es selecting those proper to be consulted. Thus in such cases
as certain islands of the Antilles, Hawaii, and the communities of Asia,
we admit that, so far as the principles at the basis of the Declaration
are concerned, Great Britain was right, and our ancestors were, not
perhaps wrong, but too general, and of the eighteenth century, in their
statements. To that extent, we have outgrown the Declaration of 1776,
and have become as wise now as Great Britain was then. At any rate we
are not above learning. As was long ago said,--"Only dead men and idiots
never change;" and the people of the United States are nothing unless
open-minded.

So, also, as respects the famous Boston "tea-party," and taxation
without representation. Great Britain then affirmed this right in the
case of colonies and dependencies. Taught by the lesson of our War of
Independence, she has since abandoned it. We now take it up, and are
to-day, as one of the new obligations towards the heathen imposed upon
us by Providence, formulating systems of imposts and tariffs for our new
dependencies, wholly distinct from our own, and directly inhibited by
our constitution, in regard to which systems those dependencies have no
representative voice. They are not to be consulted as to the kind of
door, "open" or "closed," behind which they are to exist. In taking this
position it is difficult to see why we must not also incidentally admit
that, in the great contention preceding our War of Independence, the
first armed clash of which resounded here in Lexington, Great Britain
was more nearly right than the exponents of the principles for which
those "embattled farmers" contended.

Again, consider the Monroe Doctrine, entangling foreign alliances, and
the consequent and costly military and naval establishments. The Monroe
Doctrine had two sides, the abstention of the Old World from
interference in American affairs, based on our abstention from
interference in the affairs of the Old World. But it is now argued we
have outgrown the Monroe Doctrine, or at least the latter branch of it.
It is certainly so considered in Europe; for, only a few days ago, so
eminent an authority as Lord Farrar exultingly exclaimed in addressing
the Cobden Club,--"America has burned the swaddling clothes of the
Monroe Doctrine." Indeed we have, in discussion at least, gone far in
advance of the mere burning of cast-off infantile clothing, and
alliances with Great Britain and Japan, as aga