The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-10
OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS AND GENERAL
CiRAN1NS FOREIGN FORE[GN POLICY.


OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS AND GENERAL
GRANTS FOREIGN FOREIGN POLICY.
Fron, the NJ J. Herald.
The opportunity now offered to General Grant
for the extension of the boundaries of the nation
and its moral and material power throughout
the world is without n precedent in American
history, and without comparison in the records
of the human race If as a soldier the results of
his strategy and tactics and his cooperative
combinations of numerous armies, amounting to
over million of men, and distributed over an
area of eight hundred thousand square miles,
eclipse the gTandest combinations of the first
Napoleon, he has now the opportunity as a
statesman to reduce by comparison the late inn
perial programme of Napoleon the Third in both
hemispheres to amere bagatele. General Grant,
in word, has the opportunity of making this
Government, by general consent, the arbiter of
the American continent, and he has the advan-
tages for securing, through China and Japan, the
commercial balance OF power in Asia. He may
thus make Washington morally the dominating
political capital of the civilized world, and New
York and San Francisco the commercial and
financial centres of the worlds exchanges.
Cuba, Mexico, and the Alabama CLAIMS cover
the three great foreign questions upon the set
tement of which the commanding position indi-
Gated may be secured for the United States The
| annexation of Cuba is only a question of time;
but the time may be heightened or shortened,
according to the interest of the administration
in the settlement of this question. 1t seems to
us that without any difficulty, considering the
domestic embarrassments of England, France,
and Spain, the subject of the annexation of both
Cuba and the island of st. Domingo might be so
| far pushed forward meantime as to be submit
| ted for the ratification of Congress ut its next
session in December, Such too, upon this mat
ter, is the present favorable aspect of things in
| the Gulf and at Washington and in Europe that
we are strongly inclined to the conclusion that
| the annexation suggested will be among the
| recommendations of General Grants next mes
sage to the two houses. These acquisitions will
| Z Of
| Mexico, and by the law of gravitatiOn they
ripen all the contiguous islands will fall in.
The possession of the Gulf involves the control
over every isthmus ship canal inerOceanic transit
| route from Tehuantepec to Panama. To make
| this control effective and useful, however, the
| absorption of Mexico and Central America be-
| comes a political and commercial necessity.
| Having, since Napoleons protectorate, given the
people and politicians of Mexico fair trial in
| self-government, in which they have signally
| failed, we may now, without fear of European
| opposition, follow the example of Napoleon,
| and, in the interests of humanity, civilization.
| law, and order, take Mexico under our care, and
by treaty with the local authorities provide also
for the fusion into the great republic of the Cen
tral American States. The great impedment
| which in 1S47 deferred General Scott from the
acceptance of Mexico as free gift in the name
| Of the United States, was in the broad political
lines of distinction and caste which ut that time
| divided the whites from our black and African
| tinCtured people. Now those barriers are all
| removed, and under the new dispensation of
'liberty, equality, and fraternity the hybrds of
| Mexico cease to be an embarrassment on either
side. Subject then to the will and pleasure of
| our Government, Mexico and the Central Anne
| rican States await the development of General
| Grants foreign policy.
On the Alabama claims the upshot of Senator
Summers exhaustive and conclusive exposition
| of the case for the United States has been put
into nutshell by Wendell Phillips in this
| demand-a full pecuniary recompense for the
| damages suffered by our commerce from Anglo
Rebel cruisers and distinct disavowal of Lord
Russells neutrality and belligerent rights of
| 1861 as precedent for the future guidance of
| England Now, as with the acceptance of this
| ultimatum the most convenient settlement to
| both countries will be the cession of British
| North America. with the rejection of this
| ultimatum by England the occupation of the
| New Dominion will be the most conve-
| nient alternative for the United States.
For this alternative, upon call for volunteers,
| two hundred and fifty thousand trained soldiers
| could be mustered along our Northern border
| within sixty days. Senator Chambers late
speech on this subject rather stump
| harangue from Western demagogue than the
argument of a responsible American statesman;
| but still his leading idea is fixed in the public
mind of the great Northwest. Those people, as
| to natural outlet for their heavy surplus pro-
| ducts, are looking now to the opening of the st.
Lawrence to the sea with something of the same
feeling which led them against the late Rebellion
to the reopening of the Mississippi
General Grant, as a Western man, we doubt
not, is believer in this whole pro-
gramme of expansion, North and South He is,
too, man of war; but as President of the
United States it is manifest that his paramount
desire is peace, at home and abroad. Our only
! apprehension concerning his foreign policy is
that his desire to avoid war may so entangle him
in diplomatic cobwebs and red tape as to render
him powerless TO do anything in giving salts
factory shape and direction to the Cuban or
! the Mexican question, or the Alabama
claims. Upon all these questions, more
over, the powerful interest of the bond
holders will be apt to prove drag upon the ad-
minstration. We rely, however, upon the pro-
gressive ideas, sagacity, and moral courage Of
| General Grant, sustained by the general drift of
public opinion, in our expectations of a foreign
policy which offers not only the continent for our
| occupation, but its boundless resources from
| lAA.lnin nl 70, IL. lnIt