"Lest W^e Forget'' 



politicians. The glorious banner of freedom becomes the 

 cover for the sutler's tent. 1 



The test of civilization is the substitution of law for war; 

 statutes for brute strength. No doubt diplomacy, as one of 

 our Senators has said, is mostly "a pack of lies," and arbitra- 

 tion may be compulsory and arbitrary compromise. But in 

 the long run truth will out, even in diplomacy. . . . 



Why, then, shall we not hold Cuba, if she becomes ours by 

 right of conquest? Because that would be a cowardly thing 

 to do. The justification of her capture is that we do not want 

 her. If we want Cuba, common decency says that we must 

 let her alone. Ours is a war of mercy, not of conquest. This 

 we have plainly declared to all the nations. Perhaps we meant 

 what we said, though the speeches in Congress do not make 

 this clear. If we can trust the records, our chief motives were 

 three: desire for political capital, desire for revenge, and 

 sympathy for humanity. . . . 



If we retire with clean hands, it will be because our hands 

 are empty. To keep Cuba or the Philippines would be to 

 follow the example of conquering nations. Doubtless England 

 would do it in our place. The habit of domination makes men 

 unscrupulous. . . . 



There are three main reasons for opposing every step toward 

 imperialism. First, dominion is brute force; second, dependent 

 nations are slave nations; third, the making of men is greater 

 than the building of empires. . . . 



Though one in blood with England, our course of political 

 activities has not lain parallel with hers. We were estranged 

 in the beginning, and we have had other affairs on our hands. 

 We have turned our faces westward, and our work has made 

 us strong. We have had our forests to clear, our prairies to 

 break, our rivers to harness, our own problem of slavery to 



1 This sentence I put into the form of epigrammatic verse : 



O Freedom, I had dreamed that thou wert dying, 

 Thy banner Lincoln once, and Franklin bore 

 As Milton, Pym, and Hampden had before ; 

 Low in the dust I seemed to see it lying, 

 And they who bore its sacred staff were trying 

 From its fair folds to frame a sutler's tent, 

 And thou unconscious while its web they rent. 



1:697 n 



