New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1865-05-06
NEED WE GO TO WAR;

NEED WE GO TO WAR;
So much has been said on both sides of the
Atlantic of a foreign war to follow and supple
ment our arduous and bloody civil struggle
that many have been brought to regard such a
war as inevitable. But for this apprehension
we see no reason why an American seven per
cent. loan should be worth less on the exchanges
of Europe than British consols which draw but
three per cent. Our National Debt, though
large. is still considerably less than the British
orr resources more elastic and expansive; our
territory more compact and valuable than the
vast but widely scattered dominions OF Victoria.
We firmly believe that, by devotion to the ways
of Peace, Honesty and Frugaiity, our Govern
ment may rapidly fund its Debt in IN American
'consol drawing but four per cent. interest free
of taxes and deductions of all sorts--that is to
say: one per cent. in gold or its equivalent
quarterly, OF 81 600 interest every three months
on each 500, 600 invested. This will reduce
/ the burden Of our Debt to $3.50, 1000, 600 annu-
tally: for we are confident the principal will not
Iexceed Three Thousand Millions when all just
claims shall have been paid. This interest we
can meet, this Debt we can gradually extinguish,
without exorbitant or oppressive taxation. A
! long and desolating foreign war in prospect is
the only cloud on our financial horizon. What
is the probability, what the necessity, of such a
|wari
1t is very clear at the outset, that no foreign
power is likely to attack us-that we can only
f have a foreign war by making it. And the only
nations that have seriously aggreved or menaced
us are Great Britain and France: in fact, no
other has the powerformidably to asSail US. Let
us consider our relations with and causes of
complaint against these nations severally:
/. Great Britain has wronged us in the matter
of her eager and premature recognition OF the
|Confederates as entitled to the rights OF a
|belligerent; in her refusal to accept our aces
sion to the general European condemnation OF
|privateering as a method of warfare and in her
equipment and reftting of the Confederate
corsars which have lighted the oceans with our
burning merchantmen. The recognition was
unfriendly aud unprecedented; the refusal was
uncivil and unjust; the fitting and reiittlng OF
priyateers was still graver wrong-a fagrant
breach of international obligations and wanton
proffer of important service to our deadly Toes.
Let us consider this:
The Alabama, for example, built by British
artisans, of British materials, in British port,
|armed with British guns served with British
cartridges, and manned by an almost wholly
British crew, roams over the seas, lodging and
hiding from our ships of war while robbing and
burning our merchantmen. Admit, for the
moment, that individuals only, and not the
British Government and nation, are responsible
for her construction, armament and first outfit
generally-that all this was done under false
pretenses which the Government did not could
not seasonably put aside, and that her steaming
out on pretended trial trip and picking up her
armament at a foreign port TO which it had been
previously forwarded rendered her original
escape mischance for which the Government
is nOwise responsble-we hold that she was,
from the hour in which her true character was
established, a fugitive from British justice,
liable to arrest and legal discipline wherever
she was thereafter found, whether of her own
volition or by the providence Of God, within
British Jurisdiction. Yet that British culprit,
that branded felon, sailed directly to British
port after port in quest of food, fuel munitions,
repairs, or whatever might from time To-
time be needed to qualify her for pursuing eff
GENTLY her work of devastation against our
commerce or to escape by fight our armed
cruisers in pursuit of her-she everywhere
cheered by British mObs, her every want minis
tered to with alacrity by British functionaries
and British merchants or artisans, and her
head pirates the boon companions Of fraterniz-
ing British military and naval officers. If these
ara not facts then we have no valid claim
against Great Britain if they are facts, then the
case is brayely altered. The concession of bel.
lgerent rights, the refusal to permit our Access
sion to the European agreement to outlaw pri-
watering, and the construction, equipment,
manning and frequent reftting in British ports
of the British Confederate corsairs, are not isO.
lated, casual acts: they are parts Of consistent
whole-features of National policy calculated
may, palpably intsnded-to humble and de-
stroy us. They meant what they palpably
tended to effect. And the reiterated assertions