The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1866-03-21
The French Exposition.

The question of sending agents 10
| represent this country at the approach
| ing French Exposition, was the subject
! OF a somewhat bitter debate in the
House yesterday. Messrs. Washburne,
Harding, and others, opposed it, on the
ground that the cOurs of Napoleon
during the war, in attempting 10 es-
tabliah an imperial satrapy in Mexico,
was ungeneroGs and insulting, amount
ing TO virtual war that a participation
in the display, with these facts in view,
would be obsequious and seryile. They
expressed the hope that instead of
sending u soldiers in plain republic
can uniforms, TO be laughed at by the
a~rislocrats OF ECrope, they would be
marched in solid column to the Halls
of the Moutezumas, there to vindicate
the honor and glory Of the American
Republic. The resolution to appoint
Commissioners was finally, on motion
ofMr. Conkling, amendedso as to limit
the time of their service to n year,
aud the amount of expenditure to n
hundred thousand dollars.
There Is something very disgusting
in the Lraggart and clustering temper
of those who would put the country in
an attitude of uncomprOmising hotility
to foreign powers who seem to assume
that because we have succeeded in a
vast war, we should maintain s. condi-
ton of perpetual broil and a~ntagonism
wandering about uneasily, like the
Irishman at Donnybrook, and beseech-
ing somebody to tread upon u coat
tails. The real interests rs well as the
vital honor of our country, will be best
subserved by maintaining relations OF
comfy with all other pationalities, and
by developing in a condition of pesoe,
those arts and enterprises which always
strengthen and dignity q people Val
is not a pastime; o are its results OF
carnage, of confusion, so desirable,
that they should be sought as a diver
sion. Whenever any Government can
assert its rights and maintain its dig
nifty 10y diplomacy, it is under high
legal and moral obligations to do So
obligations imposed alike by tne comfy
Of nations and 10y considerations of
humanity. A resort to arms Is only
iustiiable as a final appeal, after every
thing else has failed.
There is nothing in existing circum-
stances, which warrants a conclusion
that our friendly relations with France
are 10 be disturbed. It is true that the
course Of Napoleon during the war was
lei end unfriendly. We would
have had it otherwise; but we cannot
control Judgments hat are originated
by selfish motives and ambitions. So
long as the Emperor did not allow him
self TO be carried beyond the point of
"a defined neutrality, TO make actual as
sault upon az, while we might complain
of his spirit, we could not because Of it.
assume an attitude Of armed hostility.
As TO the Mexican enterprise, that was
undoubtedly q great wrong. There Is
every reason to suppose that il was in
tended as the initiative of a series of
movements against the Union, in al.
lance with Southern Rebels. But if
such design ever existed, it hiss been
terminated by the conclusion of the
war, and the present occupancy of the
country resolves itself into a question
Of International right which is proper
y subject TO settlement by peaceful dis
lt Is safe to assume that in s
presenting the Vi0Ws spd demands Of I
his Government nothing has been neg
ected which we have a right to assert
md that when the correspondence on Z
subject becomes public, popular
Uiu fully sustain the course Of 4
he President ana his advisers.
The talk about sending an army TO
he Halls of the Montezumss to drive :
'ut Macmillan, is, as the case stands c
sheer bosh snd f0lde-rol Ma Z
does not want a war with the a
United States And, Notwithstanding h
lie belhcose declarations Of pueillistic a
congressman, the United States does \
lot desire a war with France, nor with Il
other Power. We have but too re. n
eptly emerged from the gloom of +
carnage, and remember too N
,ell aud keenly how much it cost us of Il
altering and apprehension, to be will Al
10 engage in another conflict W
Inch is not forced upon US by a due a,
gard for national safety and public O.
There is every reason TO as :
me that the Mexican question is in
'ocess ofpaoi6c solution, in 8 manner
hioh will vindicste the traditionary <
Of this Goyernment-ineluding ~
e famous Monroe doctrine" For a.
Oh contamination, let US devoutly
aY even though in reaching it, We :