The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-05-31

tbe tuning bravsdo Of the Washington Usios
and its Kitchen Cabinet echoes goes for It's
precise market value, a. stun, fustian, and
moOnthine.
I'll disgraceful business on the part of the
confidential organ Of Gen. Pierce and his Cabi-
net, thus to persist in it's efforts to get up panic
at home and Q panic abroad, to compass Only
such small designs IS are peculiar to little ped
ding politicians. Public opinion calls for some
positive and permanent reformation of the out
rageous conduct Of the local officials OF Cuba
so long practised by them with impunity against
our citizens and our commerce. The country
demands indemnity for the past and security
for the future;" and is particularly ealous of
any designing intermeddling in Cuban aiiairsby
| the abolition emssaries of England or France.
The administration is aware Of this; and while
Mr.. Soule is backing and filling at Madrid, and
! the Cabinet are undecided, and divide at home,
the central organ IL a flaming irebrand for war
| 1t is but q silly experiment to rally to the al
ministration the public sympathy an conf
! dence upon false .pretences. The action of the
| President and his Cabinet must correspond with
! these threatening declamations before they can
| be believed; for Gen. Pierce is not Gen. Jack
| son. When Old Hickory assumed the respon-
sibility," the thing was fixed as decree OF
fate; but with the present occupant of the
| White House, mere declarations go for nothing.
| 1t is not believed that the administration intend
| or desire war with Spain; but it is suspected
| that its object is to make as much war capital
out of Cuba as possible, while all its efforts at
| Washington and at Madrid are directed to the
great end of getting out Of the scrape without
giving. cause of offence to Spain or her allies.
Were there any sincerity in the authorized
clustering and vaporing of the Cabinet organ
| at Washington; were there any fixed purpose
| or any serious apprehension on the part Of the
| President, of O war with Spain, there would be
some preparations for war. Calls would be
made upon Congress for more ships to our fee
BILE navy the vessels on hand would be pat
| into immediate condition for action; the powers
| possessed by Secretary Dobbin for increasing
the personnel of the service would be forthwith
exercised to the fullest extent; an appeal would
be made to the House of Representatives for
extra naval and military appropriations;
projet would be submitted for the enrolment OF
an,aTmy of volunteers; plans would be suggest
ed for enlisting the available steamers and sail
ing vessels of our mercantile marine into the
naval service, and such other practical prepare
tons for the contingency of foreign war
would be made or submitted to Congress, as
such an occasion would demand, had the ad-
ministration any intention or apprehension Of
war. But as nothing of the kind has been done,
as we have not had the slightest intimatlon,
hey ond the six experimental war steamers, which
will probably be built in the course of ayear
or two, that the administration purpose any
increase or strengthening OF the navy, ard a.
the War Department continues to be satisfied
with the peace establishment, it is manifest
that all this ,clamor of the Washington organ
for war is mere humbug-a paltry bit of thin
BILE rigging to divert the public attention from
the real posItIon si.v p.s.;aant and his var
like Cabinet.
What the public may believe of the real atti-
tude of the administration upon this Cuban
question is, that Mr.. Soule is too warlike to be
trusted with it and that the Cabinet have ac-
cordingly agreed upon peace commission to
Madrid, to he composed of two such amiabl-
and pacific gentlemen as Mr.. Dallas, of Penn
sylvania, and Mr. Cobb, of Georgia, or two
others equally reliable. OF course, when
Messrs. Dallas and Cobb or any other commits
sioners. arrive at Madrid to direct Soule in his
negotiations, he will throw up his commission
and return home in dlsgust-ust as Major
Borland has returned home from Central Ame-
RIGA, after having had his treaty Involving the
"a. Ion ~; nro.a al h,
he was instructed to carry out Possibly, in
the meantime, Soule may have brou hit matters
TO an accommodation, or to a rupture at
Madrid. If he shall have rduced the
issue to an open quarrel, we are quite
sure that our President and Cabinet will be
more alarmed by the unwelcome news than any
body else, not excepting the fancy stock .jobbers
of Wall street.
1t is well that the administration, from its
imbecility, its oscillations, its want of moral
courage and fxedness of purpose and from the
public Indifference to its promises and its
threats, has rendered itselfncapable of mischief
by false alarms and false pretences. Otherwise,
the bellicose proclamations of its organs con-
corning our relations with Spain might have sc
riously disturbed the business interests of the
country, foreign and domestic. As matters
stand, however. the threatening of the Wash
ington Union and the silly ravings of the An
gel Gabriel 60 together, and excite no other
sensations than pity and contempt. We con-
tess our pity for the administration, reduced to
such paltry expedents as this Spanish war cry,
when 1t has no notion Of war; and we cannot
withhold our contempt for the Cabinet organs
or their masters in resorting to such mean de-
vices to excite the establishment and admiration
of the country.
Should war result from the existing entan-
clements Of the Cuban question, it will be from
the bungling efforts Of the administration to
prevent il, and from the inconsistency between