There was wisdom in the clinching strength of the President's declarations. They were from his heart and head. The country held him responsible, however, knowing the basis of continuance of the lines drawn by the President, so horribly assassinated, was in the equal confidence in the candidates nominated for President and Vice-President in the Philadelphia Convention. The people were not unmindful of the agreement of the two men first in pre-eminent representative places in the Government, appearing in the Minneapolis speech of Roosevelt, September 2nd, and the Buffalo speech of McKinley, September 5th. We name the utterances in the order of the time of delivery. The concert is the more striking because the Vice-President was three days before the
President, in the words that defined a common purpose, and there had been no communication between them looking to speaking with one voice.
That which happened within four months in two changes in the Cabinet, was not unexpected. The general policy of the Republican party was to be pursued. Still, great changes, not in principle, but in ways and means largely, were unavoidable, for the hands of the President must be free, within the obligations of the Constitution, or the indispensable characteristic individualities wanting. The executive office was not placed by the Fathers in the hands of a committee. A man is foremost and first, and the balances of power are the models of free institutions.
There has been, within recent years, perceptible growth in the functions of Senators, who have—if an expression borrowed from classification in colleges may be applied-placed themselves in the Senior Class. The duty of the Senate to confirm appointments and treaties, has given Senators, by accretion of influence, a share in the appointing power; and the appearance of Senators at the White House, on errands other than pertaining to reformationrather to appointment and confirmation have been frequently remarked. It was President McKinley's way to be courteous to all callers. He did not discriminate in a marked degree against those who distinguished themselves by misconstruction of his motives and misrepresentation of his policy. There is a keen self-appreciation by the Senators, and some were apprehensive of the coming of Roosevelt, and pained to think they might have to lead a “strenuous life" that would impair the calm they coveted. However, they found the severe decorum of the Vice-President, in'the high chair of the representatives of the States reassuring.
There is another body that has had augmentation of consequence within the generation since the War of the States. It is the Cabinet. General Sherman, taking his place on the stand with President Johnson and his Cabinet, when, he had led the army of the West, that marched to the sea, from the Ohio, and then from Savannah to the Potomac, and across the long bridge, was passing the point of official review, declined to respond to the friendly salutation rendered by Secretary Stanton, on the ground that he did not feel like grasping the hand of a "clerk."
The development of the Senate and the Cabinet, is no more or less than evidence of the increase of the dimensions of the country and its weight in the world. There has been far more for the President to do within the last decade than ever before; and in the multiplicity and magnitude of details of business, the Administration of President McKinley has exceeded all precedent. Never before was it necessary for the attention of the President to be called to make so many decisions of moment-called often from bed in the middle of the night to hear news that he must act upon at once. Telegrams from all
parts of the country, and remote as well as near Nations, simplified but increased his discharge of responsibilities. As an example, study the archives in which tens of thousands of telegrams are found, as they were sent from and received by all the Departments and the squadrons and camps, noting continually the words that are last and count first are from the President, and how promptly they were rendered into orders.
The Cabinet, like the Senate, accept with general satisfaction a large and increasing responsibility. These words apply, not to Cabinet and Senate only, but to both Houses of Congress. The House directly representative of the people is more and more asserting itself, in executive responsibilities and the more carefully this is observed, the more clearly appear the realities of our representative form of Government.
In all Mr. Roosevelt's official positions, and expounded in his books and public addresses, are prominent, his views on all public questions, arisen within twenty years, distinguished by conspicuity before the country. They are notorious and met without faltering. His Administration as Governor is full of unmistakable messages and memoranda, speeches, addresses and records of official acts, touching, not tentatively but trenchantly, all the multitude of questions upon which the President is profoundly busied; and there is not a “problem” before the people, and will not be two years from this, that President Roosevelt has not written about so freely that what he thinks of the solution has been stated frequently and positively. There is hardly an issue that can come up during his Administration of the Presidential office, upon which his consistent course is not marked out in strong English, with no mental reservation, and his officially published papers. The highest testimonials of his fitness for the Presidency are found in his record as Governor.
The man of the few years and many experiences of President Roosevelt -his activity in meeting all responsibilities, his force of character that evolves leadership and broadens opportunity, his aptitude in finding out the vital points in executive decision-we may count without misgiving that Roosevelt will, as President, keep pace with the progress of the country, and gain with the confidence of the people their affection.
The anarchists of America murdered the most kindly man of his time. If their object in dooming McKinley to death was to make an impression by the slaughter of a man without enemies, the gentlest and most lovable of all rulers of men, they made no mistake in the selection of a victim. The murder was absolutely merciless. That in itself is the challenging warning the Republic has received. The President mortally wounded forgave the assassin and was comforted, as he died, by the spirit of resignation and forgiveness. His life was full of love; his death the testimony. President Roosevelt said in his message to Congress, "No man will ever be restrained from becoming Presi