The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1859-04-28
The Paraguay. Expedition.


This expedition has been denounced and
ridicued by the Republican papers as wick
ed and absurd, and its defeat has been pre-
dicted In a manner which shows that the
wish was father to the thought. So 1t has
ever been with the opposition. Throughout
the war with Great Britain and the Mexican
war they opposed their own country, and
gave aid and comfort to the enemy. 1t IS
deplorabe to reflect that the rage OF party
is so violent that the opposition would gloat
over the failure OF their country against
foreign enemy, il, by this means, they could
PROSTATE the hated Democracy. The truth
of this remark is illustrated in striking
manner by their hostility to the Paraguay
Expedition. The Dictator OF Paraguay had
injured, braved, and insulted us in the most
outrageous manner, and had excluded our
commerce from the rivera over which he had
uniustly claimed control-and all this with.
out the slightest cause.
The President in his Message to Congress
in December, 1857, brought the subject be-
fore that body and recommended that de.
mand for the purposes of redress should be
made upon the President of Paraguay, and !,
this failing, that the Executive should have
authority to use force. The sabject was re-
ferred to the Committee of Foreign Hela-
tions in both Houses. Mr.. Douglas, from
that Committee, whose action on questions
with foreign nations, generally, deserves
commentator, made report on the 9th of
February, 1858, presenting the wrongs
which we had suffered from Paraguay in
strong but appropriate language. The re.
port fully endorsed the recommendation Of
the President. The Water Witch, an
American vesselengaged in the peaceful and
useful pursuit Of surveying the rivers Para
quay and Parana, under the authority OF an
act of Congress, was fred into by the Fort
of Itapira, hulled ten times, her steering ap.
paratus shot away, and the man at the wheel
killed. For this attack, as the report truly
says, "there is no justification or excuse
1t was intended, in the presumption of Lo-
pez, to intimidate and expel the Surveying
Expedition from those regions, and has been
the subject Of boastful messages Of Lopez
to his so-called Congress-" He had in the
most Insulting manner, and under the most
frivolous pretext, refused to ratify the treaty
concluded under his own authority with the
United States, at the time when he entered
into treaties with Great Britain and France.
The pretext was that the Senate had made
some necessary verbal amendments. He
refused to hold any communication with the
Commissioner sent out by this Government
TO exchange its ratlfcations because the note
was not addressed to him in the Spanish
language When second Commissioner
was sent out for this purpose, to crafty his
whims, who explained to Lopez the nature
of the amendments, and that they did not
affect the meaning Of the treaty in any re-
epect, Lopez made no objection but his
minister replied, and claimed that, as the
President had once ratified the treaty as orr
ginally written, sit is not easy for His Ex-
cellency the President to submit to new
ratification" and thus closed the correspond.
ence. He had confscated the property of
number of American merchants, chiefly from
Rhode Island, whom he had invited to Para.
quay, ond driven them from the country, 10
their great injury and loss. In fact, the af-
fair had reached such a crisis that the qncs
ton was, not only whether we should pocket
the injuries end insults nlrerdy inflicted upol
us, but whether we should abandon the COM
merce Of those regions exclusively to E1s4
land and France, to the prejudice of our
own merchants.
MIR. Douglas reported ioint resolution
from the Committee on Foreign Affairs,
which passed Congress on the I'd of June,
1858, authorizing the President "to adopt
such measures, and rss such force, as, in his
udlment, may be necessary and advisable
in the event Of refusal Of just satis faction
by the Government OF Paraguay" So
cir bo hos a..
was mode 10 strike from the resolution the
words "use such force" ard thus TO prevent
the President from employing coercive
means to obtain justice, it received but l5
votes--three of which, we regret to say, |
were given by Democrats. The resolution
afterwards passed The Senate without d. |
vision. In the House the resolution was
carried by vote of ll5 to 70. So many
Republicans voted for it, thst, if it had not
been for the detection Of l6 Democrats, who
voted against it, the vote would have stood
l3l to So.
The Expedition against Paragu was
planned and prepared with great C re by the !
Secretary of the Navy. Notwithstanding
this, it will not cost the Government dol !
lar beyond the ordinary expenditure of the
Department, except for the purchase Of Sc.
ven low priced steamers, much required by
the Navy, at a cost Of two hundred and
eighty nine thousand dollars, which has been
sanctioned by Congress. If the question
has not been settled peacefully, as we ear
nestly trust it has been, it will afford fI-
vorable opportunity to test the power of the
Dohlgren gun against the fortihcations Of
Lopez at Humsinta, neGr the junction OF the
Parana and Paraguay. There would be but
little room 10 doubt the result.
No information has yet been received at
any OF the Departments of the Government
of the peaceful settlements of our Difficult
ties, though it is more than probable that the
statements in the public j>urnals to this ef
feet are true. Even if we should have failed,
we can not abandon the prosecution of the
expedition without sacrifice of national
honor, and without great injury to the com
nerce of the conntry.
We have deemed it proper to make these
remarks for the purpose of reviving knowl-
edge of these facts in the minds of the
American people, and to justify the conduct
of the AGministration.-C Constitution.
NAs- -