New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1858-11-19
SHALL. GI8EAl, BRITAIN RULE ALWAYS
ON THIS CONTINENT

ON TINS CONTINENT
The following article from the Washington States
Of tie 10Th inst, gives force to the above caption
and Is, besides, huniliatingly applicable
ri N4ptER Loan OF All lit has been disputed
whether the vessel chartered at Mobile as the pioneer
of an engrant line to Nicaragua VIII De HiioWeu hsl
clearance We are aware that Lord Napier demands
Of our authorities that she shall moi Pc peTmtted %
: leave mort befause Gen. Walker and his party are
rapoTfed 10 have taken passage in her this brings
MI the direct issue whether our ustom.houses, like
our navy are to be held at the service OF foreign IN
feFests or our OWL
III Cen. Walker and his party offend our laws, let
them them be arrested, but no Secretary Of the
Treasury will escape arFagnment in Congress VINO
50 subseFyent to stop our vessels and interfere
with onr trade at the beck and call of Lord Napier.
Our people cannot always stand still at the word of
the ministers Of those petty Central American an
arches whose brutal hands yet red with the blood
of our innocent countrymen.
The issue must come and the sooner and the more
clearly the better. We will abide by the laws in
their true letter and fair spirit; but it is time to
know, positively and definitely, whether the Ameri-
can Isthmus open closed to American enterprise.
/ We must Immediately get the question before the
people in such "a form as to know exactly whether
our navy and Cabinet exist for the service Of the peo
pie that created them, for that of their enemies
II any man is about to embark on the vessel who mas
violated our laws, LET hnbe arrested but let secre-
larry Cobb take care not TO violate the laws ana MS
oath of office by stopping the honest miners and Ia
borers, who are going out in that vessel to pursue
their lawful business, or even the subsefVlehts III
Congress will not bear him out IN IT, courage ls h9S
the strong point of the 'subservients, and they VIII
turn and flee when the masses rise IN wrath 10 con-
denim them.
The Administration is not ignorant that hundreds
of our citizens who have never mad anything 70 do
| with Walker own property in Nicaragua, of which
they are debarred possession because Costa Rica aud
| the ioubleheaded British mission forbid American
colonization This issue will now be brought TO the
test in a direct shape, and God help the right.
The vessel to which the States audes has been re-
fused clearance by the Collector of Mobile, in ODE.
dience to instructions from Washington. The matter
then referred to the Secretary Of the Treasury,
and the telegraph some days since informed the pub
lie that the aforesaid Secretary had in his response
to the inquiries made, stated that she would not be
allowed to clear without the passengers proposing to
GO on her were furnished with passports from the
agent Of the mongrel Nicaraguan Republic! So it
will be seen that the interrogatory of the States
as Napier Lord of All2R-has been answered in the
Affirmative to all practical ntents and purposes The
British Minister to the United States-the accom-
plished, able and astnte Lord Naper-has reason to
congratulate himself upon the success which has at
tended his diplomacy and doubt, smiles inwardly
when he thinks be has the Executive Department Of
the only great Government on the Western hemis
phere to anticipate his Wishes and compel obedience
to his behests-the American Collectors Surveyors,
Attorneys and Marshas, to act his police on land,
and the American navy and American naval officers
and seamen to act as his police on the ocean. The
magnificent, and always respectable and dignifed
Government he represents with such surprising abi
ity, should, and probably will, appropriately honor
him for the consummate tact and skill be has dis.
played il these difficult and intricate negotiations
Although we feel mortified at the result, still we none
the less admire the adroitness Of the mastery man
ager.
We fully agree with the States that if G General
Walker and bis party offend our laws or if any
other party with any other leader or without any
leader violate our neutrality statutes, or any other
statutes, that they should be arrested, brought to
trial, and upon conviction, duly punished We shall
always advocate, as we always have advocated, the
supremacy Of the laws. There is no security outside
the laws either for the general public or the indi
vidual citizen. But as in this case where arbitrary
power steps in and without the color of justification
in law, refuses clearance to vessel on the grounds
that il is thought that persons who may go on her
wholly guiltless of offense against the laws Of the
United States-may, when they get thousand miles
or more beyond the jurisdiction Of the Government Of
this country, do something that will violate the laws
Of this country, cannot either hide the mortifca
ton repress the Indignation we feel over the pros
titution Of the lotest of governmental prerogatiyes
The tyranny exercised is founded on ahsurdity, and
would not be attempted in the most despotc and
irresponsible Of European States,
It Is true We believe, the States observes, that
the issue must come" and we believe with it that
the sooner it comes the better But, in the mean
time the rights Of American citizens must 60 by the
board, American wrongs go unredressed, American
interests suffer, and the honor and dignity of the
Government be impaired in the estimation of Christ
endom and heathendom. This is humiliating, but
it is true picture
Congress meets on the first Monday of next month,
and them perhaps if the spirit of patriotism has not
wholly departed from our national legislative coun-
cis something may be done to vindcate the laws as
well as assert the rights Of citizens, both now ser
ousy damaged by the unwarrantable and dangerous
abuse of power on the part of the Executive and his
subordinates.