The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1869-12-02
Our SPANS Relation.

The determination of the Government
in the matter Of the Spanish Gunboats
is made clearer by yesterdays action.
They are to be duly libeled in the u. S.
courts, on the charge that they are fit
ting out to make war, either on Peru or
the colony of Cuba, with both of which
the United States is at peace. The uni
ted voice of the Cabinet is declared to have
impelled the decision, the news of which
is consequent upon the personal appllca-
ton Of Attorney Pierrepont for definite
Instructions The concentration of an
unusual force of the American Navy in
the tropic waters is stated to be lin an
ticipation of any hostility on the part Of
Spain.
Should this statement prove correct,
the Government will have assumed an
attitude of bold and unmlstakable vigor.
pain claims the right of a friendly ma
ton to build and fit out ships OF war
from our ports. Peru, another nation
with which we are in amity, complains
that nothing exists to prevent these YES
sells being used against her except our
rigid fulflment of neutral obligations.
If it is not contended that the preteXt OF
Peru is shallow and void, let it be re-
membered that this Republic has delib-
erately made herself party to the Gu
ban instruction, and accepted all the
consequences of war by hostile act of
recognition. What man will dare to at
firm that if the Cuban rebellion were in
a month or two suppressed by the aid
and comfort given its tyrant from our
ports through feet Of peculiarly dan
gerous gunboats, the Spaniards would not
turn their attention to Peru? What
guaranty exists in law, the dead letter
of which every national Shylock makes
his bond, that Spain will not carry on q
war against Peru, which is avowedly at
war with her.
That the prosecutor of Cuba will now
be ready 70 accuse the United States of
conspiracy against its power we may
immagine. But the plain and avowed
truth is, that the American Continent
is standing conspiracy against all usur-
pations and despotisms planted on its
soil. A Government of hard hearted
spectators with humane liberty can have
nothing to owe for at our hands, except
the strict ful6lment of our international
obligations, which, more than to Spain,
we owe to ourselves. More radical JUS
tice, rs between men who hate slavery
and those who sustain it, might have ere
this arrayed us in perilous opposition to
the brutal rear guard of retreating tyran-
ny on the American Continent. 1t is
WELL however, that time and justice and
a ripe occasion shall decide for US. Not
being in possession of every fact necessary
to an opinion, we cannot say that our
hour of decision has struck-but assured
y it is near. Four, perhaps FIVE, repub-
lies of America haye now decided for
Cuban recognition; one or two are virtu-
ally at war with Spain; and now it is
asked whether the Government of the
United States will release thirty gun
boats against the positive protest Of
friendly power, albeit the sworn. enemy
of Spain. The world may veiw, what
the Gods may admire, the spectacle Of a
brave nation, with great heart, engag-
ed in the honest work Of selfrepression,
while the pirate of nations plumbers the
traveller whom the good Samaritan is
powerless to assist. Has the day fordeliv-
GRANGE come.
We do not ignore, in these veiWs, the
grave and weighty nature of the possible
consequences. What we know of the
late negotiations, what We know OF the
present temper of Spain, and especially
what we know of the Regency S necessi-
ty, may well inspire at least deliberations
1t is meyer safe to reckon on the forbear
ance of a Government that has nothing
to lose by war. the men who rule Spain
have nothing to lose. We must not
swerve an inch from the path of Nation
al duty by such considerations; we must
not, on the other hand, be SO imprudent
as to shut our eyes to them.-N, T.