The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1858-06-10

Troubles thcken upon us. The national
Treasury is not only empty, hut we are run
ming m debt at the rate of 100000 annu-
ally. We have undertaken 10 administer a
little needed correction 10 The Mormors, which
will cost us a cool s;l00,000,000 more; the
country has not recovered from one OF the
mort disastrous commercial revolutions that
/ has ever crippled our energies. or retarded our
prosperity, and on The top of these msfortnnes
wn are on n o eve Of war with England, and
by 's possible complications. with Spain.
Recently british war vessels in The Gulf Of
Mexico. and about the West Inia Islands,
have been stopping. and in some instances
boarding, in an nsoieni and unjns'ii liable man
ner, merchant vessels of the United States.
prosecuting. under the National flag. their
voyages in those waters.
TO snch an extent has this been carried, and
so frequent have become the complaints Of
parties injured, that Mr.. Cass has;ahdressed
the British Government on the subject, and
Congress has passed an act comforting upon
the President extraordinary powers TO meet
the emergency. In the meantime the British
Minister at our government has minated that
in his opinion the acts of the officers of the
vessels complained of, will be disowned; and
he has also requested the commander of the
West India Squadron 70 refrain from further
molestations until instructions are received
from England. What the result of these pro-
ceedings will be, depends good deal upon
the answer to Lord Naper's letter. 1t is not
likely that the acts of officers who probably
only obeyed instructions will be disavowed,
and those officers left to answer personally
for their trespasses; while an endorsement of
the searches, under the claim of necessity,
with or without an apology for getting the
wrong pig by the ear, leaving the. visitation
question oren, will probably be unsatisfactory
at Washington, and lead to retaliation and
war
In this state Of things it is melancholy to
see the condition of humiliation sto which the
Administration has reduced the country. On
the eve of war with the most powerful ma
tion of the world, there is not dollar in the
treasury, and our navy, which will be required
to protect our commerce, is in every place ex-
cept where it could be servceable in the emer-
gency. All along our coast, in the Gulf, and
on the freqnented route of our merchantmen,
we have scarcely man-of-war, while En-
glIsh, French and Spanish fleets cover the sea-
We have squadrons in the Mediterranean, the
Chinese waters, and in the Pacific, but at home
hardly sail. The inevitable consequences
of war now, would be the sweeping of oar
entire merchant marine from the ocean, land
the ruin Of our commerce.
1t is the duty of government to protect the
interests and honor of the nation. and it is also
its duty to be prepared for such an alterna-
tive. In peace prepare for war. Notorionsly
we are not prepared for any such thing A
war, such as is talked Of, wonld be merely on
the ocean; of course nobody would think of
attacking us on land, nor should we be likely
20 invest England. 1t would be war on
commerce. In such war as that the odds
would be against us at the outset. decidedly.