The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1854-12-13

e tice was given to the people of GREY
e town that this government required ther
r to repair the injuries they had done t
our citizens To make suitable apolc
, gies for the insalt to our minister, an
that ship of war would be dispatche
thither to euforce compliance with thes
demands. But the notice was unheeded
Thereupon commander in the Navy il
charge of the Sloop of War Cayan
was ordered to repeat the demands an,
to insist upon a compliance Herewith
Finding that neither the populace no
those assuming to have authority owe
them manifested, any disposition to max
the required reparation or even to offe
excuse for their conduct He warned
by public proclamation that if they
did not give satisfaction within tim,
specified he would lombard the town.
/ By this providure he afforded then
opportunity to provide for their persona
safety. To those also who desired tt
4 avoid loss of property in the punishment
about to be inflicted upon the offending
town, he furnished the means of remov.
ing their effects by the boats of his owr
ship and of a steamer, which he procur-
and tendcred to them for that purpose
At length perceiving no disposition or
the part of the town to comply with his
requisition, he appealed to the Com
i mander of her Britanic Majesty schoo-
1 ner Bermuda, who was seen to have in
tercource and apparently much infu-
ence with the leaders among them, tc
interfere and persuade them to take
some course calculated to save the neces
i sity of resorting to the extreme measure
indicated in his proclamation but that
officer instead of according to the re-
! quest, did nothing more than to protest
against the contemplated bombardment.
No steps were taken by the people to
4 give that satisfaction required. No in
dividuals, if any there were, who re-
/ garded themselves not responsible for
the misconduct of the community, adopt
ed any means to separate themselves
| from the party of the guilty. The sew
I eral charges ON which the demand for
re 4ress was founded had been publically
made known to all for some time, and
were again announced to them They
did not deny any of these charges. They
offered no explanation nothing in ex-
tenuation of their conduct, but contempt
uously refused to hold any intercourse
with the commander of the Ceyane. By
their obstinate silence they seemed
rather desirous to provoke chastisement
than to escape it.
There is every reason to believe that
this conduct of wauton defiance on their
part is imputable chiefly to the delusive
idea that the American government
would be deferred from Furnishing them
through fear of displeasing formidable
foreign power, which they presumed to
think looked with mplacency on their
aggressions, and insulting department.
towards the United States. The Cgane
at length fired upon the town. Before
much injury had been done, the fire was
twice suspended, in order to afford op-
portunity for an agreement; but this
was declined. Most of the buildings of
the place, of little or no account gener-
ally, were in the sequel destroyed; but
owing to the considerate precautions ta-
ken by our Daval commander, there was
no destruction of life. When the Cyaaae
was ordered to Central America it was to
confidently hoped and expected that no
occasion would arise for resort to vio-
lence, destruction of property or loss of
life. Instructions to that effect were
given to her commander, and no extreme
act would have been requisite, had not
the people themselves, by their extraor-
dinary conduct, frustrated all the possi-
BILE mild measures for obtaining satisfac-
ton. A withdrawal from the place, tie
object of his visit entirely defeated,
would, under the circumstances in which
the CqJane found himself, have been alb
solute abandonment of all claim of our
citizens for decentralization, and submis
sive acquiescence in national indignity
it would have encouraged in those law
less men spirit of insolence and rapine
most dangerous to the lives and property
of citizens at Punta Arenas, and proba-
bly, emboldened them to grasp at the
treasures of valuable merchandise con-
tinually passing over the Nicaragua
route
1t certainly would have been most
satisfactory to me if the objects of the
Cyane'S mission could have been con-
summated without any act of public
force, but the arrogant consumacy of the
old offenders rendered in impossible TO
avoid the alternative either to break up
their Establishment or to leave them pos
sessed with the idea that they might
persevere with impunity in a career of
insolence and plunder. This transac-
tion has been the subject of complaint
on the part of some foreign powers and
has been characterized with more harsh
ness than justice. IF Comparisons were
to be instituted, it would not be difficult
to present repeated instances in the his.
tory of States standing in the very front
of modern civilization, where communi-
ties who were far less offended and more
defenceless than Greytown, have been
chastised with mach greater severity,
and where not cities only have been
laid in ruins, but human life has been |
sacrificed, and the blood of /
the innocent made profusely to mingle |
with that of the guilty.
Passing from foreign to domestic af-
fairs your attention is naturally directed /
to the financial condition of the country, |
always subject of general interest for
complete and exact information regard |
ing the finances and the various branch
es of the public service connected there
with. refer you to the report of the
Secretary of the Treasury, from which
it will appear that the amount of reven-
ue during the last fiscal year from all |
sources was seventy-three millions five
hundred and forty-nine thousand seven
hundred and five dollars that the pub
lie expenditures for the same period, |
exclusive of payment on account of the
public debt, amounts to ifty-one mill
ion, eighteen thousand, two hundred and