The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-01-08
The President's Message on the Seizure NJ
WaIker-The Old and New F1ibusters.

Gen Walker by Commodore Paulding, and the
discussion upon them in the Senate has exhibit, \
| ed curious array Of conflicting elements o.
will be seen by our dispatches in another CO.
lumn The fact is that the sudden prominence
that has been attained by Walker through The
| act Of the Commodore seems to have upset the
minds both of the ilibusters and the anti-6libus-
| tiers In remarkable degree.
Among the first effects of the act of Comma
! dore Paulding, which wns manifestly without
warrant Of law, and in violation of the strict
letter of international comfy came the wild
| laudations of that portion Of the press that is
always parading it's immense respect for the
law With an Inconsistency only to be found
among these self-styled ultra supporters of Law
and Justice, Commodore Paulding was in their
eyes 50 second Daniel come to judgment" In
their view the only mistake he made was in not
hanging Walker to the yard arm of the Wabash
| instead of sending him home, where he would
| be out of harm's way. Thus the 'm0raf' por-
ton Of the press as II loves to style ITSELF went
| on forging weapons for those it wished to de-
| feat, by the excess of its own immortality;
| and had the flibusters been cautious
and prudent, they might have gained
a much higher place in public opinion
than they are now destined to achieve.
! In their excitement they went on burning their
powder, wasting their ammunition, letting off
| rockets and burning blue lights till they have
very nearly if not quite fzzled out before the
battle has come on.
We have had letters from Henningsen and
from Walker and any amount Of windy speeches
for Buncombe, both in and out of Congress till
hardly man of them has another word to say.
| The letter of Henningsen to Senator Toombs is a
polite and ingenious one, but, besides making
several historical mistakes, he lets his zeal run
away with him, and knocks down the very pillars
of his cause. The East India Company flibuster-
lied India under the ample consent and protec-
ton of the British government; Cortes, Pizsrro
and Rajah Brooke all stand in the same cate
CORY; while the Roundheads of England and
the Beggarmen of Holland can never be classed
either as modern flibusters or as ga more
highly cultivated race" moving "to disposses
another wasting and numbering the soil in sta
tionary barbarismr Moses driving out the Ca
|
dispossessing the red men-the inroads of Cen
ghis Khan's Moguls, and of Tamerlane's Tartars,
are neither Of them the type Of modern American
flibustersm. This movement is founded upon
very different principle. II assumes, first of all,
an existing party in the country to be flibuster-
lied, inviting those who sympathise with them
to assist in the establishment of peace, order
and good government, and to arrest the decay
ing tendency of society there by an infusion of
new blood and new ideas into the body polite
General Henningsen's filibusterism, after the
manner of Moses, is very different thing from
flibusterism after the manner Of Lopez, who
was its earliest prophet in this country.
The letter of Walker to the President calls for
little comment. It's tome its spirit and its logic
arc not the evidences of leading mind, nor
does it give any indication Of representative
man. Forgetful of the immense disproportion
between the head Of the government Of the
United States and himself, he uses tone that
would have i'll become the proudest innocence;
while its bravado and entire want a logical Sc
quence must exhibit his want Of sense in a
glaring light to many who had been disposed to
sympathisc with him in some degree.
As Cor the recent discussion in Congress upon
all these questions, and upon the Neutrality
laws, it has only served 20 show the small
calibre Of many Of the men who took part in IL.
These laws require a change. In some
portions their Interpretation is doubtful, and
when stretched to its ntmost-as 1t sometimes
is-it becomes not only tyrannical, but in fact
imperative. Such laws always fail Of their OBJ
jcct, and Walkers success in getting away on
bis second expedition to Nicaragua, and the
sympathy he has found in the South, are evil
dent proofs Of this. These enactments were
as Mr. Clay justly termed them when he OPP
posed their passage in the House of Represen
tves in lsls-the result Of process OF
"teasing" by European Cabinets upon our own;
and they require revision, rs Is evident from
| the fact that both orr own flibusiers and late
British Minister have given them very SINH
lar INTERPRETATION. But such indiscreet advo-
cacy Of change a. has been exhibited in many
of the recent speeches in Congress can never
bring II about.
AS for the act itself that has brought about
all this discussion, Commodore Paulding has to
thank Mcssrs. Henningsen and Walker for the
very best defence of his illegal course that has
yet been made Flibustering, as they define
IL. has no existence in this country, except
among>a very limited and unimportant set of
men. II is not process Of that kind where the
pastoral barbarian dispos,esses the savage
hunter 10 he himself driven out by "the agri-
culturist and mechanical least so did not
the early prophets aud fathers Of dlbustcrism
preach II; and Commodore Padding, in arrest
| Ing such movement, has done a service to the
cause Of our true progress, although his act
cannot be sustained by any Interpretation of
international law.