New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-11-15
PAEH AND VENEZUELA


Writers are apt to be unjust toward the South
American Republics. Whenever there Is oo-
casiou TO speak OF them the conditions of their
origin are forgotten, and they are judged without
mercy BY the severest standard Because they
do not exhibit the same tranquility, the sans
steady respect for law, the same progress in IN
telligence and the industrial arts with which we
are familiar in Ohio or Massachusetts they arc
pronounced failures, ana ruin and extinction
augured as their destiny But all this oyerlooks
the fact that they entered upon the experiment %
selfgoyenment with population reared IN the
worst school for freedom. and with habits OF mind
customs. laws, and municipal institutions poorly
adapted to liberty. TWAS impossible in the nature
oil the case, that they should pass through tran
gull and orderly republican career conspracias
and revolutions were to be expected it was q
matter of course that selfish men should seek to
use, for their own advantage, the ignorance and
superstition still existing among the people and
that the best interests of freedom and progress
should at every step be exposed to serious
dangers This, we say, could not be otherwise
and to our minds it is evident that these things
considered. tile cause OF Liberty has not boen a
quarter of century in those countries. What
ever the vicissitudes which accident or ambition
have forced upon them, they have still remained
true to the republican idea 1t is not our fortune
to know these Republics from personal observa-
ton. but from the best information we can attain
we are assured that their inhabitants are more
firmly attached to Repubeanism, aud are better
Republicans, than when their Independence was
declared They have not been under the dis
cipline of freedom in vain but great as their de.
fciences still are and serious as are the unoer,
taiuties cast on their future by the anarchy which
from time to time appears among them, we have
not the slightest doubt that they are upon the
whole in a much more advanced and hopeful con
diton than when they freed themselves from
Spanish supremacy.
Perhaps the most interesting OF these republics
is Venezuela. Its position, extent of territory,
rich soil, and history, all contribute to render it
prominent before the public of the United States
The recent arrival Of Gen Paez, and the extraya-
CANT and more than undeserved public ceremonies
BY which his friends aud agents managed to have
it attended, and which have probably passed IN
some quarters for spontaneous manifestations OF
public admiration have still more freshly fixed the
general attention upon the land from which he
was exiled, and in connection with which he has
played an important, if not always an honorable
part
1t ought to be understood that the correspond
cnce and editorial articles of the press in this
country have generally been in the interest OF Pa
ez and have defended his party with the warmest
partizanship. For a long time he exercised
controlling influence in Venezuela, and even after
he had ceased to be powerful the illusion OF power
remained to aid him, His party was that OF
wealth and order, of restrictions upon popular
liberties of strong government and OF conserV
atism generally. The natural consequence was
that most if not ali, the American merchants re-
siding in Venezuela, believing their own prosper
ity and the security Of property generally to de-
pend upon his being kept in the control Of the ma.
ton and on the perpetual triumph of his party,
gave the tone OF their own opinions to ell the let
ters they sent to this country, while their business
connections here adopted and repeated their inn
pressons on every occasion. For instance, soon
after the affair of January "a, 1913, we published
in The 7fiJune letter from an American merchant
at La Guayra whom we knew to be generally
an intelligent honest and reliable man, and accor
dinghy ndorsed his statements as to the transac
tions of that day. We have since ascertained
that he was not an impartial witness as we sup
posed, but warm partizan Of Paez nd hater OF
the liberal party. And we are now convinced that
his report of the facts of that occasion entire
ty discolored and false, not from any wrong inseR
ton, but simply from perverted and mistaken
feeling. In the excitement OF the event
he caught up the rumors most consonant with
his own predictions and most unfavorable
to the party and the men he wished to see over.
thrown, and sent them to us as certain facts
Nor is this the only illustration we find in our
own columns of the industry and success of the
agents and friends of Paez It is now less than
wear since an article on Venezuela written by
person then attached to office, appeared as
Editorial in The Tribune, in the absence OF the
Editor. The statements of that article were as
favorable to Paez as they were unfavorable to the
liberal party in Venezuela. Gen Paez would
have done well to quote it against us IN his De-
fense The facts set forth in it were, as we are
assured furnished to the writer by the indiyldue al
who procured the steamer Scourge to be sent frona
New Orleans to aid the General in his late trea-
sonabe attempt Of course, both the facts and
the conclusion drawn from them were worthless
From these two instances the public can under
stand how successfully the game OF Disgusting INC
truth has been played with reference TO the "ho'o
recent history Of Venezuela. Paez and his party
have managed to monopolize the public ear and
have left nothing undone which could enlist opih-
ion in their behalf in Europe and the United
States So far indeed, has this been carried that
the history of Venezuela, by Baralt & Diaz, pub
Esbed in Paris in ls4l, and referred to by Gen.
paez in his Defense, is understood to have been
written and published at his instance, in order
mainly to cast the needed light upon his reputa-