No one who had seen him in his unequal fights for his principles on less momentous occasions could doubt that he would fight for them to the end on this greatest one. There is no parallel to his action in American history. So far as its political aspects are concerned, the nearest thing to it is Blaine's resignation from Harrison's Cabinet in 1892; but that only faintly resembles it. Blaine did not resign because of any difference in principles, but because he wanted to fight the Administration; and the superficial resemblance lies only in the similarity of the relations of the two Presidents to their Secretaries of State.
Bryan leaves the Cabinet saddened, but not disillusioned. When he had been Secretary of State two months he said that he would not have taken office "if I thought there was to be a war during my tenure." "I believe," he added, "there will be no war while I am Secretary of State, and I believe there will be no war so long as I live." It has not come out that way; it might have so easily come out that way if only Germany had signed that treaty of his! But he is not disillusioned; nothing can disillusion him; his ideal is still only a day or two ahead of him, and he resigns to fight for it, since fight for it in the Cabinet he cannot any longer.
In the Name of Peace.
By LAVINIA V. WHITNEY.
(After Kipling.)
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When the last of the soldiers has fallen, and the cannons lie twisted aside, When the last of all homes has been ruined, and the heart of the youngest girl bride, We shall wake from our terrible madness, and pause for an eon or two, Till the Master of all the good soldiers shall call us to battle anew. Then those that were brave shall be braver—they shall love with a love more fair; They shall hear, o'er a worldwide battlefield, the Voice of their God in the air; They shall have the real saints for their comrades—Magdalene, Peter, and Paul; They shall fight unembittered, and never again shall be weary at all. And only the Master shall praise us, for only the Master shall lead; And no one shall fight for his country, and none for his honor or creed; But each for the Master Who loves him, and Teuton and Briton and all Shall fight, each the cause of the other, for the God of the Love of us All! |