“OVERGROWN MILITARY ESTABLISHMENTS.”
By T.
IN taking leave of his public responsibilities and retiring to private life, George Washington delivered, on Sept. 17, 1796, a farewell address to his “friends and fellow-citizens.” That address was based upon the experiences of a long and most active and successful life. Washington had studied in the school of hardship, and through a multitude of observations had been led to reflect deeply. It would be well if those who are seeking to guide public affairs now would frequently read what Washington said at that time. Washington believed in the principles of freedom, and he knew what those principles are. He could not be led away from them either by flattery or guile. He believed that the true and only principles of freedom were wrapped up in popular government—that the people should be their own rulers. But while he believed this sincerely he saw the dangers ahead if these principles should be perverted or cast aside. In his “farewell address” Washington most earnestly exhorted his countrymen to remain closely united—that sectionalism should not be allowed to alienate one portion of the country from another. For by a close union he said “they will avoid the necessity of these overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.” The danger from the dismembership of the Union seems to be past, for the present at least. But the demand for an “overgrown military establishment” is coming from another quarter. The system of colonial expansion upon which the country has entered so vigorously during the last year will call for a more extensive military and naval power than any threatened breaking up of the Union could possibly create. For the United States’ possessions in the Philippines have placed this country in the very storm center of European broils, and one pretext after another will soon make it seem necessary to burden this nation with all the military slavery under which every nation of the Old World is to-day groaning. While America remained free from these Old World entanglements there was hope that peace and comparative international tranquility would be prolonged. At least there would be one spot on the earth where the people might enjoy peace. But now there will be no more a return of the peace and quietude that we have enjoyed in the past. The foundations7of the government are undermined; her principles of republican liberty are being thrown aside. And one thing will follow another till this country, with all the rest of the world, marches onto the great battle-field of Armageddon. There is the same perfect individual safety in Christ Jesus to-day that has always been. But national security is a thing of the past so far as this world is concerned. There may be an occasional brief calm, and those who are deceived by the sophistries of Satan may look upon it as the triumph of peace in the return of tranquillity. But such calms are only the little lulls that make the return of the tempest all the more disastrous.