The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-02


United States. What we had done for Mexico,
and for Juarez personally, entitled our wishes
to respect, and not TO contemptuous disregard.
The request Of the United States was not to be
thrust back in our faces in that manner by a
Government that we had saved from utter
destruction. We repeat, that the act was an
insult TO the United States, and humiliates us
in the eyes of the world. There are many
persons who doubt the capacity of the Mexi-
cans for self-government, and this bloody and
cruel act will not tend TO diminish that feeling.
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E'There were Giants in those Days.'
The publication Of posthumous work of ex-
President Martin Van Buren takes us back half
century, and places us in the days when the
opinions of Hamilton, Jefferson, and the elder
Adams were the central thoughts of the politi-
cal world. Mr.. Van Buren, then a young
man, had already mingled in the political din,
and taken his place at the feet Of Jefferson,
the Father of Democracy. How ardent his
craftsmanship, and how bitter his feelings, is
attested by work written forty years later,
in which all the fires of personality still con-
tinue to burn. The work of Mr.. Van Buren,
is entitled "The Political Parties of the United
States, and examines critically the views of
the various sects which, under different Names
have ever been oontending, and do yet con-
tend, for mastery. The origin of the Federal
and the Republican parties he makes very
simple. He states that in Washington's Cabi-
net were two opinions, one held by Hamilton,
and the other by Jefferson; and around these
two men gathered the people, who were thus
divided into the two great parties which so
bitterly reviled each other seventy years ago.
The feeling in these times were far more in
tense than it was during the darkest days of our
late war. The Republicans were Jacobins,
lovers of anarchy, haters of order and virtue;
while the Federalists were monarchists, wor-
shippers of despotism, despisers of liberty.
There appears to have been no hating be-
tween two opinions; and the ex-President
author took his place with Jefferson's adhe-
rents. While Mr.. Van Buren, had an un-
doubted right to hold what opinions he pleased
of Colonel Hamilton, yet we do not think that
he was justified in publishing such a work as
that before us. 1t is a long attack on the first
American fnancer. He detracts from his
merits his political wisdom, his patriotism.
He writes as partisan, and were we to receive
his statements as true, we would place Hamu-
ton out of the list of statesmen, and among
the able theorists who, through lack of de-
cision and principles, have failed to make
their mark. He was an over-estimated man.
His ability, although it was great, was yet of so
peculiar kind that it only bore the Dead Sea
fruit of ashes. Such is the judgment passed
ON the lamented Hamilton by Mr.. Van Buren,,
and we think that all will join with us in
lamenting its publication. The fame of Hamil-
ton is too well established to be shaken at this
late day, and the attempt only rebounds on
him who attempts to undermine the popularity
of that great and good man. We question the
taste which led to the publication of the
work without its having the benefit of the
authors revision for we feel assured that had
he read the proofs many of the passages now
appearing would have been omitted. AS it is,
his sudden death prevented such correction,
and Mr.. Van Buren's reputation tor charity is
injured, without the fame of Alexander Hamil-
ton suffering any diminution.
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