THE bigger tyrant a man is, the fewer people does he see in the world who ought to be allowed self-government. And the biggest tyrant of all is only the man who thinks his own ideas of propriety and right ought to be the standard and the law for all others.
POLYGAMY is a bad thing, whether it be simultaneous polygamy, as sanctioned by Mormon custom, or consecutive polygamy, as sanctioned by the marriage and divorce laws of the States, or secret polygamy, which lurks everywhere beneath a cloak of respectability. And we are not sure that the Mormon form of polygamy is the worst one.
THE more militarism there is in the nation, the less freedom will there be, since military government is in its very nature despotic. And the less freedom there is in the nation, the less manhood will there be; for despotism always crushes out the manly qualities in those who submit to it. And the less manhood in the nation, the less power will it have, for national virility is inseparable from manhood in its citizens. So that by cultivating militarism with the idea of making itself powerful, a nation really makes itself weak. This may seem paradoxical, but it is a statement approved by experience.
IT was predicted that the disciplined troops of Spain in Cuba would prove superior to the “raw” American volunteers who went against them; but just the opposite proved to be true. The volunteers were better men, because they had grown up under a freer government. And all history testifies that the breath of civil and religious freedom does more to create power in a nation than the discipline which reduces men to mere machines. That nation is strongest which can depend on its citizens rather than on its soldiers.
The United States has nothing to gain, but much to lose, from a development upon military lines.
“EXPANSION” is in harmony with the Declaration of Independence when it is peaceable. Forcible expansion is imperialism.
IDENTIFY yourself with a truth that is eternal, and that truth will identify you through eternity.