The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1869-04-30
Summers Speech--RespOnse from
a British Crown Source.

Senator Sumner evidently knows,
from long experience, the exact amount
of "bunkuni" and "fap.doodle" which
his countrymen can swallow with i'm
punity, and presumed upon it in the
speech on the Alabama claims treaty,
which he made with great success In
the United States Senate on Tuesday.
The rather rough and brief synopsis OF
his remarks. which leaked out through
the closed doors of the Senate chamber,
do not define the stand he has taken In
q very satisfactory manner; but from
the general tenor of what was commit
nicated to the press, in order to fire the
Northern heart, it is easy to discover
that he endorsed the furious, lincoln
promising, absurd policy advocated by
such reckless journals rs the New York
Herald, and that If compromise is
ever brought about through the offices
of any American or other statesman,
the chairman of the Senate Committee
on Foreign Relations, although usually,
and as he should be, reflective and cool
headed, will not be party thereto.
Some of the charges in his long in
dictment are so absurd that they would
never be preferred in any state paper
from the hand of any statesman who
has the remotest conception of the du-
ties of international comfy. Mr.. Sum-
ner, of course, knew this, but he none
the less presumed upon the ignorance
of his auditors and the gross gullibility
of nation which has always refused
to think for ITSELF and throws the duty
and profitable labor upon the willing
shoulders of professional politicians"
like Mr.. Sumner. 1t would be almost
Unfair to assume that the synopsis now
before us contains anything like COR
rect version of his views but ON one or
two points Mr.. Sumner is only consist.
ent. Several years ago, at popular meet
ings, not in his place in the Senate, he
denounced England for issuing proc
lamation of neutrality and conceding
beligerent rights to the Southern insur-
gents, as well as for the blockade run
ming proclivities Of some of her daring,
hardy adventures; but no sensible man,
no one at all acquainted with the views
of even the American publicists on
supposed that they would be seriously
propounded by Mr.. Sumner in his pre-.
sent capacity as the mouthpiece Of the
administration. Wheaton, the standard
American authority, is directly opposed
to Mr.. Sumner on both of these grounds
holding that blockade running is We.
, NAL offence condoned by the risk which
the parties to it incur: holding further
that no State has right to institute q
blockade unless it makes it effective
and on the other point raised by Mr..
Sumner, that State has an inherent
right to define its relations towards ano-
ther, and decide whether it shall re.
main neutral or otherwise III any con.
test between any two Powers or part;
, of Power. The United States govern
menr has frequently acted upon these
we'll known, universally recognized doc
trines. and even now is about to issue
q proclamation warning its constituent!
not to violate the neutrality of thu
State by taking part in the contest now
going on in Cuba. All, but, says Mr.
Sumner, the South was in state of re
bellion against a sovereign Power, will
which you were on friendly terms, an(
vet YOU fastened to recognize the re
bells as belligerents. and thereby Civ,
them q status which they could no
otherwise have acquired-a position
which enabled them to carry on opera
tions on the high seas in cruisers recog
nized by you as belonging to an indie
: pendent Power, to the destruction an,
ruin of our vast and widely EXTENDED
commerce. If this be ''the head al,
: front of the" English "otlending" tn
United States government was jus
, as great a sinner. And whyp Let II
suppose that England had not concede
L ,s,.1,t 20 hA ,t,n
: would have been the consequence &C
cording to all the writers on interna
tional law? Only this, that rs soon a
the Sumpter, the Nashville and til
S other earlier Confederate cruizers q,
rived in England after burning the Bri
liant and other Northern merchant YES
sells, their officers and crew having n
:. recognized status, would have bee
subject to the law and amenable to trii
u and execution rs pirates, although. tot
II they were only exercising their rccog
C nized belligcrent right to make rep:i
a sails. England very properly refuse
: to act as hangman for the America
|. government, and when the same qucs
" ton came up for trial and disposal j
the United States courts in the memo
rable case of the confederate crew sei7
!: ed almost rcd-handed, off Charlesto
4 harbor. that government abated its pre-
: vious intentions and ended by adoptin
similar course. In other words, TIL
, crew in question was tried and sentent
f ed to death for piracy, but little II
. flection showed government that
:. would be unwisc and unnatural to Cal
:, ry out the sentence, and in the end tn
'pirates" were exchanged as reguls
' prisoners of war; What difference ws
! there, after all, in the position assume
by both governments England calle
h and treated the Southcrners as bellig
=. rents. The North went still furthe
: and by exchanging prisoners gave the
the legal status and the recognized p,
sition of-what England all along r.
: fused to give, Notwithstanding the rel
: resentations of France--an indcpendel
d Power. And vet Mr.. Sumner and Il
G other sympathizers with every rebe
lion on the face of the earth except the
own, do not hesitate to outrage law al
Y common sense by the stand which
k is reported to have taken on such
l. well understood and so clearly q d
II fined international question. 1t woul
In fact appear from his utterances ar
those Of many other Northern write
A and politicians, that they "went in Fl