The daily Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1855, 1854-12-14
faction within time specified, he would
lombard tho town
would

faction within a time specified, he would
lombard the town.
by this procedure he afforded them onnor.
tunity to provide for their personal safety. To
those also who desired to avoid loss of rroncr.
ty in the punishment about to be Inflicted on
the offending town, he furnished the means of
removing their effects, by the boats of his own
ship, and of steamer which lie procured and
rendered to them for that purpose. At length,
pcrceiving no disposition on the part of the
town to comply with his acquisitions, he ap-
pealcd to the commander of her Brittannic
Majcstvs schooner Bermuda" who was seen
to have intercourse and apparently much in
tiucnce with the leaders among them. - to in
terposc and persuade them to take some course
calculated to save the necessity of rcsorting
to the extreme measures indicated i'm his proc
lamation bat that officer, instead of acccaing
to the request, did nothing more than to pro-
test against the contemplated bombardment.
No steps of any sort were taken by
the people to give the satisfaction rcqui-
red. No individuals, if any there were
who regarded themselves as not respon-
sible for the misconduct Of tho commu-
nifty, adopted any means to separate
themselves from tho fate of the guilty.
The several charges, on which the de.
mands for redress were founded, had
been publicly 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 extenuation of their conduct;
but contumaciou~ly refused to hold any
intercourse with the commander of tho
"Cyanc." BY their obstinate silence
they seemed rather DESTROYS to provoke
chastiscmcnt than to escape it.
There is ample to believe that this conduct
OF wanon Defiance ON their part, is inputae chiefly
TO tho decisive idea that the American government
would I've deferred from publishing them, through fear
Of dspeasing formidable foreign power, " hich they
presumed to think L"kcd with COM. Iaccncy upon
their aggressive and insulting department towards TIC
United States. The C,ane at length ficd uron the
town. Before much injury had Eeen done, the fire
was twice usrended, i'll order to afford OF portuny
for an arrangement; but this declined Most Of
the buildings Of The place, of little value generally,
were, in the sequel, destroyed but owing to the
sldcrate precau ions taken by naval commander,
there destruction Of lie.
When the CyaEc was ordered to Central
America, it was confidently hoped and expect
cl that nO.occasion would arise for "a resort
t. violence and u destruction Of property and
loss of life Instructions to that elect were
given to her commander. And no extreme act
would have been requisite, had not the people
themselves, by their extraordinary conduct in
the affair, frustrated all the possible mild
measures for obtaining satisfaction. A with
drawal from the place, the object of his visit
entirely defeated, would, under the crcun,stan-
ccs in which the commander of the Cyanc
| found HIMSELF have been absolute abandonment
Of all claims of our citizens for indcmnificaiOn,
and submissive acauicsccncc in national indig-
nifty.
1t would have encouraged in these law
less men spirit of insoIcncc and rap;nc
most dangerous to the lives and property
of our citizens at Punta Arenas, and Prob
ably emboldencd them to grasp at the trca-
sure and valuable merchandise continually
passing over the Nicaragua route. 1t GER
tainly would have been most satisfactory to
me, if the objects of the Cyancs mission
could have been contaminated without any
act of public force but the arrogant corr
tumacy of the offenders rendered it imLOs-
siblc to avoid the alternative, either to
break up their establishment, Or to leave
! them impressed with the idea that they
might rerscycre with impun:ty III career
of insolcnce and pluEGcr.
This transaction ha been tie subject of
complaint on the part of some foreign POW
crS, and has been characterized with more
of harshncss than of justice If COMPARE
sons were to be instituted, it would not be
difficult to present repeated instances in the
history Of states, standing on the very front
of modern civilization, where communities
far less offending and more defencelcss than
Grcytown, have been chastscd with much
greater scrvcr:ty, and where not cities only
hvac been laid in ruins, but human life has
been rccklessly sacrificed and Tie blood of
the innocent made profuscly to minglc with
that of the guilty
Passing from foreign to domestic az
fairs, your attention is naturally direct
ed to the financial condition of the coun-
try, always subject Of general inter-
est. For complete and exact iniorma-
ton regarding the finances, and the va
rious branches ofthe public service con-
nected Herewith, | refer you to the re-
port of the Secretary of the Treasury;
from which it will appear that the amt
of revenue during the last fiscal year
from al sources, was seventy-thrce
million five hundred and forty-nine thou
sand seven hundred and five dollars:
and that the public expenditures for the
same period, exclusive of payments on
account Of the public debt, amounted to
filty-one million eighteen thousand two
hundred and forty-nine dollars.
During the same period the payments made
in redemption of the public debt including III
! terest and premium, amounted to twcnty-four
million three hundred and thirty-six thousand
three hundred and eighty dollars. TO the sum
4a4l of fl,o rono;,,tc 1.f taf ic To ln adl-