Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-04-28
APRIL 28, 1855.
CUEA=AGAIE.


tinued it 50 long, but for the hope Of inducing
the National Itelligeacey to take issue with
us upon the points we have presented. We
have an hereditary respect for that journal.
We have sincere reverepce for its antiquity,
and most cordial esteem for lis gentlemanly
and venerable conductors. That public Jour
nal is really TO be envied, especially in coun-
try like ours, where every mans opinion, as his
home, is his CASTLE, that has never merited the
atimosiiies of even its most decided politi-
cal adyersaries Without growing, or even an
attempt at it, we say we should have liked
much discussion with the Lltciligencer
t"gouta.fnP as we arel upon the leading points
in This most veXed but interesting and delicate
question; we should have liked, and viii still
relish, such discussion, if it should end in
nothing better TO ourselves than our own i'm
provement upon the nice points which are ne
cessarily involved in it.
We say, then, we are for having Cuba upon
Vattels principle, that nation has right to
everything necessary to preserve it from de-
struetion, and we are even willing to claim it
with high hand and a strong arm openly
upon that ground. Wehave said, and still say,
we would have preferred its purchase, because
that mode OF acquisition would have been the
purchase Of a peace. IN adrance. We have
said, aud say still, that the outrages upon our
flag and citizens, perpetrtted by the Spanish
authorities of.Cuba, not only justified hostile
measures upon our part, bat clearly showed
that its eoniiguity 10 us: under its present do
minion, made its possession by US a necessary
thing. We do not deny that there are COM
mercial aud political advantages growing out
OF its acquisition, but we aver that these form
very incidental and secondary ground for our
zeal Upon the right of search and visitation,
we say, il addition to our elaborate treatment
of the question in Thursdays Sentinel that
Spain has no right to NEEDLE in any manner
with the commerce Of the United States upon
the high seas. The oceans are the unappro-
priated commons Of nations. Every flag is
there, equal and sovereign. The liberty is
universal; and the power that attempts To ex-
clude or restrict another from its exercise in
hcts an injury which is sufficient cause Of
war, for nature authorizes every nation to re-
pei with force every invasion Of its rights.
Search and visitation are irreconcilable with
a state Of peace, and the equal sovereignty Of
nations on the high seas. You cannot sum
mon man, Fastening about his own business
upon common, TO stand and answer at your
pleasure, without arrogating some sort Of su.
periority; if you raise your finger or your cane
to coerce him, il is personal violence. So il is
with the flags Of nations; whether naval or
marine, makes no difference, moving on the
free and unsubiected surface OF the deep. No
matter what may be the comparative power or
weakness Of the respective nations, their flags
are extensions of their sovereigniies, and all
sovereignties are on a level.
We do not believe it possible to quote from
any respectable writer on the laws Of nations
doctrine or dicium inconsistent with those
views, applied as they are to condition Of
peace. A condition of war, however, is some.
times argued 10 engender rights which without
il would never exist. The argument we Amer.
leans have resisted as unsound; but let us con.
cede it, and sec to what il leads.
A condition Of war imparis or creates a
right to search and visit on the ocean. Is Spain
at war? Certainly not, as far as we know, with
any foreign power; and it is only external war
that can possibly vary her relations or rights
with other sovereignties. She may have n civil
war raging at Madrid or at Cardenas; but that
cannot augment her rights as one of the com
munity of natons or she may be waging war
with pirates, as she has asserted; but that is a
war in which she has all other nations as allies
not as adyersarics. 1t would be very silly to
say or suppose that an emeute at the Escuriel,
or a foray Of buccaneers at the Isle of Pines,
would engender in Spain the beligerent right
to overhaul, fire at, and search the vessels OF
her equal sovereignties, with all Of whom she
is at peace. That is an extent to which even
Sir William Scott never carried the pretenson.
We undertake to say that it Is essential to
the nation which assumes to exercise the right
to search or visit, that she should be, even &C
cording to the doctrine Of its most jealous as
serters, at war with some other nation. That
is a sine ora non. Everybody understands
the limited jurisdiction on maritime coast,
assertable in peace well rs war; the sys-
tenn and objects Of guaria coStas, revenue
cutters, and the police Of the marine leagues
but who ever heard Of a government undortal.
ing 10 stretch these arrangements out into the
high seas, aud empowering them to stop, chal-
lenge, delay, and, pro tanto, injure and insult
the peaceful traders on the great highway?
Such pretension, IN the language Of the chief
expounder Of public law, does an injury 10 al
nations mhose common righf il riolotes; and al
are al Liberty 10 mite against Il IN order 10 re-
press such an otteaapt.n And what else than
this is Spain actually doing2
The most latitudinous Admiralty Judge Of
England said, in the case Of the Maria, that
"the right Of visiting and searching merchant
shins unou the hioh seas ig the right of n bel.