The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-05 00:00:00

AMERICAN PARTIES AND THE WAR.

There is nothing surprising, nothing but just cause for
respect and admiration, in the enthusiasm which the
hostilities between France and Prussia have elicited
among the Germans in America. They happily blend
affectionate attachment to the land they have left with
devotion to the best interests of the land in which they
live. Faithful and valuable as American citizens, they
yet retain the heartiest concern in all that relates to the
Fatherland. To them, therefore, the war naturally
possesses momentous significance; the preparations for it
have created among them an excitement which will grow
more intense as the conflict proceeds. Their reverence for
order and their fidelity to American law are, however,
conspicuous even in their ardour. They propose to render
efficient succour to their countrymen in Europe, but of a
kind to which the greatest stickler for national neutrality
cannot object. The sympathy which inspires them is
demonstrative, without being offensive to any class of our
citizens; and the aid they are preparing to render
assumes shapes which commend themselves to univer-
sal humanity. The considerations which have con-
tributed to the outburst of German feeling in
all our large cities do not imply partisan adherence to the
recent policy of the Prussian Government. Not Bismarck
or King William evokes this enthusiasm, but the grand
idea of German unity. Whether Prussia has been right
or wrong in its treatment of smaller States, is not the
question which Germans now pause to discuss. It is
enough that, in the quarrel with France, Prussia repre-
sents German nationality. The designs of Bismarck,
the temper of the King, are as nothing compared with a
struggle begun by France for the achievement of
ends which every German has learned to detest, and
on the other hand, maintained by Prussia as
the central figure in a great Germanic Confederation,
every part of which seems likely to render her the
heartiest possible support. The enthusiasm witnessed
here should, then, not be mistaken' for admiration of all
the processes by which Prussian power has been pro-
moted. It represents, rather, the cause of German
solidarity, whose basis is an idea uppermost in every
German mind. This statement of the case renders ap-
parent the duty of our Government, and justifies the im-
partiality of our people. The official duty would be the
same were the contest between an overbearing
Monarchy and a feeble Republic. President Grant
would be found to observe the same neutrality were
France attacking Switzerland, were Russia reviving not
forgotten atrocities in Poland, or were England playing
the oppressor in insurrectionary Ireland. But the sym-
pathy of the American people would be enlisted on the
weaker side, and there would be public meetings to, de-
nounce the tyrant Power. In the present instance we
are not called upon to take any formal action. There are
many reasons why the preponderance of personal feeling
may be expected to be in favour of the Germans,
—there are none that should induce us to
assume a partisan attitude, and certainly none that can
justify a party organisation, in attempting to manufacture
party capital out of the enthusiasm which alike animates
Germans and French. The egregious folly which led the
Union Republican General Committee of this City to
parade its indorsement of the Prussian cause is inexcusable,
because unsolicited and unprovoked. Our German
citizens respect too loyally 'the position and
obligations of the Government to seek its departure
from a neutral course ; and they understand
too well the insincerity of politicians to be
influenced by worthless resolutions, or speeches that sig-
nify literally nothing. The duty and the interest of the
Government lead toward strict impartiality. The neu-
trality which President Grant, whatever his sympathies,
must rigidly enforce, is dictatedquite as much by a regard
for our own welfare as by respect for legally-defined in-
ternational obligations. We owe to the belligerents abso-
lute fair play ; and remembering how bitterly we com-
plained of England's insincerity during the progress of
our own conflict, we cannot too carefully
avoid everything which may even seem to identify us with
either side. Hence the indecency and impolicy of any Re-
publican movement that tends to convert a war between
foreign Powers into a party question ; it is a movement
injurious to national good faith, and calculated to place
the Administration in a false position, as well toward the
Republican party, on which it relies for support, as to the
country, which, on a question like this, may properly
demand that parties shall be ignored.—New York Times.