New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-12-04

prir ciples which have guided the Presl-
dental course. The denunclatiOn Of FIJI
bustiersm is pretty weil expressed; the
claim for the United States Of having led,
net followed, other Nations ia establishing
and enforcing the doctrines OF neutrality
and nou-intervention is just and happy
End for once the clear enunciatlOn of a vi
tai priaci2ie is very nearly achieved ia the
paragraph beginning, Friendly relations
with all, bit ehtaugling alliances with
none Thst is altogether the most COM
psctIy ard forcibly expressed Of any por-
ton Of the document. We are not per-
mi,ted to know precisely what the President
uroposes to DO in case "the strong arm of
q foreign power is invoked to stife public
sentiment and repress the spirit Of Free
dom in any country" but the drift of the
paragraph is good.
But what does the President mean with
respect to the Right Of Search Does he
intend to assert Gen. CasS's indefensible
doctrine, which Secretary Webster so fore
IDLY combated some years ago? That "a
regularly documeIted American vessel" is
not to he overhauled by foreign armed
ship OF feet, is not disputed point. The
practical question is this-Have the Ma
tional vessels of Foreign Powers a right to
search vessels display ing the American flag
IN order 10 ascertain and determine Their
r7cAf Ia us protection We hold that they
hare that on any other hypothesis, Piracy
would he universal and prosecuted with I'M
punity for pirate. when pursued by any
armed vessel not American, would only have
to hoist our flag to shield him from harm /;
and if one of our vessels were the pursuer,
he would only be obliged to hoist some other
banner The acquiescence of other Pow
ers in this doctrine would be disastrous to
honest commerce throughout the world, in
Guiding eur own.
The true and necessary doctrine, as we
understand it, is, that the Nations of the
earth have a common right of Police on the
high seas and that a duly commissioned
National vessel may stop any vessel OF In
ferior force and require her to give an ac-
count Of herself If she claims to be
regularly documented' by some nation
other than that of the vessel making inqui-
sition. she can be farther dealt with only
at the peril of the Nation in whose author
ity the search is made. The Right of
Search exteHds only to the ascertainment
of the true character Of the vessel raising
a friendly flag; If she demonstrates her
right to carry that flag, the search can go
no farther If, on the contrary, the search
prove her a pirate, smuggler, or SLAYER,
without regular papers, she may be dealt
with accordingly, without regard to the
flag she so impudeRtly and impotently parad-
I ed. And should q regularly documcntcd'
vessel be honestly misjudged lawless and
treated accordingly, the Nation by whose
authority the inquest was made must pay all
damages; if the misjudgment were dis
honest and simulated, the act is one of hog
Utility, to be resented accordingly. We be-
lieve no other doctrine than this will at
once protect the Freedom of the Seas, and
permit the extirpation of pirates and other
abuses Of flags which they have no right
to display.
With regard to our commerce and the
! Tariff. the Presidents facts are very in
structive and his recommendations judi
cious; but We would have gladly seen
them based on clear foundation of Primer
PIE. Our Tariff ought to be revised, not
only because of the facts stated by the
| President, but because immutable Prinsi-
such evils as the President pertrays, if not
greater, must have resulted from the substi-
tuition Of the Tariff of 1916 for that of 1872
The President is very right, so far as he
gees. with respect 10 the Mineral Lands Of
California. 1t would be most unwise to sell
them in limited quantities, or in any guam
titles, at present. Better let every one who
chooses have dig at them under the judi
cious regulations and precautions against
monopoly which the miners have established
among themselves. If the President could
have taken a step further in advance, aud
recommended Free Lands IN limited areas
[ fer the ActRol Settler and no Lands srer
more for the MOHopollst end Spectator
lie would have entitled himself TO the graft
tude of Millions now living and Of hundreds
Of Millions yet unborn. We shall not be
required long to deplore the omission of this