The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-01-18
BALTIMORE.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1859.

TUESDAY,, JANUARY 10, 1859.
1t appears by the accounts from Washington
that caucus of Democratic Senators was held in
that city, ON Saturday last for the purpose of con-
sidering the recommendations of the PRESIDENTS
Message in regard to the Island of CUBA 1t
would be grossly njust to the prominent gentle
men who were present, to hold them responsible
for the opinions ascrbed to them in the loose
reports which are going the rounds of the
press. Ifthere were any real foundation for those
reports, and if Honorable Senators had so far for
gotten themselves as to utter the sentiments which
said to have been put forth in their speeches on
the OCCASION there would scarcely be any Just limits
to the reprobation which they would deserve from
the outraged moral sense of the country Some of
them have perhaps but little reason to complain mas
much as they have probably laid the foundation, by
reckless and extravagant expressions of opinion,
heretofore, for the broad and discreditabe doc
trines to which the sanction of their names is now
sought, unjusty, to be given. The Hon. Mr.
DOUGLAS who has of late trespassed more than any
Of them, in this particuar-in the course of his
political circuit through the West and South-has
paid the penalty of his filibustering rhetoric, in
being made to father 81 announcement of princi-
Piles, which, if they we're genuinely his would
be sufficient to cut him loose from the respect
OF every citizen, who values political in
tegrity and the obligations of national
honor. Whatever may be our own opinions of
Mr.. DOUGLAS as a statesman, we cannot bring
ourselves to believe that any gentleman, who occu-
pies his high position in the councils of the nation
Al. e n
fellow-citizens, would willingly associate his polit-
ical and personal character with declaration,
such as the following, which we take, from
among others, in the telegram of the Associated
Press published in THE EXCHANGE of yesterday
He (Mr. Douglas) had long desired the acquisition of
Cuba In his judgment there was but mode and that
the happening of another similar to that of
the Black Warrior to seize the Island by way of reclama
ton, and negotiate afterwards"
If we understand the views thus attributed to
Mr.. DoUGLAs-and they can be understood in but
one way-they amount to this. He desires, it is
said, to acquire Cuba and he thinks that our
best, nay, our only way of doing so, is to en-
brace the first pretext to seize the Island, and,
being thus in possession, right or wrong, retain it
on our own terms. In other words-he thinks
it becomes us, powerful and honorable peo-
treaties, and holding out to her the delusion of
friendship and good faith-to take advantage of
her confidence in our national integrity by forc-
blv Selling her most valuable possession, in the
midst of profound peace, and without the decency
of notice. or that previous declaration of hostilites
which always, except among savages, precedes the
blow of war. Nay more, although he would do
all this, upon the pretext of the Black Warrior
case or one like it-he is made, by his reporter, to
confess that ne would not do so to punish the
wrong which the case might be supposed to infict
on our citizens but that he would merely avail
himself Of the and the opportunity-to crafty,
under their cover, his desire for the acquisition of
Cuba He is said to regard such an unmanly
trick as the 'one mode in which only our desires
can be gratifed. We repeat our unwillingness to |
to believe that any gentleman holding the position
of UNITED STATES Senator, could, for any hope of
political preferment, or on any grounds of personal
interest party expediency, be content to link his
reputation with doctrines which are so subversive
of all that the common integrity of the civil
lized world regards as indispensable and fun
damental, in individuals and nations.
The Black Warrior case as our readers will re-
member, was one in which that vessel Was seized
by the authorities of Havana, for an alleged viola
ton of the revenue laws of the island. Whether !
the charge was just or an unj just one,. has moth
ing whatever TO do, with our inquiry into the mat
ter, as ground of national quarrel. At every
session every District Court of the UNITED STATES
in commercial cities, foreign vessels are Ii
belled and are seized by the Marshall upon the
Of
laws or some other of the manifold statutory pro-
visions, which the Collectors or District Attorneys
are bound to enforce. In large number of cases
the libes are dsmissed-declared to have been
unjust and unfouudedbut often not until they have
passed the ordeal of the Circuit and the Supreme
Courts, with all the oppression and vexaton of the
laws expensiveness and its delay. Does-we will
not say any Statesman or any Senator-but any
man of common intelligence, require to be inform
ed that such cases are not cases OF war? DO we
hesitate IN enforcing our fiscal laws against for
eigners, lest every attachment by the Marshal, if
judged unreasonable by the foreign nation, should
involve a hostile visitation-a commandments
capture2 Do the daily operations of civilized GOV
eminent and fiscal administration move under
the impending peril of war and seizure of territory
as punishment for every inconvenience or wrong
which may be inflicted upon strangers in the ord
nary course of the tribunals of justice? The pro-
position is too monstrous to bear argument and
its assertion, by our government or by our states
men or politicians, is melancholy demonstration
of the subterfuges to which nations and individu-
ais will resort when they have once forgotten the
command which eLoi1 i->oP treIr hearts ana their
nanus from coveting and seizing their neighbors
goods. Mr. DOUGLAS is too able and too intelligent
a man, and we would fain believe, too upright and
high-toned a statesman, not to know and to feel
all this and it is that account and for the honor
of the country-which would be painfully involved
in the PRONUNCIATION of such heresies by of its
most conspicuous public servants-that we will
not consent, except upon his own authority, to
charge him with the responsibility of the sentiments
we have denounced.