The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-09-25
sICKLEs, SOOTHING SYRUP.

from the ". 4. HOTH
1t is proverbially impracticable to educe
whistle from pigs tail. 1t is now proven to
be equally impossible to make a political
Grandson out of personal blackguard. Mr..
Grant might be excused for the ignorance of
this fact which he showed in selecting Sickles
for the Spanish mission but that there were
those about him who must have apprised him
of it, and that even Grant cannot be igno-
rant that far worse things than mere black
guardism made the appointment of Sickles
to any public position an outrage alike upon
the people he was sent to represent and the
people among whom he was sent to repre-
sent them. That low-bred rowdy should be
made an ambassador was bad enough; but
that fragrant criminal should be made an
ambassador was altogether intolerable. That
Sickles should disgrace us by his official
actions, as his official presence was itself a
disgrace to us, was a foregone conclusion to
the World when he was appointed. And now
it has become plain to all men, though some
men and some journals whose sincerity we
can only grant on the hypothesis of their
insanity, persist in asserting their disbelief
of it,
There was nothing in the position assumed
by the Government of the United States, in
| accordance with which the instructions to
| Siclles must have been drawn, that was neces-
| sarily offensive to the Spanish Government.
| The proposition he was undoubtedly told to
| make was to offer the mediation of this coun-
| try in the differences between Spain and Cuba,
| and in case those differences should be found
irreconcilable, to guarantee the payment of
such sum, not transcending fixed limit, as
Spain should be willing to accept in lieu of
her cisatlantic possession. There was nothing
we say, in such a proposition, properly put,
to excite the indignation, although it might
meet with the refusal, of the Spanish
Government But it was absolutely certain
that Sickles would not put it properly.
Imagine man, born and bred blackguard
whose most prominent characteristic is an
utter absence of moral perception, and whose
next prominent Characteristic is a craving
itch for notoriety, by whatever means at
tanned, intrusted with so delicate message
as this, where he has the choice, by the man
ner in which he chooses to deliver it, of ap-
pearing in the character of mere messenger
or of truculent bully. Gould it be doubtful
for moment which horn Sickles, sheltered
under the shield of an official inviolability,
would take of such dilemma? ? He has done
precisely what the power which appointed
him to fulfil function for which he was as
fit as street scavenger to be a master of
ceremonies ought to have foreseen he would
do. He has caused the Spanish Government
to attribute the extrinsic insolence of mes
senger to the intrinsic quality of his message,
and has naturally treated both with a common
contempt.
Observers, foreign alike to Spain and to
ourselves, have been smitten with wonder at
the display Sickles has made of himself, and
the discredit which his position has enabled
him to bring upon his Government. To these
observers who know Sickles only as an am.
bassador, and not, as we do, as felon, this
wonder is natural But no American need
wonder at it. The London Times is moved
to say that the American Minister docs mo-
appear to know the value of words. How
could such man be expected to know it?
man whose early manhood was passed in the
pursuit of pandarisn is inevitably at a los
when, in his ripper years, he is called upon t.
, conduct negotiations of different orde
! from those which occupied him then Tha
9 he should disgust decent Spaniards was I
i thing of course. But that he is in position
. where he is able to disgust them is not 81
4 much his own fault as the fault of those wh'
thrust him there And if he is suffered t.
Q remain there, his infamy will be SHIFTED
Q from his own shoulders to those officials