The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1867-12-20
England and the United states-The Ala
bama Claims.

England and the United states-The Ala
bama Claims.
History, it has been often said, repeats itself
The saying, il is true, does not amount to an
absolute truth; but 1t Is scarcely the less, on
that account, pregnant with suggestive lessons
Pity it is that these lessons have been so often
neglected by nations and by individuals.
There is one lesson which history has taught
and which is likely soon again to receive fresh
illustrations, but which, like SO many Of the
others, has been little heeded-this, namely,
that small beginnings oftentimes lead to great
and disastrous conclusions.
1t will not surprise us If the present dif'-
Guilty between England and the United States,
arising ont Of the Alabama affair, furnishes
some such illustration. The original difficulty
between the Greeks and the Persans was q
small matter, but It led to . protracted
struggle struggle which resulted in the
humiliation Of Persia and the building up Of
the magnificent empire Of Alexander. It was
so afterwards with Rome and Carthage. A
trifing Sicilian difficulty brought the Cartha-
ginians and the Romans into collision. The
bad passions which this drst struggle engen-
dered lasted long after the original difficulty
was forgotten. The Punic wars occupy .
prominent place on the page Of history, and
the third Punic war ended only with the
destruction of Carthage and the conversion Of
the then Great Sea into Roman lake.
Great Britain and the United States have
allowed themselves to drift into a position
which, to say the least, is ominous Of war.
The original cause Of quarrel, if good sense and
reason had been allowed to prevail, might
easily have been got over. The stubbornness
OF England, however, has nightly aggravated
the dificulty, and it is now extremely difficult
to foresee to what disastrous conclusion this
small cause Of quarrel may lead. To us the
payment Of the Alabama claims is compare
tive tride. The money is nothing the princi-
pie is everything. The refusal on the part of
Great Britain to pay the Alabama claims may
give rise to struggle which will assume pro-
portions unparalleled In the past which will
sink Persian and Punic wars into the shade,
and the only result Of which can be the triumph
OF the American flag and the conversion Of the
broad Atlantic into . grand American lake.
We can never regard the recognition Of the
South by the government Of Great Britain in
any other light than a. an open and wilful vio-
lation Of the principles Of international law
and as an insult offered TO the great American
people. We have not forgotten and will no,
soon forget the conduct Of the British govern
ment or Of the British press during our late
civil war-a civil war which ended so glori-
ously for the Union, and which 80 marvellously
revealed our resources and the power Of our
republican institutions. France is scarcely less
culpabls than England, but we have already
had our revenge in that quarter. We have
seen her eat humble pie quite to our satisfac-
ton, and there are few who will refuse to
admit that she waddled down the hill little
more quickly and little less to her own COM
fort than she waddled up. II is Englsnd's
turn to eat humble pie now, and our advice to
her ID to avoid . collision with the great
republic by paying down the Alabama claims
at once.