New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-02-22
TIE ALgBAMA URONG.

We closed our remarks on this grave topic
in The TRIBUNE of Saturday by abiding Ia
the worse than crime-tbe all but fatal blunder-
which marked Mr. Stewards first step in diplo-
macy. when he announced to Europe that Mr.
Lincoln willingly accepted the Rebel dogma
that the National Government had no power 10
coerce seeding States, and that Slavery had
nothing to do with the Rebellion.
The recognition of the Rebels as belligerents
was the quick. curt answer of England and
France TO those assurances to which. also, we
may trace oil the danger that ever ex-
listed OF European Intervention. So soon
as the intelligent working classes of Eng
land and the Continent understood the
case, and knew that the Rebellion was
instituted to found a Slave Empire and to re-
open the African Slave Trade, all the SOW
ereigns and aristocrats of Europe, singly or
combined, found themselves forbidden, by the
right sentiment of the masses, from taking
another step toward recognition or interven-
ton in behalf of Slavery. This treaty, with
its scornful disregard of American honor and
American interests, and its wide opening Of
our National Treasury to satisfy the still I'M
known claims of unfriendy Englishmen, to be
awarded by lot or friendly sovereign, leav-
ing every question of international neutrality
in the same middle in which it finds them, is
q fitting conclusion to that feeble and faithess
policy that has so often compromised, during
tho war, our dignity and our rights, and which,
in one memorable instance, after Napoleon had
announced that the erection of O European
throne in Mexico was intended as an insult
and menace to the American Republic. actually
extended TO the French at the beginning Of
the plot, in defiance of the earnest protest Of
Mexico, custom-h house facilities for the inva-
sion, and at its ignomiDious close suggested,
through Mr. Bigelow to M. Drouyn D'Lhuys,
that if the Emperor would remove his troops
the American Government could recognize the
Empire of the ill-starred Macmillan as soon
as they were gone. But despite the laudatons
heaped upon the treaty, by few leading Presses,
and the earnest efforts of The World to secure
its ratification, knowing, as that astute paper
well knows, that its ratification by the Repub-
lcan party would never be forgiven or forgot
ten. the clear, common sense of the American
people has pronounced against it and the
apology Of The World for Mr.. Johnsons diplo-
macy, that British pride was to be salved,
and Mr. johnson has made his diplomatic
" salves largo and numerous and spread them
ION thick,n has naturally aroused the query
whether that was the object of his mission, and
such his instructions from the State Department
The instruction given by Washington to one
of his predecessors was "to assert with dignity
"and fairness our rights and our title to repa-
ration" And the question for the American
people now is, What are our rights and what
is our title to reparationf The ClarendOn-John
son protocol proceeds upon the ground not that
the American Government or tho American
people have any unsettled claim against Eng
land, but simply that certain citizens of each
country have claims against the other and the