The Portland daily press., 1868-10-29
The AIahama Claims.

The Boston Post is not often quosable in
th sse columns, but it becomes so when it
t;ea of Reverdy Johnson's management of the
Alabama claims in this style:
AS the cable reports it, Mr. johnson and
Lord Stanley has come to an arrangement for
the settlement of the Alabama claims, on the
basis of a mixed commission, before which
both sides are to be allowed to present their de-
mands, the King of Prussia to constitute the
final referee. What British claims of another
character entirely can have to do with the So
called Alabama claims, we are not able to
comprehend. As for the idea of offset, that is
not the way in which the American people
will consent to have their wrongs redressed
and their damages mended. 1t is the hotch-
potch style, and will not be sustained on this
side OF the Atlantic. Mr.. Adams was faithful
to his trust in insisting thot these claims
should be considered by themselves. He would
not al ow, even by inference, that they might
be smothered by a mass of trumped-uc block
ade damages, brought forward as a per contra
by the English government. And That posi-
ton he maintained with signal ability and I'M
waverin2 consistency to the end OF the contro-
versy. All efforts 70 draw him away from the
strong ground he had chosen were in vain
He argued to but one point; he kept in view
but one question; he did not suffer his atten-
ton to be diverted by any proposals OF offset
he divided nothing, and compromised nothing
from first to last
If the adjustment of such very clear and
just demands cannot be reached in direct
and open way, but must De higged and mixed
and confounded with foreign matter until they
have lost their distinct identity, our merchants
and our people will together think that it is
better to maintain them still longer as they
are. What certain British owners may pre-
tend they have lost by our blockade of the
Southern coast has nothing to do with what
American owners VIGOROUSLY lost by pirates
built, equipped, and sent out from British
ports, under the profession of neutrality to-
ward the beligerents. To cl1ch the claims
these pirates that preyed on our commerce in
the name oil Southern Confederacy never saw
the inside OF a Southern port and therefore
never emerged from Southern waters on their
errand OF destruction. They were British YES
sells, doing the work of British builders, if not
powers. 10 propose to Offset the devastation
wrought by such illicit craft against the losses
of British captains in vain attempts to run a
legalized and recognized blockade, is so fla
GRAVITY wrong as TO excite public Indignation
that such an offer should be seriously made
The two sets of claims no more belong togeth-
er than any two other matters wholly without
relationship. Minister johnson went over to
England to settle the claims of American mer-
chants on their own we'll understood basis.
They rad undergone exhaustive argument be-
fore he lett home, and the case is closed to fur
Their pleadings The American people now
want plain settlement, and will put up with
no deceptive bargains, compromises, or bal
ancing of unrelated side issues. The claims
make a perfect case of themselves.