The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-04-15


rican flag driven from the sea has left our
shipyards without employment and our mari
ners without occupation. A naval war with
England and France would restore us to our
equal position upon the ocean, and nothing
else will do IL. Give our seamen but the
shadow of a chance and they will soon make
the ocean as unsafe to the British and French
flags as the British privsteers made it few
years since to the American. Our shipyards
would leap to a new life, and our docks would
thropg with prizes before whose numbers the
Alabama claims would sink into the merest
insigpiicance.
But the man who to-day aspires to direct
the foreign relations OF the United States Of
America must lay aside all such childish fears
He must address himself to higher motives OF
action. Our great questions of public rela-
tions must be considered in their relation TO
the rights, interests, and dignity of the
nation and OF Christian civilization. And
herein is where Mr. Fish shows himself to be
incompetent to the pest he fills and to the
duty he Ia called to discharge. The patriot
Cubsns are to-day bravely treading the wine-
press which our fathers so nobly trod before
them. By their sacrifices and their deeds of
arms they have raised great American ques-
tion, and we are called upon to decide it, not
by the standard whether Spain is friendly
power or not, but whether they are entitled
to the justice they ask at our hands. And in
matters of purely American interest Spain has
no claim to friendship from US. In these she
has ever proved hostile to the American Union
and to the principles of freedom which it
cherishes. But beyond all this we are called
by every impulse of Christian charity and of
civilization to withdraw our friendly oounte-
nance from the bloodthirsty and furious prac-
tices of the Spanish volunteers in Cuba. They
are a shame and disgrace to the power that
practises them, and still more so to the power
that without the incentive Of either anger or
ambition, pslliRtes and excuses them.
When Mr.. Fish acknowledges that he would
falter in the path of duty, through fear of
complications in our relations with France and
England, he brings blush of shame to every
American cheek and casts dark shadow
across the hopes the country has entertained
of the administration of President Grant.
Rather would we trust the honor OF the repub-
lie to the truly national impulses of the daring
Admiral Porter than to the timid fears of q
Secretary of State who seems to belong to the
age Of our grandfathers, and to be inspired in
his oounsels with the fears that animated the
public mind seventy years ago. 1t was ofsuoh
men that John Randolph declared they had TO
be kicked into a war with England. The sooner
President Grant purges his Cabinet of such
towards, the better it will be for him and for
his administration. Let him judge the spirit
of the country to-day not by the cold -blooded
fears of Fish, but by the overpowering vote
OF the House OF Representatives on the Cuba
resolution, and the still more patriotic vote of
the Senate Of the United States, where but one
man was found to vote for the ratification of
the inane treaty with England for the settle
ment of the Alabama claims.
As for our relations with Spain and Cuba,
We call upon the President to recognize at
once the wishes OF the people of the whole
country, and comply with them by an imme
diate proclamation of neutrality between the
belligerents. This will place those who are
now struggling in Cuba, alone and unarmed
for that freedom which is so dear to all men,
within the pale of honorable warfare, and
save them from the fate of robbers and pirates.
He should then entrust the maintenance OF
those neutral relations to the Secretary of the
Navy, who is 80 ably assisted by Admiral
Porter, and whenever Spain demands the
reasons for our action let them be given by
Admiral Hoff. But let us hear no more of the
fears of he antediluvian Fish in the counsels
Of government, If it wishes to keep us out Of
disgraceful wars, and save the honor OF the
nation. II he will not retire from the Cabinet
modestly and as becomes an ancient fossil, as
he is, we advise President Grant to shelve him
in the antiquarian department OF the Patent
Office as warning to all our rising statesmen.
REJECTION OF THE ALABAMA TREATY.
From the N. Y. World
Inc all Dut UNANIMOUS t6JeCtlOH ny Juo
Senate of Mr.. Reverdy Johnson's treaty for
the settlement of the Alabama claims, will
surprise no one who has watched the current
OF American feeling on that subject since the
treaty was made public. The almost univer
sal tone of popular sentiment in this country
| is opposed to making any concessions on this
subject or abating any part of the claims ori
ginally urged by Mr.. Adams in his very able
| communications to the British Government
| 1t is not merely the strength of our case, how
ever, which makes our people SO inflexible
The necessities, or supposed necessities, o
our domestic politics enter very largely init
the determination of our public men, and rem
der it improbable that any settlement will
ever be reached unless the British Govern
ment shall concede all, or nearly
all, that we have ever demanded. NJ
political party wishes to 60 into
national election with the Irish population O
the country universally hostile and indignant
This class Of citizens have, as a general rule
| voted almost unanimously with the ID Democrat
party; but the impetuous patriotism which
hurried so many of them into the war, whsr,
they were conspicuous for headlong bravery
has encouraged the Republican party to hop,
that, by adroit appeals to their military recol
lections and fostering their hatred to England
IL may divide the Irish vote. In the fervor O
the Fenian excitement, most of the Republican
journals and leaders openly famed the flame
The Fenians constantly held up the depreda
tiOns of the Confederate cruisers which wer
fitted out with the connivance of the Britis
Government, as means OF enlisting the gene
raj sentiment Of the country in favor of tn
Fenian cause; and by this means the prosecu
tlon Of the Alabama claims has become 30 en-
tangled with the Irish feeling, that no politics
party Will dare settle them except on a basi