The time for action has, then, come.  No greater reason for it can exist to-morrow than exists to-day.  Every hour’s delay only adds another chapter to the awful story of misery and death.  Only one power can intervene—­the United States of America.  Ours is the one great nation of the New World, the mother of American republics.  She holds a position of trust and responsibility toward the peoples and the affairs of the whole Western Hemisphere.

Mr. President, there is only one action possible, if any is taken—­that is, intervention for the independence of the island.  But we cannot intervene and save Cuba without the exercise of force, and force means war; war means blood.  The lowly Nazarene on the shores of Galilee preached the divine doctrine of love, “Peace on earth, good will toward men.”  Not peace on earth at the expense of liberty and humanity.  Not good will toward men who despoil, enslave, degrade, and starve to death their fellow-men.  I believe in the doctrine of Christ, I believe in the doctrine of peace; but, Mr. President, men must have liberty before there can come abiding peace.

Intervention means force.  Force means war.  War means blood.  But it will be God’s force.  When has a battle for humanity and liberty ever been won except by force?  What barricade of wrong, injustice, and oppression has ever been carried except by force?  Force compelled the signature of unwilling royalty to the great Magna Charta; force put life into the Declaration of Independence and made effective the Emancipation Proclamation; force beat with naked hands upon the iron gateway of the Bastile and made reprisal in one awful hour for centuries of kingly crime; force waved the flag of revolution over Bunker Hill and marked the snows of Valley Forge with blood-stained feet; force held the broken line at Shiloh, climbed the flame-swept hill at Chattanooga, and stormed the clouds on Lookout heights; force marched with Sherman to the sea, rode with Sheridan in the valley of Shenandoah, and gave Grant victory at Appomattox; force saved the Union, kept the stars in the flag, made “niggers” men.

Others may hesitate, others may procrastinate, others may plead for further diplomatic negotiations, which means delay; but for me, I am ready to act now, and for my action I am ready to answer to my conscience, my country, and my God.

—­John Mellen Thurston:  Speech in United States Senate, March, 1898.

EXERCISES

1.  A young boy is trying to gain his father’s permission to attend an evening entertainment with some other boys.  Make a list of his appeals to his father’s reason; to his father’s feelings.  Make a list of his father’s objections.  Is there any appeal to his son’s feelings?

2.  Suppose you are about to address the voters of your city on the question of granting saloon licenses.  Make a list of appeals to their reason; to their intellect.  Remember that appeals to the feelings are made more forcible by descriptive and narrative examples than by direct general appeals.