The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-11-13
General Walker I'm Nicaragua-The Future
Of Central America.

paclncatlOn OF the state OF nicaragua, by
means of the treaty which has been concluded
between William Walker, on behalf of the late
insurgents on the one side, and Ponciano Cor
raj, on behalf of the late government On the
other. The treaty is in fact capitulation to
Walker by the late authorities. 1t places the
supreme authority in person nominated by
him, and leaves him at the head of the army,
which of course ia country like Nicaragua
| is the real post of power. On the other hand
| it makes no alteration in the laws, and does
not curtail the rights Of citizens of either par
| ty; proclams general amnesty, and, with a
| liberality which can only be accounted for by
the suppostion that the low state of the Gre
dit of the belligerents must have restricted
their powers of borrowing within very narrow
limits, binds the government to pay the debts
| of both parties. The publication of this trea-
| ty appears to have had soothing effect upon
the minds of the people of Nicaragua and to
have reused the Californians and others to
ideas of emigration to Central America.
In all this there is nothing surprising.
Twenty years ago it was perfectly obvious
that the natural destiny of the Central Ameri-
cans was to be subjugated by Anglo-Saxons.
The natives of that region could not govern
themselves. They could not even earn de-
cent living if left to their unaided efforts
The Spaniard in America cannot rule himself,
but he can earn his bread: the degraded mon
grel-the Spanish Indian-who inhabits the
fragments of the kingdom of Guatemala, can
not read, or work, or think. He is only fit to
fight-that is to say, to engage in an occupa-
ton in which the brute creation are the natu.
raj equals, and in some cases the superiors Of
country than one where nature dispenses with
the physical labor of man, he would have pc
| rished, as the Five Nations and the Esqui-
| maux are doing. Thrust upon the fairest por
ton Of the Western hemisphere, he has lived,
and quarrelled, and fought, and been dis
grace to humanity and an eyesore to his
| neighbors for ever SO many years. The ques
| tion-how long he should be left there in pos
session-simply depended on the rate of pro-
gress Of the rest of the continent.
Children, and that class of clergymen whom
Sidney Smith describes as having heads made
out Of the same wood as their pulpits, and
brains of the same material as the stufing of its
cushions, are always ready to cry down the
man who fulfls an unseen law of nature at the
apparent sacrifice of subordinate municipal or
international polity. 1t is to be expected that
this class of persons will be severely vir-
tuous upon Walker, and will vindicate the
rights Of the Central Americans as though it
would be an irreparable loss to the world if
pestlence swept them of. Happily, things
have turned out in such way that the new
commander-in-chief of Nicaragua has fulfilled
his mission without violating any law, or af
fording any basis for the calumnies which
have been afoat concerning him. He has
served as volunteer in the Nicaraguan insur-
gent army, just as De Kalb and Lafayette
and Pulaski served in the American insur-
gent army; and has obtained the command
just as, at one time, Lafayette might have
done here if any thing had happened to Wash
ington. 1t is very true that his real position is
very different from that which Lafayette would
have obtained, in the case supposed but this
is due to the difference between the people of
Nicaragua and the people of the United States,
as fault. Strictly speaking, in the whole of
this business Walker appears to have done
nothing for which he could be held to answer
in this or any other coantry, in any con-
tingency.
1t is perhaps premature to speak of him yet
as be will be spoken of if he become the instru
ment by means of which Central America will
ha oloi ,a1 ni,- IVn ha hi Hal
he may yet fail, as poor Colonel Kinney ap
pears to have done; a hundred accidents
may happen to overset him. In any OF
these contingencies his memory would not be
an enyiable one; the clergymcn and the chill
dren, and indeed the world generally would be
eNcrucatingly virtuous upon him if he were
sinner enough to get killed. But if on the
contrary he has the nerve and the tact and the
luck to maintain himself at Nicaragua for the
next five years, William Walker will loom up
in a new and entirely respectable light. lie
may then be the President, or at all events one
Of the master spirits of rich and prosperou.
State soliciting admission to the Union. His
name may be household word in correspon-
dence between the British and United States
governments. Books may be written about
him, and some of the clergymen-who will
have beard OF his setting up convcnticles and
schism shops at Granada-wll preach of him
as one of the blessed. The newspaper editors
whose venerable noses assume lofty curl
when his name is mentioned. may then dose
their readers with homlics on American ener-
gy and American enterprise as exemplifed in
the great General Walker. Where shall W.
stop? What would people have said twenty
years ago if we had predicted that the day
would come when that shocking filbuster, Sam
Houston, would be feeling the national pulse
for the Presidency, aud eating canvasbacks of
the old Quincy plate in the best Boston So
ciety? And remember, it is far easier to sub
jugate Nicaragua than it was to overrun Texas
PRECAUTIONS AGAINST FIRE In another