'Whose golden plume
Floats moveless on the storm and in the blaze
Of sunrise gleams when earth is wrapt in gloom.'
"It was not enough, however, for the American people to recognize the independence of the Spanish-American republics. It soon became our duty to notify the world that in certain eventualities it was our purpose to defend their national existence. The holy alliance, as it was termed, had been formed. The great powers who signed the famous compact declared its purpose to maintain as Christian doctrine the proposition that useful or necessary changes in legislation, or in the administration of states, can only emanate from the free will and well-weighed convictions of those whom God has rendered responsible for power. Whom had God made responsible for power? What is a well-weighed conviction? These are questions about which the irreverent Americans might perchance differ with royalty. We had been lead to believe, and yet believe, that the voice of the people is the voice of God. When, therefore, the absolution of the holy alliance, not content with smothering a feeble spark of liberty in Spain, initiated a joint movement of their arms against the Spanish-American republics, it gave the people of our country the gravest concern. In the meantime our relations with Great Britain had grown cordial. That they may grow ever stronger and more cordial should be the prayer of every man of the English speaking race. An unspeakable blessing to mankind of the struggle from which we are now emerging is the genuine brotherly sympathy for the people of the United States flowing from that land.
"And it is returned in no unstinted measure. But two months ago the flagship of Admiral Dewey steamed slowly into the battle line at Manila. As she passed the British flagship Immortalite its band rang out the inspiring air 'See the Conquering Hero Comes,' and as the gorgeous ensign of the republic was flung to the breeze at the peak of the Olympia there now came thrilling o'er the waters from our kinsmen's ship the martial strains of the 'Star Spangled Banner.'
"Finally, when our gallant seamen, reposing in fancied security in the scorching blast of the treacherous explosion were cruelly and remorselessly slain, and calm investigation had developed the truth, we had been despicable on the historic page had we not appealed to the god of battle for retribution. The pious rage of seventy millions of people cried aloud to heaven for the piteous agony, for the shameful slaughter of our brethren. Our noble navy was swiftly speeding to its duty. Poetic genius bodied forth the spirit of our gallant seamen as the mighty ships sped on their way.
"Let the waters of the orient as they moan through the shell-riven wrecks at Cavite, the booming waves of the Caribbean as fathoms deep it sweeps over Pluton and Furor and breaks into spray on the shapeless and fire-distorted steel of Vizcaya and Oquendo, tell how the navy has paid our debt to Spain. Nor is the renown which crowns the standards of our army one whit less glorious. Nothing in the lucid page of Thucydides nor in the terse commentaries of Caesar, nothing in the vivid narrative of Napier or the glowing battle scenes of Allison, can surpass the story how, spurning the chapparal and the barbed wire, pressing their rifles to their throbbing hearts, toiling up the heights, and all the while the machine guns and the Mausers mowing the jungle as if with a mighty reaper, on and yet right on, they won the fiery crests, and Santiago fell. Well may we exclaim with the royal poet of Israel:
"'Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm hath gotten him the victory.'
"America! Humane in the hour of triumph, gentle to the vanquished, grateful to the Lord of Hosts, a reunited people forever:
"'Great people. As the sands shalt thou become;
Thy growth is swift as morn, when night must fade
The multitudinous earth shall sleep beneath thy shade.'"
The band burst into the strains of "Dixie" in honor of the Southern birth of Judge Speer, as he concluded his oration. President McKinley, as on other occasions during the program, joined in the hearty applause. Cries of "McKinley," "McKinley," "The President," "The President," were heard all over the hall, and in a moment it was seen that the President was going to respond. Every one stood up. Ex-Governor Oglesby approached the front of the box, and said, "I have the honor to introduce the guest of the occasion, the President."
"Leaning forward," we quote the Tribune, "from his box in the earnestness of his utterance, speaking in the tones of emotion having birth in the fullness of heart, President William McKinley, at the Auditorium jubilee meeting yesterday morning gave to the people a message of simple thanks and significant augury. Save for a wave of applause at the mention of American charity, the terse, reverent address was heard in silence. An added hush fell upon the intent throng when the President began the portentous concluding paragraph, and when he ceased speaking and stood before them grave and masterful, the quiet was breathless, tense under the force of repression. Then the meaning of the words of the Executive coursed from heart to brain, and men's minds grasped the fact that they had heard the President's lips declare that he had seen the direction of the flow of the currents of destiny, that he recognized their majesty, and that his purpose was in harmony with the common will—the force working for the retention of the conquered islands in the distant Pacific and for the policy of national growth.