Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1869-06-24

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our diplomacy should remain afser
four years of more thorough con-
tempt than any other nation on eartL
ever entertained for the opinion cl
another, is a possibility only to En-
glish conceit, which interprets our
conduct by It's estimate OF its own
consequence to US. OF course Eng
fish sympathy with the rebellion, SO
long as it exi,ibised itself in sneers
in the Standard, falsehoods in the
Times, and carricature i'm PxscHs
cartoons, could be no subject OF
complaint Or reparation, even if We
cared enough for it to urge it, but
when sympathy took the particular
ly substantial form of ships Of war,
and connivance or negligence on
the part OF the government in per-
hitting them to pass out to sea and
drive our commerce from New
York to Liverpool. it became a
cause OF complaint as little connect
ed with the "icy colduess" that pre-.
coded it as . confiagration with a
last years frost. Our complaint is
not that England did not care to
sec us succeed, or did care to see us
fail, but that she used active aid cf-
fective means to make us fail. The
Alabama was built rs ship of war
for the rebels. 1t was known all
over England, and as well known TO
The Ministry as to the dock loafers
of Birkenhead. No attempt WIS
made to conceal the fact. As the
Lairds say.in their letter. the build
of the vessel told her purpose to cv-
erybody, and they never pretended
that she was not for the rebels. She
was expected to plumber our COM
merce. She was built for it. And
with this certainty, the English Gov
ernment watched her getting ready
for her piracy for months. They
never interfered with her. though
repeatedly begged by our minister
TO prevent SO fragrant robbery of
n friendly nation. 1t was not done
because no armament had been put
aboard of her, and by English do
nestle law, not national or common
sense law, o vessel could not be held
guilty Of n breach of neutrality up
less she were about to sail, sailing,
ready armed for war. No more
paltry. pitiful pretext to cover an
outrage on friendly nation was ev-
or set up or knocked down. There
was no armament aboard, therefore
she was not hostile vessel, yet she
was as well known to be vessel Of
war, and nothing else, to be intended
to rob and burn our merchant ships,
to be destined for the meanest and
cruelest of all warfare upon us, as
the "Black Prince" was known to
be British ship OF war. What
need Of an armament to establish o
character patent to the world, and
never concealed or denied? Yet the
English Government. knowing that
she was going to plumber us, refus-
ed to stop her. The consequence
was that the insecurity ofour ship
ping forced the owners to sell to
England, and drove from as the
immense carrying trade which we so
long had contested With England
We, in America, believe, and shall
always believe, that the Alabama
was permitted to escape because this
result of he depreciation was antie-
ipated, as well as because she would
aid the rebellion. We can't make
that belief cause of complaint, but
we do make it an effectual barrier
to the admission OF moments cre-
dence OF English professions Of in
nocent motives. With the Alabama
business English sympathy with the
rebellion hal just this to do: If the
nobility, the commercial classes, tie
ruling population, had sympathized
with US, as The laboring classes did
in part, the Alabama never would
have left Lsird's craving dock
in any condition to commit piracy.
This is quite as certain rs that En-
gland exists, and the war is over.
But we have nothing to do with, and
care nothing for, the motive Of the
policy that let ship OF war loose
upon unarrned merchantmen. We
deal only with the fact and its mis-
chief. That is our real grievance
and the ''icy coldness" that the
Times speaks of concerns us as lit
tie as the frost at the north pole
concerns the wheat crop in the
White River bottom.
RLOW THE SEINDIKP