The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-09-27
The Invasion OF Cuba.

From the London Times, September u.
We have not waited for the verdict of the Amer
lean press to express an opinion on the merits of
the issue raised between that country and Spain
by the criminal enterprise of General Lopez and
his band OF freebooters, ard the severe reributon
which has already taller upon portion of his law
less band. Had we done So we should have been
extremely puzzled 70 collect the suffrages and say
on which side tie weight of authority predomi-
mates Nothlr.g can be more marked than the diff
Terence OF Opinion elected for, while many jour
mails Jusu TO the full extent the enterprise of the
''Lber ators," and broadly announce the doctrine
that States founded upon revolution, like those of
F.mcrica, are bound to assist struggling freedom
in every quarter of the globe there are others who
do not scrupe to shgmatize Lopez and his band
pirates and marauders, to justify entirely the Span
ieh authorities, and even, that most unpopular of
men at the present moment, the American Consul
at Havana. Others, ashamed of the barefaced
attempt to palliae enterprise, the parallel of
which can alone be found in the taking of Panama
by Captain Morgan, or the exploits of that equally
ill-used "Liberator Captain Kyd, but yet afraid
OF running counter to the opinion which has
manifestly found favor with the mob in the
great cities Of America, have endeavored to steer
middle course, and veil their servility TO popular
clsmor under the transparent assumption of dis
elimination more than ordinarily acute. Thus
journal has discovered that whatever might have
been the rights of the Queen of Spain herself to
deal as she thought proper with prisoners. natives
OF a friendly country, taken In the very act OF
levying an unprovoked war upon her dominions,
the same power of life and death was not inherent
in Ia Yiceroy, and that by exercising it General
Ga~fna, like the judge of county court who
SsfS.Ald adjudicate plant for EGO, exceeded
SsSs jurisdiction. Others, less versed in legal sub
pieties, consider the insult offered to the American
flag by firing the steamer Falcon sufficient
belii, and thus dispense themselves from the
necessity of entering into the merits of the question
raised by the fate of the companions of General
Lopez. Upon the whole, due allowance being
made for the urgent and imperious necessity which
compels large portion of the transatlantic press
to invent reasons for supporting that view of
subject which has received the sanction of popular
appreciation, we disposed to consider the
tone OF the American newspapers encouraging to
those who hope for perseverance in the honest and
upright policy which the American Executive has,
as far as its limited powers would permit, steadily
adhered to. Indications not wanting that our
long headed and keen. sighted descendants are
gradually awaking to the conviction that there ia
some danger of their being precptated into an UNI
worthy and Improbable quarrel by the reckless
daring of a few unprincipled adventures, and the
Understanding sympathy of the populace with
their just though rigorous punishment. Opinion
on this subject seems to be expressed without re-
ference 20 the watchwords and divisions of party
We have Democratic journals warmly advocating
the cause of the Spanish government, and Wing
and Free-so organs justiiying in its widest extent
the right of the citizens of America to intervene in
the affairs OF all countries in which they may
ceve the interests of that liberty of which they are
the natural and diviney appointed guardians to DO
in peril. The highest credit s.due to those Ameri-
can journals which, at time of natural and
even excusable popular excitement, have scorncd
to&ruckle to the dictaton of the majority, and
have upheld the of truth and justice without
fear or reserve. We sincerely trust that when tho
first violence of paroxysm mainly produced by
number of disgusting details, obviously either in
vented or exaggerated TO glut the vulgar appetite
for the horrible and stimulate that Indignation
against the manner of an act which could scarcely
be justified by the act ITSELF shall have had time to
exhale, the American nation will see that no
could be devised so derogatory to its own high po-
% he arth h. nd so mi
rious to the best interests of freedom and enghen-
ment all over the world, that the great Confede
racy of the United States should identify itself for
single moment with a band of lawless and
culinary pirates, even though they dsgraced the
name and abused the high privileges of American
citizens. That liberty of which the United States
so Justly proud that independence which they
wrung from this country after gallant and pro.
tracted struggle, surely means something very
different from the license the pretext of every
petty disturbance to associate in bands for the pur
pose OF plundering and numbering the subjects of
friendly power. We presume il was this unwil-
Ingness TO identify the flag of the country which
he represented with enterprise still dis
graceful than it was disastrous, which induced the
American Consul to stand aloof from any active
Intervention on behalf of his misguided country
We do not profess to be sufficiently versed
in the duties of diplomatic agent to decide whe-
Their this conduct was lusttable or no, whether,
considering the large number put to DEATH and the
obvious impolicy of embittering by wholesale OK
ecuton the popular mind in the United States some
But that the is past recall, and the inte-
rests of humanity cannot be served by any inter-
ventioD, that attitude of stern neutrality which
may be questionable in Consul is becoming and
magnanimous III nation. The government which
can condescend to complain Of the punishment
which has justly fallen any of its erring cit
liens for offences against the municipal law Of a
friendly State degrades itself their level the
dock with them, and participates with them in the
lgnomlny oil their execution. Ii, from the peculiar
freedom OF individual action enjoyed by citizens of
the United States, and the necessary and inherent
weakness OF central Executive welding powers
sparingly ntesgated and jealously watched by
Confederacy Of independent and sovereign States
ii has been impossible to prevent sympathy mani
tested by armed intervention in the domestic af-
fairs of the neighbors of the Union to the North
and to the South, these ought TO render the
Government of Washington doubly careful not TO
identify itself with or countenance in any way
those excuses which it is unhappily poweress TO
prevent. The least which friendly powers have a
right to expect is that the moral force of Govern
ment will be exerted 10 discourage those outrages
which have euded the grasp Of its material power
So far from the American Government having any
just cause OF complaint against the Spanish authori
ties, the paniards who have reasonable ground
oil remembrance against the United States for suffer
ing three hostile ornaments 10 be successively mt
ted out from port of the Union without interpos-
ing any sufficient obstacle to their departure
They may urge with great Justice that the first
expedition was treated with the utmost lcnity, and
that they only proceeded to inhct severe punish
ment themselves when they found that the NUM-
cipal law of the Union offered them no redress,
and that the very same persons were enabled TO
return from the very same friendly port to renew
an invasion which had once been baliied and par
doned. 1t il the common rcproach against free
governments republics in particular, that they
are animated by the lust of foreign conquest and
cherish amid their own liberty spirit fatal to the