212 



CONGRESS. (THE ARMENIAN QUESTION.) 



that consul had been received by Turkey, had gone 

 to Harpoot, a consulate building had been provided 

 for, and an American flag raised, more than 20.000 

 lives would have been saved. One of the most ter- 

 rible massacres perpetrated anywhere in Turkey 

 took place at that point. 



"The good people of the United States have 

 planted in Turkey over $6,000,000 for a single pur- 

 pose, to improve and better the condition of the 

 people of that country. They have erected as fine 

 colleges as there are in the world. They have been 

 maintained by American money. They have edu- 

 cated thousands and hundreds of thousands of 

 Turks, or Armenians, who are subject to Turkey. 

 It has been a work of wonderful beneficence, a work 

 which has had marvelous success, and yet it is 

 stopped absolutely to-day. That American capital 

 now is held up ; it can not do an ounce of work. 

 At Harpoot the American colleges were burned 

 down and the Americans themselves were com- 

 pelled to flee for their lives. 



" I do not know how far the United States of 

 America can interfere in Turkey. I am in favor of 

 these resolutions as an expression of our opinion 

 upon the awful tragedies there ; but if I had had 

 my way, after the powers of Europe have waited 

 now a solid year looking each other in the face with 

 suspicious eyes and neither one daring to make a 

 move lest the other shall receive a benefit I say if 

 I had had my way, I would have Congress memori- 

 alize Russia and say to her : ' Take Armenia into 

 your possession. Protect the lives of these Chris- 

 tians there. And the United States of America 

 will stand befiind you with all its power.' That is 

 the memorial and resolution I would have passed. 



"If Great Britain owned a college worth $1,000,- 



000 at Harpoot and by Turkish orders that college 

 had been burned down, and if the teachers, they 

 being British citizens, had been compelled to flee for 

 their lives, does the Senator from Texas believe that 

 the voice of Great Britain would have been silent ? 

 Does he not believe that the demand would have 

 been made at once for damages for that destruction 

 of property and that those citizens should be pro- 

 tected I " 



Senator Mills, of Texas, said : 



" There is some difference between the Govern- 

 ment of Great Britain and that of the United States. 

 The Senator from Maine is now speaking in the 

 Congress of the United States, that has the sole 

 power to declare war and use the armed power of 

 this Government. It is not so with Great Britain. 

 There the King can make war whenever he pleases 

 to do so. If my friend would be for war, I do not 

 know but that I would go with him ; wherever peo- 

 ple of the United States residing in foreign coun- 

 tries are not protected by foreign governments I 

 would send the ships of the United States, and I 

 would batter down their capital, as Jefferson did in 

 1802 with the pirates." 



Senator Frye said : 



" I have no'doubt that the Senator would, and I 

 agree with him entirely in his theory about the pro- 

 tection of American citizens. I do" not cite Great 

 Britain because I am fond of her. 



" Mr. President, one could not help admiring the 

 glowing eulogy of England so eloquentlv uttered a 

 day or two since by the junior Senator "from Colo- 

 rado, but while I was compelled to unite in admira- 

 tion of the speaker, I dissented from almost every 

 word of the speech. I do not love Great Britain. 



1 recognize her power on the land, her magnificent 

 dominion on the sea, hut I assert that in all our 

 life as colony and republic she has never done us a 

 kind act or offered us a helping hand. While we 

 were hers, her conduct toward us was antagonistic 

 to all of our interests, repressive of our industries, 



domineering, unjust, and despotic, so that we were 

 compelled to rebel. 



" As a republic she was no more friendly. I can 

 not forget that for fifty years she taunted us about 

 our ' flag of the free,' our Declaration of Independ- 

 ence, our asserted equality of man, while we held 

 black men in bondage, put manacles on ankle and 

 hand, and yet when the South rebelled, undertook 

 by arms to establish another republic whose corner 

 stone should be slavery forever, she was prompt to 

 recognize belligerent rights; aided France to es- 

 tablish a monarchy in Mexico, a perpetual menace 

 to us; built, fitted out, and manned ships to destroy 

 our commerce ; did all in her power to establish the 

 Confederacy, so that she might have a customer. 



" Sir, the British rulers are no friends of ours. 

 Now she is sitting quietly by seeing the Armenians 

 for a solid year murdered because they were Chris- 

 tians, when she was one of the very agencies agree- 

 ing to protect their lives or compel Turkey to do it, 

 and she had the power in her hands any day to do 

 it. So I say, regardless of what Great Britain 

 might have thought, if I had had my way Congress 

 would have memorialized Russia at once to take 

 possession of Armenia, and the United States would 

 back her in the doing of it. 



' Xow, so far as American citizens are concerned, 

 I would protect them there at any cost. We never 

 agreed that the Dardanelles should be closed to us. 

 There can not be found a line in the policy of the 

 United States of America which ever permitted any 

 great navigable water to be closed to our ships ; 

 not one. On the contrary, we have been ready to 

 go to war at any time to keep navigable waters 

 open to our ships. We have given no assent to the 

 agreement of the concerting nations over there that 

 the Dardanelles shall be closed. If it was necessary 

 to protect our American citizens and their property, 

 I would order United States ships of war, in spite of 

 foreign agreements, to sail up the Dardanelles and 

 plant themselves before Constantinople, and then 

 demand that American citizens should have the pro- 

 tection they are entitled to. 



" Mr. President, I think one of the grandest things 

 in the history of Great Britain, and one thing for 

 which I admire her, is that she does protect her 

 citizens everywhere and anywhere, under all cir- 

 cumstances. Her mighty power is put forth for 

 their relief and protection, and it is admirable. I 

 do not wonder that a British citizen loves his 

 country. 



" All that I ask of this grand republic of ours is 

 that it shall model itself after Great Britain, if it 

 pleases, in this one thing, that the life of an Ameri- 

 can citizen shall be protected wherever he may be, 

 whether in Great Britain or in Turkey, and in no 

 other thing whatsoever." 

 Senator Call said : 



" The resolutions of the Committee on Foreign 

 Relations are very feeble and emasculated utter- 

 ances compared with the speech of the Senator 

 from Maine. We fight our battles here on the 

 Committee on Foreign Relations' report of a resolu- 

 tion that has no significance in it. that protects no 

 American citizens, and the Senator from Maine 

 arises here and commends Great Britain for doing 

 that which we refuse and fail to do, viz., not only 

 protecting her subjects, but asserting her power 

 everywhere. 



" I introduced a resolution in the Senate which I 

 will send to the desk to be read, which did propose 

 something for the relief of the people of Armenia 

 and did support the dignity and power of the 

 American Republic. Here we have a tame, insig- 

 nificant declaration of opinion and sympathy, giving 

 no protection and no relief to these people. 



" I agree with the Senator from Maine that the 



