Washington telegraph., 1856-04-16

sonage an .'inodensive gentleman" But
If '1nofenslve," for what earthly reason
has the British Government been apolo-
glzing! The Times would have us be-
lleve that President Pierce is to be unwiI-
lngly dragged into ''such a war as class
OF Republican zealOts are endeayoring to
force nnon US" But even granting for
argument sake that dOnUrai &C is
very pacifcally inclined-yet if he be fol-
lowing the warlike inclinations of the
Americans, he is only acting as faithful
public servant in obedience to the popular
spirit He is the expression, the person
ihcatlon, and the executive of the will of
the millions of his fellow citizens. 1t is
a noble spectacle to behold the chief mag
istrate of country acting in strict COM
pliance with the national spirit, instead of
flying in its face. How many wars have
been forced upon the unwilling British
people by their blood-thirsty, mad, or des-
potie kings2-how many OF these wars
have been undertaken for objects utterly
repugnant to the British interests and
British sympathies ?-how many hundre DIS
of millions of treasure have the enslaved
and unrepresented masses been compelled
to furnish by their industry to support the
blood od-encrusted thrones of Continental
despots? Surely such complaint, even
if truthfully grounded, as that which the
Times makes against President Pierce,
comes with a very i'll grace from jour
nal belonging to a country whose history
is in every page tainted and blackened
with wars originated by monarchs and ar
istocracies in utter defiance of the nation
al interests and sympathies. But not for
an instant DO L believe that President
Pierce is obeying policy contrary to his
own convictions Atall events he is doing
his duty as the chief magistrate of the
United States and on this ground only
should his conduct be viewed How
stands the matter? A British Ambassa-
dor and several British Consuls, accredit-
ed to the United States, fagrantly and
knowingly violate the laws of that coun-
try by endeayoring to enlist recruits for
the British forces to serve against Russia
Not only is the law of the United States
violated, but that country itself is by the
act placed In a most unpleasant position
with regard to Russia. The Car might
have demanded how America, as a neu-
alent to an act of open hostility against
himself? The United States chose to re-
main a neutral power in respect to the
European war those States did not think
fit to take part in the contest; they wish
ed to remain at peace But If this peace
were perilled or compromised by the Brit
ish representative at Washington, a very
serious crime Was perpetrated by that
functiOnary against the United States,-
and all the more serious too, inasmuch as
the misdeed was wilfully, deliberately and
knowingly committed. The Americans
have every right to expect the fullest sat
isfaction, and to dictate their own terms
on which such satisfaction is to be based.
1t is not for England to say, ''We apollo
gize, and you must be contented but the
Americans are fully justified In saying,
Nothing but the Withdrawal of the de-
linquent parsonage will satisfy U.S." The
Americans have not merely their own Vi
olated laws to yindicate-not merely their
outraged feelings to appease; but likewise
to convince Russia and the world that
they were honorably maintaining the neu-
trail position which they had proclaimed
They at once assumed a digniied attitude
upon the point; whereas our Government
has been striving through the medium of
Its newspaper organs, at one time to blus-
ter, at another to cajole-now to bully,
next to entreat-in short, to play miser-
able fast-and-loose game in the hope of
settling the question. There is neither
honor nor frmness, justice nor dignity on
the part of our Government-neither a
sense of right nor wisdom of policy
The Times, in its latest blusterings, has
assured the Americans that g the British
people are very slow to go to war; but
they are still slower to make peace, and
VIII never make a dishonorable one. -
Why, the Americans will laugh to scorn
these miserable threats and impotent men
aces, which appear in the face of the
damning fact that the British people are
at this very moment tamely suffering their
Government to patch up with Russia the
most degrading, humiliating, dishonoring,
impolitic, cowardly and disastrous peace
that ever could sink a great and proud ma
ton to level with the lowest and the
meanest
The fact is that in the American oues-
-tion the English Government has shown
itself to be utterly In the wrong, and that
of the United States has proved itself to
be completely in the right We ought
not to have waited for the demand to be
made upon US for the withdrawal of our
representative from Washington; We should
at once and voluntarily have withdrawn
him as a punishment for his offences
We have already had two wars with the
United States; and neither policy nor
sympathy will permit the British nation
! whatsoever It's aristocratic rulers may
think OF wish) to plunge into a third
Both those two wars arose from the vilest
acts of aggression on the part of the Brit
ish Government against the Americans
In the first instance we sought to tax the
unrepresented colonists; We drove them
to desperation-they took up arms-they
not only defeated us in our tyrannical
aims, but they achieved their own indie