The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-10-03
The SECRETARY OF WAR returned to Wash
ington on "Wednesday evening.
The pr,.,dent,s PROCLAMATION.


The Presidents Proclamation.
The Union of Wednesday contains couple
of columns oftwattling defamation in regard to
the recent proclamation OF President FILLMORE
and in defence of its own ridiculous bunder In
the calculation of our treaty with SPAIN. The
idea that men who leave our shores to engage
in the hostile invasion of country with which
their own Government is at peace, and in viola
ton of our laws, remain under the protection of
those laws; that men who break the funda-
mental article of treaty of peace can claim the
benefit Of its collateral provisions, is an absur
dity so gross that it required no little ingenuity
10 invent it, Our notion of it may be best illus
trated by JoHNsoN's remark about the elder
SHERIDAN "SHERRY is dull - said he, " ma
turally dull, but it must have taken him great
deal Of pains TO become what we now see him,
Such an access of stupidity is not in nature"
We think our contemporary must have been at
great pains to invent any thing so preposterous
as his precious discovery about our treaty with
SPAIN.
And here let us clear away two or three mis-
statements of the Union-clever perversions of
the truth--merely insinuated at first, but now
boldly assumed and argued from. 1t is not
true that we have ever defended or apologized
for Mr. OWEN. We think his conduct feeble
and reprehensible, and we have said that mere
humanity, independently of his official posi-
ton, would have dictated the most prompt and
active intercession for the unfortunate men
who were shot by command Of the CAPTAIN
GENERAL. Still further, we say that the at
tempt to excuse or palliate his inaction by
pleading the PREsIpENT's proclamation, if it is
true that he did so--was altogether unjustifia-
BILE. A juryman or a Judge might as well re-
fuse TO recommend a convict to mercy, or the
Executive refuse to exercise his prerogative
of pardon, because the subject in whose behalf
1t had been invoked had been called by a good
many hard names in the indictment. Ian
guage that is not only proper, but indispensa-
BILE, to warn men of the nature of crime, and
to deter against its commission, may well
enough find its way into proclamation, with
out furnishing the law of the case, after the
proclamation has discharged its office, and men
IN spite of it have rushed into the crimes and
subjected themselves to the penalties it de-
nounoed.
AS soon as President FILLMORE learned of
the capture of the remnants Of LoPEz's COM
mands he made immediate application to the
SPANISH government in their behalf and evinced
as warm a solcitude to rescue them from their
unfortunate situation as he did in issuing his
proclamation to prevent their disastrous expe-
dition.
So with regard to the Captain General Con-
CHA. We think his spirit in the butchery of
fifty victims was bloodthirsty and inhuman,
and entirely at war with the spirit of modern
civilization. But, for all that, we do not pro-
pose to stultify ourselves by seeking TO repre-
sent this act as an infraction of our treaty,
which would justify our Government in carry
ing fire and sword into CUBA t, avenge the
wrong. If we were compelled to make a fac
tious opposition to Mr.. FILLMORE, we should
seek something that would justify US in public
opinion, and not leave room for the suspicion
that our wits were as diseased as our DISPOSE
ton. 1t is as plain as any rule in arithmetic
that men cannot, at the same moment, violate
treaty and seek to benefit by its provisions. If
the government OF the United CldleS MAD
sent an army to invade CUBA, and a por-
ton of that army had been taken prisoners,
we would beg to know if those prisoners could
claim any privilege or exemption on the ground
of any treaty between the United States and
Spain The very act Of invasion was an abro-
cation of the treaty, as far as SPAIN was con-
cerned, if she chose so to consider it; and after
that invasion, neither the seventh article nor
any other article would have any validity as
against SPAIN. Now, we should be pleased to
know II band of adventures, having no com
mission and no flag, would be entitled TO claim,
under the treaty, higher privileges than would
be allowed to a regular army of the United
States An armed invasion Of country is of
course suspension of all treatyoor pacific con
ventions between the invaders and the country
invaded. This is a principle so obvious and
elementary that no argument can illustrate or
enforce it.
In its leading article of yesterday, the Union
alleged, in substance, that the proclamation OF
President FILLMORE was "happily without
any precedent In the history of the United
States" BY this time, no doubt, the Union
has refreshed its memory in these premises by
the perusal Of the proclamation of Mr.. VAN