The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-11-21


guard against evasion or abuse. That opinion,
so far as / know remains entirely unchanged,
and will be acted upon steadily and decisivey.
The peace Of the country requires this; the Sc
curty of the Constitution requires this; and every
consideration of the public good demands this.
If the Administration cannot stand upon the
principles of the message, it does not expect to
stand at all.'-DANIEL WEBsTER's Letter to the
Union Meeting at Vestchester.
We will do our ex-minister the justice to be-
ieve that the article in yesterdays Union,
with the caption ''Nlaking out Captive Ameri-
can Citizens to be Pirates and Outlaws" came
from the pen of an associate or assistant, or
from some outsider, entirely reckless either Of
the veracity of his statements or of the terms
in which he has couched them. We are una
BILE to believe that any man with a character to
lose could become Intentionally responsible for
the scandalous perversions Of truth, or the libel
lous malignity of language which characterize
the article referred to.
For two or three months past the Union has
assaled the Administration on the ground that
they had employed unjustifable expressions in
regard to the expeditions which it was under
stood we're in preparation against the dominions
of power with which we were at peace. Day
after day it has hurled gross and unseemly ac-
cusations against the PRESIDENT, charging him
with denouncing the expeditionists as pirates
and outlaws, and with invoking on their heads
the hostilihes of all foreign nations. 1t has
sought-falsely and wickedly-to malign the
Chief Magistrate of the country, and to cheat
the American people into belief that the ad-
ventures he had described, in the language
Of international law, as adventures of rob-
berry and plumber were in reality meri-
torious enterprises, and that the parties en-
gagng in them, so far from being Grim
inal, were entitled to be classed with Kos
cIUsKo, LAFAYETTE, and other liberators of
mankind. The whole course of the Union in
this respect has been calculated to debauch and
demoralze the feelings and opinions of certain
portions of the community and ii has TINS as
sumed to itself large share of the response
blity which must necessarily attach to any flu
ture expeditions of the LOPEZ school. If any
thing of the kind should unfortunately occur
again, its promoters and participants will I'M
questionably cite in their justification the prof
ligate teachings and unprincipled dicta of the
Washington Union and the presses-happily
few in number-whch have been its compan-
ions throughout this affair.
With regard to the unfortunate men who
now lay captive in Spanish dungeons, we have
not thought that their interests would be pro-
NOTED. by assuming in their behalf positions I'M
tenable in themselves, and adverse to the opin-
ions of the civilized world. We have not
supposed that the applications which have been
made to the Spanish government for the exercise
of clemency towards them, could, by any posi-
biIity be advanced by disappearing the ma
ture of their offence, or by attempting to paiate
conduct which has provoked the adherence of
all just men. The hundred and fifty prisoners
now in Spain are held in captivity because it
is conceived that they were engaged in an ad-
venture denounced by all aw-without COM
mission and without flag waging an indi-
viduai war against friendly territory. If
their Imprisonment be right and lawful in view
of this offence, it is clear that their release will
be an act of mercy on the part of Spain--not a
duty to be demanded and enforced On the
contrary, if they are held in durance with
out having been guilty of any such offence
as was denounced by the PRESIDENT in
Government to pursue would have been to
demand their discharge, and if necessary to
sustain that demand by hostile armies and ma
vies. Between war in their behalf, and an APP
peal for clemency founded upon an admission
of their guilt, there was no middle ground.
The former course would have been without a
shadow of justification the latter is just and
polite, and is precisely that which the Admin
istration have pursued. To have sought TO
bully feeble power into an admission of the
innocence Of men captured in an act of
crminaity, might have met the approval
Of such journals as the Union but it
would have been repugnant to the pride OF
Spain, to the moral sense of our own citizens,
and to the laws and practice of all organized
communities.
The Union declares that we have called
these prisoners pirates. The Union has often
said so before, and we have as often denied it.
When, therefore, the Union persists in giving
currency to this charge, we cannot but con-
clude that it does so with fixed intention to
publish that which it knows TO be absolutely
and entirely untrue. 1t was hardly necessary
to add to the offensiveness OF the proceeding by
the employment of language more befitting the
purlieus of the Five Points than the columns Of
the organ of great political party.
1t is impossible 10 forget that on very recent
occasion the Union protested desire to pre-.
serve a proper regard for courtesy in its edi-
torial intercourse. Its present fashion is to dis