The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1862-01-02
NUMBERN37.

every maritime. Court in Europefor .
more liberal recognition Of the rights
of neutrals than of the other greet mar
itime nations have yet bsen dispo5ed to
make. But until these rights are Sc
cured by proper international guarau-
tees upon a comprehensive and endur-
ing basis, of course England cannot
7 tcompiain- of an act for which IN 4ifits
material bearing her own. naval history
affords such numerous ,precedentaF
Whether the captives from the Trent
were contraband Of war or not. is
question which the two Goyernmsf3ts
can have no serious difficulty in agree
ing upon. If Mr., Seward cannot satis.
fy Earl Russell that they were, have
no doubt Earl Russell win be able to,
satisfy Mr.. Seward that they were not.
If they were, as all authorities occufin
admitting, agents of the rebellion lit
will be, difficult to satisfy impartial
minds that they were any more q con-
traband than a file of rebel soldiers or
battery of hostile cannon. .sssh hns
But even should there be adiftersnce
OF opinion upon this point, it is very.
clear that our Government had suffi-
cient grounds for presuming itself in
the right, to escape the suspicion of
having wantonly violated the relations
of amnity which the two countries pro.
Tess q desire to preserve and cultivate.
The pretence that we ought to haye
taken the Trent into port, and had her.
condemned by a Prize Court, in order
to justify our seizure of four of her
passengers, furnishes a very narrow
basis on which to fix a serious contro-
versy between the two great nations.
Stated in other words, an offense would
have been less if it had been ngreatsr.
The wrong done, to: the British flag
would have been mitigated if, instead
of seizing the four rebels we had seized
the ship, detained aall her passengers
for or!weeks, and confscated her cargo.
am not surprised that Capt. Wilkes
took different view of his dhtv, and
of what was due to the friendly refa-
tions which subsisted between the two
Governments. The renowned common
sense of the English people, / belive,
will approve of his effort to make the
discharge Of a very unpleasant duty as
little yexatious as possible, to all inno-.
cent parties.
If, under these circumstances, Eng.
land should deem it her duty, in the
interests of civilization, to insist upon
the restoration Of the men, taken from
under the, protection of her flag, it will
| be from conviction, without doubt.
that the law of nations in regard to the
rights of neutrals, which she has taken
the leading part, in establishing, re-.
quires revision, and with suitable. dis,
position on her part to establish these.
rights npon a just, humble and philo-.
sophical basis. Indeed, am happy to
see an intimation in one of the leading
metropolitan journals. which, goes far
to justify this inference. Referring to,
the decisions Of the English Admiralty
Courts, now quoted in the defence Of
the seizure of the American rebels on
board the Trent, the London Times of
Nov. %, says: ......i -.... 5.
$50 far as the authorities 60, the testimony Of
international lawwriters is all one way that bel
lgerent war cruiser has the right to stop and visit
and search any merchant ship upon the high seas
*ro* But it must be remembered thatothese
decisions given under circumstance yery diff
ferent from those which now occur. Steamers in
those days did not exist and mail vessels carrying
letters wherein all the nations of the world have
immediate interests were unknown. We were
| fighting for existence, and we did in these days
what we should neither do, nor allow others to do
days: day ourselves 70 0e ai'03sa 70 40 N 'hsse
If England, as we are here encour-
aged to hope, is disposed to do her part
in stripping war of its horrors by ac-
cepting the policy long and presistently.
urged upon her by our. Government,
and commended By every principle Of.
Justice and humanity, she will End no
ground, in the visit of the Trent, for
controversy with our GoyernmeDts.I /
am sure the President. and people of
the United States would be but too
happy to let these men 90 free, .unnat.
ural and unpardonable as their offencss
have been, ii. by it they can emancipate
the commerce OF the world. Greatly
as it would be our disadvantage at the
present crisis TO surrender any of those
maritime privileges of belligerenta
which, sanctioned by aths law ofsna
tons, feel that take no responsibiIi-
ty in saying that the United States will
be faithful to her traditional policy upon
this subject, and to the spirit of her
political institutions. ''lniiki
On the other hand, should England
be unprepared to make a corresponding
sacrifice; should she feel that she could
not yet afford to surrender. the advan-
tages which the present maritime code
gives to dominant naval power, Of
course she will not place herself in a
false position by asking us to do it. 5 In
either case, therefore, do not see how
the friendly relations of the two Coy,
ernments are in any immediate danger
of being disturbed . h9"si'@a IS"
That the over prompt recognition a.
belligerents, of body of men, how
f ever large, SO long as they constituted
a manifest minority of the nation,
wounded the feelings of my country
, men deeply, / will not effect to deny,
, nor that that act, with some OF its log
ical consequences which have already
occurred, has planted in the breasts Of
! many, the suspicion that their kindred
Il l.