O\<;UKSS. (THE AKMKNIA.V (,tri:sTioN.i 



213 



Armenian people should have the prut ret ion of this 

 niment, lit if because they an- eiti/.<-n> of the 



United Slates. Inn because the | pie of the United 



States ha\e a duty to civilization, have a duty to 

 the pmure-s of mankind, to perform. It is not be- 

 caii>e <>f any treaty bet ween Russia and England or 

 any oilier powers', but because it is our duty to 

 maintain the principles upon which this Govern- 

 ment and our civilization are founded. But when 

 I introduce resolutions to that effect we find the 

 Committee on Foreign Relations holding back, tak- 

 ing no action, and then introducing a mere expres- 

 sion of their sympathy, while murder, outrage, and 

 ferocity such as 1 leasts of the forest do not possess 

 are perpetrated upon these Armenian people and 

 upon the people upon our own immediate borders 

 in the island of Cuba." 



Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, said : 



" The Government of the United States (whether 

 right or wrong I will not now detain the Senate by 

 discussing) has undertaken to deal with this matter 

 diplomatically, and diplomatic negotiations are now 

 going on. A lady, an intimate friend of mine, who I 

 am proud to say is my constituent and personal friend, 

 is on her way to Turkey with the ministrations of 

 the Red Cross at her command. Whatever we may 

 think of the opinion of the Senator from Florida, 

 however much we may sympathize with my honor- 

 able friend from Maine, to whose stirring speech we 

 all listened with pleasure. I hold that it is wrong 

 for the Senate to thrust these extreme statements, 

 which I sympathize with almost altogether, into the 

 diplomacy of the United States. The Senator's in- 

 dignation will keep for a week. Until we learn 

 from our President that the function of diplomacy 

 is over, I hope that we may content ourselves to 

 withhold the expression of our natural indignation, 

 however difficult for manly spirits like that of my 

 friend from Florida it may be. 



" Xow, I appeal to him. I think I know the opin- 

 ion of the Armenians ; there are more of them in 

 my city than in any other. I think I know the 

 opinion of the American Board for Foreign Mis- 

 sions, with whom I have a thousand ties of personal 

 union in the past and in the present. We may be 

 obliged to come to what the Senator proposes, but 

 let us wait until the diplomatic means are exhausted. 

 When the President and the Secretary of State of 

 the United States are endeavoring to save the fam- 

 ilies, the wives, of American missionaries still in 

 danger from these lawless fanatics, when C'lara Bar- 

 ton is on her way with the Red Cross in her hand, 

 it is a pretty serious thing to thrust our intemper- 

 ate and angry utterances into that diplomatic con- 

 dition. 



As to what the Committee on Foreign Relations 

 have done, does any one suppose that my friend 

 from Illinois is not as much stirred to the bottom 

 of his heart with indignation at these things as any- 

 body? Yet he, as the organ of that great commit- 

 tee, unanimously, as I understand the committee 

 have acted, proposes for to-day this temperate and 

 guarded expression. I say to the Senator from Flor- 

 ida he is taking. great responsibility and great re- 

 sponsibility in regard to the lives and the honor of 

 women, which he has so much at heart when he 

 thrusts himself into that situation and breaks it up." 



Senator Call said : 



" Mr. President, I object to the pending resolu- 

 tions. I object to them because they mean noth- 

 ing : I object to them because it is an insult to the 

 suffering people of Armenia and because the na- 

 tions of the civilized world will look upon it as an 

 empty and unmeaning declaration of sympathy. 



" We have a duty to perform. We are a great 

 people, the light of the world, and we owe it to civ- 

 ilization and humanity that the power which has 



been given to us shall be exercised. We owe it 

 to every principle of civilization that the people of 

 Armenia, and by a greater interest and obligation 

 that the people of Cuba, shall not be murdered by 

 the brutal military despotism which now thiv. 

 to extinguish that entire race, and we owe it to the 

 people of Armenia that we shall pass something 

 more than an empty declaration of sympathy. 



" I offer the resolution heretofore submitted by 

 me as a substitute for the resolutions reported by 

 the committee." 



Senator Call's substitute was laid on the table 

 and the resolutions reported by the committee were 

 agreed to. 



In the House, resolutions, petitions, and memo- 

 rials on the subject were referred to the Committee 

 on Foreign Relations, which prepared a report sub- 

 stantially the same as the resolutions passed in the 

 Senate. The committee therefore substituted these 

 resolutions for the report, and submitted them to 

 the House. In the debate which followed the reso- 

 lutions were supported by Messrs. Quigg, of New 

 York ; Hitt, of Illinois ; McCreary, of Kentucky : Hen- 

 derson, of Iowa: Smith, of Michigan: and others. 

 They were objected to, on the ground that the 

 United States, not being a party to the Treaty of 

 Berlin, has no right to interfere or give any advice 

 on the subject to the powers concerned, by Messrs. 

 Bailey, of Texas; Turner, of Georgia; and others; 

 while they were criticised as weak and inadequate 

 by Messrs. Hepburn, of Iowa: Mahany. of New 

 York; Grosvenor,of Ohio; Walsh, of New York ; and 

 others. 



Mr. Quigg, of New York, said in support of the 

 resolutions : 



" It will be conceded, Mr. Speaker, that our inter- 

 est in the situation in Armenia is chiefly humane 

 and but slightly political. Although newspaper 

 dispatches from Oriental points have from time to 

 time mentioned American citizens as having been 

 killed or injured in the Kurdish-Armenian riots, our 

 official information is to the contrary. And it gives 

 me pleasure, in behalf of the Committee on Foreign 

 Affairs, to accept the assurances of the State De- 

 partment as to the zeal and activity that it has 

 manifested in its efforts to protect the rights of 

 American citizens throughout the Turkish Kmpire, 

 and also to testify to the good work that has been 

 performed by our minister to Turkey, to whose 

 prompt intervention, supported by the near pres- 

 ence of three American ships of war, the fact is no 

 doubt due that the perpetrators of these outrages 

 have been so scrupulously careful to overlook those 

 persons of American or Armenian birth who are 

 known to be able to claim the protection of the 

 American flag. 



" But however remote we may be, Mr. Speaker, 

 whether by distance or political interest, from the 

 scene of these shocking iniquities, the fact of their 

 occurrence excites the profound grief of the Amer- 

 ican people, and imposes upon Congress the duty of 

 uttering such a protest as will be heard by those 

 who. of their own free motion, have given bonds to 

 civilization for the good behavior of Turkey. ' We 

 do not need to inquire too curiously into the mo- 

 tives of those Christian sovereigns of Europe who 

 uphold with one hand a Government that they con- 

 stantly menace with the other. We are not inter- 

 ested in their jealousies, and have no part in their 

 ambitions. But since they have chosen, sooner 

 than take the risk and consequences to themselves 

 of allowing events to follow their natural course, to 

 assume the place of guardian and trustee of the Ot- 

 toman Porte, frankly professing the responsibility 

 that thereby attaches to them since they in the 

 name of peace and humanity have pledged the Sul- 

 tan to just and liberal policies toward his Christian 



