So anxious was the English Government in Washington, D.C., to supply the British army in South Africa with horses and mules that to-day, May, 1903, there is a deficiency of them in the United States and our own cavalry regiments can not be mounted.
On reading all this in the newspapers, the Boers would come to me and ask me to explain the conduct of the Government. I recalled to them the fact that Mr. Hay, Secretary of State, had been ambassador for a month or so in London, and that the English had so stuffed him with flattery that he had forgotten that he was a republican and a citizen of a republic, and that they must expect him to be English in his every act.
Strange to say, practically all American ambassadors to England return to America as Englishmen. They cannot stand against English flattery. Read the papers and you will see that at every private dinner or reception of the King the American ambassador is the only foreign representative honored with an invitation. He accepts, the King lets him sit for five minutes in his own chair, allows him to recline on the couch where Queen Victoria once took a nap after returning from her drive in Hyde Park, and that settles him, he is denationalized. Kings, queens, earls, lords and so forth, are trained flatterers, and there is certainly much power in these titles, too, for let a dissolute, caddish earl who thinks nothing of his mother, but is devoted to his mistress, come to America, there are many rich girls who are ready at once to vend their souls and bodies and give their fortunes for the title of princess. All learn what there is in such a title when it is too late. I lived in London fifteen months and I saw a great deal. The nobility or upper set, and the lower class of Englishmen, are dissolute and immoral to an extreme, while the middle class is perfection. In this class one will find the moral, refined, upright, and honest Englishmen, and no where in the world can be found a better class of men and women than in this middle class. Unfortunately they are but few, as compared to the whole, and being sandwiched in between the mighty upper and lower classes, or immoral and dissolute classes, it is inevitable that in the end they will be squeezed to death. And then it is that the remains of a once glorious and proud old England will be laid away in the same vault with those of Rome and Spain.
There is not an Englishman living that does not at heart despise every American, yet he must look to the American for his food. All talk of their cousins across the sea, for all now know that their very existence as a nation depends upon the good will of America. I have talked with many business men in London, and all, in speaking of American merchants, say, "He is smart, but not a good business man." They mean by this that all Americans are rascals, and so they believe.
In 1895 I was amused one morning when I read in one of the Cape Town newspapers that "It was strange to see on Adelaide Street, this morning, the American Consul in a sober condition." I was also amused in London during the Spanish War to witness such men as Dewey, Schley and Sampson hissed in the theatres on the very mention of their names. One picture of the battle-ship Maine leaving New York, was hissed by the whole house. Another of its destruction was applauded, yet there are thousands of Anglo-Americans to be seen walking the streets every day. For more than a hundred years the British Government has labored to disunite our Union or in some way to destroy our Republic, yet we still have Anglo-Americans, and, be it said to our shame, an English Government in Washington, D.C. Let a crown prince or some great lord come to the United States, and then something is sure to happen. Such personages come to flatter and arrange matters in Washington for a slap at the United States. The Venezuelan disgrace was the outcome of Prince Henry's visit. Lord Charles Beresford comes to tell us how much England loves us and the Monroe Doctrine, and we are then ready to give up our rights to Alaska. It is time for the American people to see to it that no one but true Americans shall hold the highest offices in their gift. Plain it is that we are drifting towards imperialism, that is, corruption and crime. The records of our action towards the Philippines and of the conduct of our army towards the Filipinos will mark the darkest pages in our history and prove loathsome to posterity. The Filipinos long to be free, and our motto seems to be to kill or enslave them. It is unnecessary to give reasons, for the daily papers fairly teem with accounts of barbarous and murderous acts on the part of several army officers towards the people, black and white, of those far away and sorely afflicted islands. Strange to say, our Secretary of War brings down heavily the stamp of his approval on all these outrages and endeavors to keep the people in the dark as far as it is within his power. The very people who declared for liberty for all, and fought to free the blacks of the Southern States, are now fighting to enslave the blacks and whites of the far-away Phillipines. I admire nerve, but despise hypocrisy.
Now I must say a word about the Irish and Irish-Americans on their conduct in America during the South African War. There are many millions of Irish in America and there is one organization, the Clan-na-Gael, known as the Physical Force Element. For nearly half a century this organization has been crying and preaching that "England's difficulty was Ireland's opportunity." They have blown up a few barns and woodsheds in the rear of some lord's residence, managed to get some good patriotic Irishmen behind the bars of English prisons for life, and tried to turn the course of the Gulf Stream in order to frighten or freeze England. But when an English military camp was established in New Orleans to recruit horses, mules and men, they did nothing but prohibit every member of the society from doing anything towards its destruction. Every man of the rank and file wanted to destroy that camp, and stop the shipment of the horses, mules and men to the British army in South Africa, and were ready to volunteer for the service. They saw England's difficulty and wished to take advantage of it. But their leaders said NO, and not one man was allowed to open his mouth or do anything.
Lord Salisbury and Chamberlain must have known all about the stand the leaders of the Clan-na-Gael had taken and the reasons for it, for both said in Parliament, "there was nothing to fear from the Irish in America." Clansmen should look out, for there is something wrong about their leaders. Had the Irish destroyed that camp, it would have told England, in unmistakable terms, that so long as there are Irish in America, so long will it be impossible for her to recruit horses, mules and men on our soil. England would then learn that it would be for her best interests to allow the people of Ireland to govern themselves.
Irish enmity will live in all its bitterness till the people are free, and England will find this out when it is too late. She is now going to give them a land bill by which the tenants can, to a certain extent, buy the land of which they were forcibly robbed in years gone by; and I confess this will prove a great boon to them. I believe, however, that the concession is intended as a bribe, for England is frightened because the Irish have at last come to their senses and cease to enlist in the army. Without the Irish, the British army would be helpless in a war with any country, for they are its very backbone and sinew of strength. The Scotch will think twice about enlisting, too, when they learn the Irish have cleared out, for they know that when it comes to a fight the Englishmen are not there, and if there are no Irish to call upon, why they, the Scotchmen, would have to stand the whole brunt. By the concession which England now makes, she hopes the Irish will feel grateful, to the extent of enlisting again in the army; but I hope they will have sense enough to do no such thing, as England grants nothing except when forced to it.