The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-02


the assurance is not 80 comforting.
The Presidents Message and the Ala
bRma Claims.
From the ". r Herald.
The most striking and interesting feature of
the forthcoming message of the President to
the Congress Of the United States, as we are
informed, will be that portion Of the document
relating to the Alabama claims and the posi-
ton taken by the British Government in the
important international controversy to which
they have given rise. The allusiOn to these
topics by President Johnson, while it will pro-
badly be clothed in language plain and en-
phatic enough to prevent any misoOnstruction
of its import, and while it will be accepted at
home and abroad as significant of the future
attitude of our Government will, in fact, be
only the precursor of grand stroke of policy
with which Secretary Seward contemplates
browning his public career, and which may
yet enable the administration of his chief to
make its exit in blaze Of glory only equalled
in brilliancy by the variegated fire and
dazzling pyroteohnio display in the midst Of
which the dull green curtain falls upon so
many of our modern spectacular dramas.
Following closely upon the heels of the
Presidential message will come a peremptory
demand upon Great Britain by the American
Secretary of State for a full and immediate
settlement of the Alabama claims on the basis
of the account rendered by the United States,
without any Offset or deduction. The vOlumi-
nous correspondence in which both sides have
already INDUCED has exhausted all arguments
that can be advanced by either Government in
support of its views upon the subject; and it
is by no means improbable that Secretary
Seward feels himself no match for the trained
0f
that he will find the musket and the bayOnet
more effective weapons than the pen with
which to enforce recognition of his country's
rights. If this demand, already too long
evaded, shall fail to meet with a prompt and
favorable response, Secretary Seward, by a
sudden and mastery movement, may march
an army into Lower Canada, seize upon
Quebec and Montreal and hold them as mate
rial security for the full indemnifcation of his
Government and its citizens for all losses and
damages sustained by them through the aid
extended by England, or by British subjects,
to the insurrectionary South during the war
of the Rebellion.
In pursuing such course we shall but fol-
low closely the example of the British Govern
ment. which, through long career, has
promptly laid its grasp upon the territory of
nations against whom it has had occasion to
unsheathe the sword. Upon the first outbreak
OF hostilities with France the fleets of England
swept the seas and seized upon every French
possession within their reach; nor were the
occupied islands restored to the country to
which they belonged until the policy of their
csptors was fully satisfied. The objection may
be urged that this is ne parallel case, since the
United States are not now at war with Great
Britain; but the Alabama claims have reached
a point beyond which there lies no medium
course between immediate payment, voluntary
or enforced; and from the unmistakable indi-
cations of the Presidential message, we believe
it will be evident that with England herself
must rest the decision whether peace shall
continue, or the crisis culminate in war. The
masterstroke probably contemplated by Seward
will be nothing more than a precautionary
measure, like the great flank movement of
Bismark on Napoleon, when adopting the lat
ter's favorte doctrine of the consolidation of
nationalities, the shrewd statesman Of Berlin
made Germany a unit, and left the French
Emperor in a helpless condition, destitute
alike of the power to prevent and the courage
to resent.
1t must not be supposed that in following
such line of policy our Government or peo-
pie have any desire to obtain permanent pos
session Of the new dominion by forcible
annexation. We do not want those provinces
at the present time. The transfer of British
Columbia to the United States may prove
all that England will be called upon to yield
as a full satisfaction of our just demands
against her. 1t will be cheap atonement for
acts that might have cost her bloody and
devastating war but for the forbearance of the
aggrieved party. 1t will be small recon-
pense for the INJURIES we have suffered,
directly and indirectly, through the hostile
attitude of England and Canada towards us
during our terrible struggle for national
existence. But if our occupation of Canada
shall be the means of establishing the inde-
pendence of the new dominion, and linking
the chain of provinces together in a solid
republic, England will only have her own
Machiavelian policy to blame for the
result. 1t would at least be a blessing
to Canada. Freed from her useless
alliance with Great Britain; no longer the
battle ground in any war between England
and the United States; in friendly relations
with her powerful neighbor, and with liberal
treaties established between the two republics,
her population would increase, her resources
be speedily developed and she would grow to
be powerful coniederacy under the wing of
| the United States. Her citizens, already seri-
ously dissatisfied with the manner in which
distasteful consolidation has been forced upon
them, would enjoy the right Of self-govern-
nent in reality; and if annexation should
eventually follow, so that the waters of the ST.
Lawrence might no longer divide us into two
peoples, it would come of the fres accord Of
both nations.
In these days of eruptions, volcanoes, me-
| teOrs, earthquakes, and tornadoes, and the
upheaving of mountains, the public mind is
prepared for great and sudden events, and
such masterstroke of policy on the part of
| Secretary Seward would serve to allay the
restlessness and feverishness discernible all