Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1869-04-07
The Alabama Claims - The Thunderer
Asks, WHO'S Afraid, in the Event of


The Alabama Claims - The Thunderer
Asks, WHO'S Afraid, in the Event of
WARP
From the London Times. Feb. p
Mr. Johnson can scarcely be aware
of the extent of this repugnance to
war, and this single wish to save
only the national honor, when he
tells the good people of Manchester
that a war must be vastly more dis
astrous to this country than his own.
There is not the slightest necessity
for importing such a calculation into
the controversy. The material re-
suits are really out of the question
altogether. We are quite aware that
in the event of war We shorla not be
able to render effectual aid to our
Canada dominion, and that our fell
low-subjects out there would either
have to fight at terrible disadvant-
age, or mOrtify our pride by antici-
pating defeat and yielding to terms.
In a material point of view that
would be no loss to this country.
The suggestion that numerous Ala
bamas would scour every ocean in
search of the British flag, and lie Iii
wait in the crowded track of our Aus
tralian galleons, is a thought of re-
taliation that must be only too ma
tural. But neither is the menace ne
cessary nor is it so certain that we
should find the odds against us i'll
this sort of warfare. Our ancestors
were robbers and pirates, and the
Americans are q st&p further from
that origin than we are, for we are
an earlier link in this chain. Two
ships did all the mountain of mis-
chief that Is laid to our charge, and
if it is strange that they could be al
lowed to get ont of our ports, 1t Is
very much stranger that they should
be allowed to scOur an entire ocean,
and threaten every pathway OF COM
meree If our neglect, our red-tape-
ism, and our stupidity were so great
as to arouse suspicion and bred mis-
trust, what is to be said of the Amer
lean a AdaairaliIy How can Mr.
Johnson be sure that Hbat has nap
pened will not happen AGAIN. MS
argument requires that both circum,
stances and national character shoula
change Oh both sides of the a tlantlc.
We are To become irresolute, back
ward and ehary. We are to become
insensible to that honor which, II
where, we console ourselves we
have maintained on the sea. we are
TO be incapable of doing on a gIahu
scale that which was latelS uoHe
here on the smallest possible scale,
i9seguiariy and surreptitiously, yet
with astounding succes9. The crime
charged against those priyateers was
that they we're British in every re-
spect whatever, except flag anu
captains commission. On the other
hand, the Americans are TO do on a
colossal scale what they failed To do
in miniature. BY their own estl-
mate, they lost more in the late war
by ships that durst not show them
selves at all, but kept in harbor, for
fear of those two monsters than by
the actual captures Then, III the
present state OF American politics,
W ho can count on the permanenee OF
the status quo in any respect? How
would 4 foreign war operate on the
Federal question Wonderful and
un1xr led things have happened
on ffat fabulous soll; witness lbs
death or manning OF. a million men
in the field. What has happened
may still happen. So also may that
which has not happened, nor even
been imagined.