not been able to preserve the most important part of the public patrimony of the state, that which has been to us the source of our supply of corn, our granary in time of war, our revenue placed under custody of the seals and bolts of the republic; that we, in short, have abandoned that district to Publius Rullus, which itself by its own resources had resisted both the absolute power of Sylla, and the corrupting liberality of the Gracchi. I do not say that, now that so much has been lost, this is the only revenue which remains in the republic; the only one which, while other sources of income are interrupted, does not fail us; the only one which is splendid in peace, is not worn out in war; which supports our soldiery, and is not afraid of our enemies. I pass over all this which I might say; I reserve that for the assembly of the people. I am speaking now of For what do

the danger to our safety and to our liberty. you think will remain to you unimpaired in the whole republic, or in your liberty, or in your dignity, when Rullus, and those whom you are much more afraid of than you are of Rullus, with his whole band of needy and unprincipled men, with all his forces, with all his silver and gold, shall have occupied Capua and the cities around Capua? These things, O conscript fathers, I will resist eagerly and vigorously; and I will not permit men, while I am consul, to bring forth those plans against the republic which they have long been meditating.

You made a great mistake, O Rullus, you and some of your colleagues, when you hoped that, in being in opposition to a consul who studied the interests of the people in reality, not by making a vain parade of so doing, you would be able to gain popularity while overturning the republic. I challenge you; I invite you to the assembly; I will accept the Roman people as an umpire between us.

In fact, if we look round to survey everything which is pleasant and acceptable to the people, we shall find that nothing is so popular as peace and concord and ease. You have given up to me a city made anxious with suspicion, in suspense from fear, harassed to death by your proposed laws and assemblies and seditions. You have inflamed the hopes of the wicked; you have filled the virtuous with alarms; you have banished good faith from the forum and

dignity from the republic. Amid all this commotion and agitation of minds and circumstances, when the voice and authority of the consul has suddenly, from amid such great darkness, dawned on the Roman people; when it has shown that nothing need be feared; that no regular army, no band of extempore ruffians, no colony, no sale of the revenues, no new sort of command, no reign of decemvirs, no new Rome or opposition seat of empire, will be allowed to exist. while we are consuls; that the greatest tranquillity of peace and ease will be secured; then, no doubt, we shall have much reason to fear that this beautiful agrarian law of yours will appear popular. But when I have displayed the wickedness of your counsels, the dishonesty of your law, and the treachery which is planned by those popular tribunes of the people against the Roman people; then, I suppose, I shall have reason to fear that I shall not be allowed to appear in the assembly, for the purpose of opposing you; especially when I have determined and resolved so to conduct myself in my consulship (and the duties of the consulship cannot be discharged with dignity and freedom in any other manner) as neither to desire any province nor honor nor dignity nor advantage, nor anything whatever which can have any hindrance thrown in its way by any tribune of the people. The consul states, in full senate, on the calends of January, that if the present condition of the republic continues, and if no new event arises, on account of which he cannot with honor avoid it, he will not go to any province. By that means I shall be able, O conscript fathers, so to behave myself in this magistracy as to be able to restrain any tribune of the people who is hostile to the republic, to despise any one who is hostile to myself.

Wherefore, in the name of the immortal gods, I entreat you, recollect yourselves, O tribunes of the people; desert these men by whom, in a short time, unless you take great care, you will yourselves be deserted. Conspire with us; agree with all virtuous men; defend our common republic with one common zeal and affection. There are many secret wounds sustained by the republic. There are many mischievous counsels of abandoned citizens designed against her. There is no external danger. There is no king, no nation, no people in the world whom we need fear. The

evil is confined within our own walls-internal and domestic. Every one of us to the best of his power ought to resist and to remedy this. You mistake if you think that the senate approves of what is said by me, but that the inclinations of the people are different. All men who wish to be safe themselves will follow the authority of the consul, a man uninfluenced by evil passions, free from all suspicion of guilt; cautious in dangers, not fearful in contests. But if any one of you cherishes a hope that he may be able in a truculent state of affairs to promote his own interests, first of all, let him give up hoping any such thing as long as I am consul. In the next place, let him take me myself as a proof (me whom he sees now consul, though born only in the equestrian rank) of what course of life most easily conducts virtuous men to honor and dignity. But if you, O conscript fathers, assist me with your zeal and energy in defending our common dignity, then, in truth, I shall accomplish that of which our republic is at present in the greatest possible need. I shall make the authority of this order, which existed so long among our ancestors, appear after a long interval to be again restored to the republic.

CHAMP CLARK

ON THE ANNEXATION OF HAWAII

[Champ Clark, an American congressman, celebrated for his political speeches, was born in Kentucky in 1850. In early life he worked as a farm hand, and did odd jobs in a country store. Subsequently he went to Kentucky University, Bethany College, and the Cincinnati Law School. Settling in Missouri, he began to practice law, and before long had become a noted man in his section of the state, owing to the originality and local color of his Democratic campaign speeches. He was elected to Congress after having held some local offices, and has remained a member of the House ever since, suffering, however, one defeat for reëlection, which he speedily retrieved. The following speech, made in the House in 1898, represents the views of those who regarded unfavorably the annexation of Hawaii to the United States.]

WHY

HY do we desire to expand our territory? It is too large already. You know, Mr. Speaker, with your long service here and your keen powers of observation, that from the beginning of things-ab urbe condita—the most perplexing questions of legislation, of government, and of politics have grown out of our abnormal size. The largeness of our territory, our wide diversity of soil, climate, employment, and interest, have always been the stumblingblocks to perfect unity. On this rock-when our area was insignificant compared with what it is now-the constitutional convention of 1787, with George Washington at its head, came near going to pieces. These things caused the most titanic civil war that the world ever saw, which raged with insatiable fury until this republic became another Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they were not. These things divide us here now into warring factions, for, loath as we are to admit it, our political differences are in the main founded on issues. purely sectional or local.

Vastness of area, wealth of resources, variety of climate, abundance of navigable waters, multitudes of population-these alone are not all the necessary constituent elements from which a great, free, and enduring government must be builded.

Russia has all these galore, and yet she is the veriest despotism on which the sun looks down.

What shall it profit us even temporarily to do this thing? The annexationists draw a picture of these islands in rosy hues, and tell a dulcet story of the free homesteads awaiting us in that tropical region. We are to get the crown lands in return for this four millions we are now appropriating and for the other countless millions which we will expend in the future. As a matter of fact, the crown lands are absolutely worthless. Rest assured that the sugar barons have already secured titles to every foot of land of any value. The free homesteads to be carved out of the crown lands are a fake, pure and simple. All the crown lands which will ever be opened to homestead entry are too dry to till without irrigation, and so high up in the air that irrigation is impossible.

Even if there are valuable crown lands which have never been broken to the plow and fertilized by water, they are not for our children and other white people of our breed, for the all-sufficient reason that they cannot endure outdoor work in that sultry climate. More farming lands there simply mean more Chinese cheap labor, more Chinese contract labor, more Chinese and Japanese slave labor, brought into our country to compete with our free white labor. Such an outrageous and iniquitous performance is forbidden by good morals, as well as by an exalted love of country.

But the annexationists have their plan, like the nigger's coon trap, "set to catch 'em gwine and comin'."

They at first gave it out that the reason we needed the islands was that we could then grow for ourselves all the sugar we wanted, representing that the cane-sugar industry out there was only in its infancy, and could be increased ad libitum. That statement so alarmed the sugar-beet enthusiasts that they howled so loud that the annexationists hauled in their horns on the sugar question and declared that they had been mistaken about that, and that what we