The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-12

io9,S' Inc Democratlc party, out OF power,
will honestly act in accordance with its past
character 1t will give the administration
such advice as it would itself be willing to act
upon if it were in possession of the Govern
ment. The Democratic party has always
stood up for national rights and the national
honor; 1t has always confronted England, in
all differences between the two countries, with
bold and vigorous policy; exacting the full
measure of our rights and never consenting
to take anything less In the Alabama con
troversy the party will be true to its convic-
tons and its antecedents and it's high sense
Of the national honor.
THE WAR CLOUD IN THE SOUTH.
From the NJ y. Herald
Cuba, flanked 10y Peru and Chill, looms up
in our southern prospect with dark threaten
ings of a war with Spain, to be carried on
within the waters of the Atlantic. The
memory of the bombardment of Valparaiso
and Of the attack on Callao by Spanish feet
has not faded from the minds of Spanish
Americans, and the chances for retaliation
which are offered by the revolutionary move
ment in Cuba are too good to be readily aban-
doned. Negotiations for peace between the
South American republics and Spain have
been initiated under the auspices of our Gov
ernment, and the representatives of the bel
hgerents are to meet in a few weeks in Wash
ington to consider the terms In view of the
recent recognition of the belligerent rights of
the Cuban republic by Peru aud Chill we do
not consider that the chances for peace with
Spain are very promising, while it seems evil
dent that both the Spanish-American States
are ready to admit different result
This complication of affairs gives an in
creased importance to the efforts of the
CIbans to throw off the yoke of Spain, and a
new element is now brought into the field by
the action of the armed Spanish mob which
! has taken possession of the government in
! Havana. We give little Importance to the
rumor that the volunteers who have driven
! General Dulce from Cuba intend to establish
| a separate autonomy in the island under a
| triuInyirate or that they contemplate pre-
venting the landing of the coming Captain
General Rodas, or proclaiming the ex-Queen
! Isabella or her son. or in any way seek to
sever the ties which bind them to the mother
| country. 1t seems to us more likely that
events in the western portion of Cuba will
! take grave domestic aspect, which may
weaken still further the precarious hold Spain
retains upon her American possessions. The
avowed motive of the usurpation is the cor
ruption of the officials who have recently
come from Spain, the accusation being that
they have sold victory to the patriots and
robbed the revenues of the Government
leaving the treasury without means TO prose-
cute the war.
In this condition of affairs the temporary
Government of Havana is seeking to inaugu-
rate renewed activity by ordering all the
troops to the field and garrisoning the towns
with the volunteers, as will be seen by our
telegraphic dispatches to-day. Such course
requires more money than the Government
now possesses, and the volunteers will soon
find that they must split upon the rock of
poverty in the treasury, resort to some
new plan to obtain supplies These cannot be
found in the exhausted treasury of Spain and
the only possible resort will be impressment
of supplies and forced contributions of money.
When we remember the bitterness with which
the volunteers reviled General Dulce on every
occasion when he sought to observe the pub
lie law of nations either in the delivery to
foreign representatives of parties arrested OF
the liberation of others who had been pro-
nounced innocent by the courts, we cannot
look for any very nice discrimination in theil
seizure of goods or their demands for money:
and we believe if the Spanish Minister al
Washington to-day were asked if his govern
ment would respond to ours for the safety OF
American lives or the security of American
interests in Havana, under the present state
of affairs, he would be forced to acknowledge
that the power of Spain has ceased to be re-
spected in Cuba, and could in no wise be
brought to account for what may occur there
Thus we have upon our immediate border
the questions Of foreign war and domestic
anarchy If such conjunction were to occul
in any country in Europe the Cabinets of con
tiguous nations would not only demand guar
antees from the fOmenters of disorder but
would prepare to interfere in the interests OF
humankind. The question is purely Amer
can one, and we are the controlling power il
America Should England or France inter
vene, we should at once protest and prepare
to protect our own interests. With such
duties and such impulses, it becomes us to in
quire what steps has the administration taker
to be prepared for future contingencies
There is but one answer. Mr. Fish has mad,
himself active in listening to the complaints
of the Spanish Minister about the shipment O
n few rusty small arms; Secretary Boutwel
has busted himself with stopping steamship
engaged in legal traffic and the politicians il
the Cabinet and around it are scheming Il
p raise the cry of war with England in the
p hope to catch the Fenian vote and sway tn,
fall elections, Such ignoring of great event
at our own door and magnifying distant mole
| hills into mountains would be ludicrous if j
were not contemplate
2 When the echoes from the guns of the
Spanish and Peruvian iron-clads in American
waters shall awaken our rip Van Wrinkles
, in Washington to a contemplation of the rud
facts of the present day, when the gathering
, fleets of France and England in the West In
dies shall show them the estimation in whicl
1 European statesmen hold the present greG
Y question of America, then will they come t.
3 a knowledge of the opportunity they hav
lost, and perhaps recognize the fact that tn
pen of a live statesman might have con
S trolled events of the highest importance t