The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-22

treading the path which our fathers trod
before, our sympathies go out to them, and
no small number of our people are willing to
follow the example of Lafayette, who came to
the assistance of our fatherland in its dark
days
/ it cannot, then, be otherwise that in the
struggle for liberty in Cuba some, perhaps
many, of our own citizens will be found tread
ing the wine press of freedom side by side
with the impulsive sons of Cuba. If this were
not so we should belle our own teachings:
and, admitting this fact, the question comes
up, what position will the Government hold
towards them? The war in which they en-
bark is a fierce and sanguinary one. The foe
claims to rule "by the grace of God, and pro-
claims that all who oppose him are robbers,
pirates, and enemies of the human race. Pri-
soners are slaughtered in cold blood; homes
are given everywhere to the devouring flames,
and determination is the policy adopted and
acted upon. Further than this, the stipula-
tions of treaties of amity, commerce. and
navigation with neighboring powers, and their
local laws, are appealed to to justify this
course and deprive those who aspire to eXer-
else the right of self-government of the aid
which private sympathy may extend to them.
Will the Government admit the claim of
the Spanish rulers in Cuba, and deny the
right of a whole people to throw off the yoke
of despotism, and of our own citizens to take
and greater risks of the chance of battle
That the entire people of Cuba reject the rule
of Spain has been over and over again pro-
claimed by the Spanish press, the Spanish
authorities, and the Spanish volunteers who
now rule Havana. 1t is testified by the fact
that not Cuban is trusted with arms in be-
half of Spain that Spain rules only where
her troops stand; that where her troops are, an
exodus Of the Cuban population is witnessed.
Government ot Ortp takaS No
step to control the sanguinary practices of
this war for falling rule, as it should do in
justice to our own citizens and in cOnsOnance
with our history and the position we hold as
the leading power of America, then by its
silence it iustihes the outrage against hui
manity, and is false in its duty to ourselves.
No treaty of amity no laws of neutrality
can sanctfy before the people of the United
States, or of the world, the claim of any
power to the right to govern a nation when
the nation rejects such a claim. If this were
not so, Mr. Fish would be involved in an end
less perpleXity as to who should be recognized
by him as the reigning sovereign in any coun-
try in Europe or America. But we may go
even further. No treaty of amity can be
appealed to by any power as comforting upon
it the right to use practices beyond the pale
of humanity i'll its efforts to preserve itself,
and all such claims will be rejected by every
right-minded statesman. In truth, the very
fact of an appeal to such practices should
lead at once to a condemnation of the govern
ment using them. 1t is argued that the Govern
ment is friendly power with whom we have
treaties by which we are bound. But by APP
pealing to practices beyond the recognized
laws of war the power so doing becomes itself,
in certain sense. hOStiS HUHl0RjS, and thereby
releases the binding effect of all treaties
with it.
We have brought forward these views be-
| cause OF the great events now before us.
| Cuba is in process of successful revolution
| American citizens have taken and will take
part therein, animated by the holiest feelings
of human nature and justified by their natural
| rights. The Government which is struggling
to perpetuate its despotism proclaims its foes
to be pirates and robbers and not entitled to
the usages of war. Our own Government
has failed in its duty to place itself on record
in such a way as shall lend its moral influence
to the cause of humanity and human progress.
1t has gone even further than this, and has
recently displayed a secret partisanship for
| the power which has been rejected, and the
members of the Cabinet exhibit a self-accus-
ing spirit by laying the onus of the act upon
the inferior member Of the Council. Every
thinking person in the country rejects with a
| laugh of scorn the statement that Mr.. Hoar
alone is responsible for the acts which have
committed the Government to an obnoxious
policy, and none, however poor in intellect,
will believe that the Attorney General took
the liberty of committing the Government in
these great questions without advice and
without direction from the whole body.
The whole Government, from President
| Grant down to Mr.. Hoar, is responsible for
the acts which mark its policy and prove its
partisanship. If Mr.. Fish has consented to
| this course willingly, he has exhibited want
| of sympathy with American feeling and with
the march of American ideas which disquali-
fies him for the high place he holds. If he
entertains sympathies for the Cubans in their
| efforts to establish their own freedom, to
sweep slavery from their land and to partici-
| pate in the political happiness which we en-
| joy, he should show it in some other way
than by whisperings through the pen of a
newspaper correspondent. Such breathings
are not sufficient to counteract acts in which
the hand of the Government is plainly
! visible. 1t will not be an act of war to
| perform our duty to human nature by recog-
nizing the belligerent rights of the Republi-
cans of Cuba, and to intimate to our fond
ally Spain that we expect her to carry ON war
| as a civilized government, and not as an
enemy to the human race, especially as we
are supplying her with guns, powder, and
ships wherewith to make the war. AS for
national policy, it is plain that the weak and
cold administration of Grant and Fish is not
equal to the task of devising one We look
to the American people to take care of that
| intimatng to the administration that they
will do well not to place themselves, in their
timorous appreciation of European complica-
tions in an attitude of hostility to the ma
tional policy the people shall lay down.