Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1902 — OUR BOYS IN BLUE [ARTICLE]

OUR BOYS IN BLUE

Have Never Faltered in Devotion to the Nation’s Cause. SHALL THEY GO UNPROTECTED? Representative Watson Makes Eloquent Reply to a Democratic Leader Who is Afraid of the “Mailed Hand" of the American Soldier —The Flag ia the Symbol of Liberty Wherever Unfurled. One of the most eloquent members of congress is Representative James E. Watson, representing the Sixth district of Indiana. His speech on the Philippine question during the last session attracted the admiring attention not only of his auditors in the house of representatives, but of the entire country. He answered in masterly fashion the complaints of the minority against the policy of the administration. Some of his most eloquent sentences were inspired by a text taken from the speech of Representative Deamond of Missouri, wherein the Missouri representative said: “Do we lack the power to take the mailed hand from the throats of men who are crying out for liberty and independent national existence?" Replying to this question, Mr. Watson said: Whose is the mailed hand that is held at the throat of the Filipino? Manifestly the boys’ in blue, fighting

under the rippling folds of otfr beautiful banner over the Pacific, across the -ocean, 7,000 miles away. Is this a mailed hand? Shall we sit patiently by while the soldier boys of the republic, gallantly contending for the honor of the country and the glory of the flag, are assaulted and aspersed on the floor of this house? Sir, no more singular devotion to the flag has been known than theirs. They left their country’s shores, they climbed over the ridge of the western sea, to plant their country’s banner in a strange land and under new skies. Clad in their uniform of blue and beneath the emblem of their nation’s power, they have never faltered in their devotion to their country’s cause. They are today struggling for the supremacy of republican principles and the equality of all men. (Applause.) In the desert sands, in the mountain fastness, In the tangled forest, in the treacherous swamp, they have not ceased to contend, not for power, for conquest, for territory, for spoils, but for the eternal represented by their flag. (Applause.) No Mailed Hand There. Is their’s a mailed hand? Can it be

withdrawn at this time and in justice? No; k cannot be. And it is not a mailed hand. It is the helping hand that rolls back the Clouds, that disperses the mists, that brings the sunshine of hope and liberty into the human heart. (Applause on the Republican side.) And shall these boys go unprotected? Will the Democracy vote against the proposition here involved? Will they ’ refuse shelter to and withhold protection from the defenders of their country’s flag? Are they subject to the unjust censure of the gentleman from Missouri? They who rushed to arms “when the judgment drums beat to quarter in j. 898,” and who have since borne steadily aloft the sacred banner of the free? Men of the north, your sons are there. When you came back from Appomattox you brought an unsullied banner. Every star was shining on the spangled flag, and there was neither master nor slave beneath its folds. Who the Soldiers Are. While they were yet children you placed it in their keeping, under your watchful care, and they are guarding It with a jealousy worthy of the sacred trust. They are your sons, and they can no more help being what they are than the sunset can help being glorious; than the rose can help being fragrant; than the bird song can help being sweet; than the rainbow can help leaping from the jeweled raindrop. They were bred in an heroic mold. They are the sons of the men who went singing up the steeps of Mission Ridge; who rqjled up their sieves and calmly lighted their pipes before they rushed into the leaden storm at Fredericksburg; who shouted the national air as they swung into battle at Chancellorville. Men of the south, your sons are there too, for, thank God, today there Is but one uniform and one flag. (Loud applause.) Sons of the men

who wore the confederate gray; sons of the men who rushed Into the leaden hell of battle as to a banquet; sons of the men who followed Lee and Jack* son, and Johnston and Hood and Bragg, upon a hundred gory fields of strife. They are heroes to the manner born, and are entitled by right of birth to a place among the bravest and the best These boys are true to their immortal heritage. Catching the spirit of universal freedom.they are contending for the enfranchisement of a race beyond the sea. Amid thick dangers and hidden perils they have been true to their country’s cause. They have conquered, they have overcome. And behold! The flag of the western land is today unfurled in everlasting triumph above those distant islands of the sea, uplifting in its rise a race from bondage and a nation to triumphant hope. (Loud applause.) Faith in the Future. Can the sun refuse to shine? No more could we confine the spirit of liberty which gave us a nation to our

own shqres. We could not rot hi our own selfishness. The Maine was exploded at an opportune time to call us from ourselves, to fix our gaze once more upon our high ideals, to summon us to an Imperial participation in the affairs of the world. Who doubts that all people will be better for it? Who doubts that the Filipinos’ freedom will be greater under our banner than under the shifting flag of Aguinaldo? Who doubts that the realm of civilization will be extended and the sphere of peace enlarged by our occupancy of those Islands? Who doubts that our own flag will continue to symbolize wherever it may wave, on land or sea, the perfect liberty of man? I, for one, do not. I believe that so long as the rivers run to the sea; so long as altars are erected to liberty; so long as the Rockies upon whose bald summit the ardent Fremont planted the flag of freedom shall rear their snow-capped peaks toward heaven, just so long will that flag continue to mean what it means here and now; just so long will it represent the only land where liberty is regulated by law; just so long will that banner, with the commingled colors of the sunset and the sky, typify the land of liberty, equality, fraternity, three of the sweetest words in all the languages of men. and which’ Upon t’e sacred alter stairs. Which float through darkness up to God, humanity under it has attained. (Load applause.)