The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1869-10-30
WISE MEN IN CONVENTION.
A Boston dispatch of the Dist inst.

The Seventh District Republican Convsption
met 1T Concord to-day. Hon. Henry Wilson pre-
sided, and in brief speech eu,ogised the admiais.
tion oF drRnt rs conducted on far higher plan
than any since that of Adams. George N. Brooks
was nominated for Congress on the I'd halot.'
If the word /" Republican had been
omitted from the dispatch, it would
have been doubtful to most persons
whether the orator of the Seventh Dis
trict Convention meant to compliment
or disparage the administration. It is
too extravagant for sober praise and
too severe to be intended for sarcasm
though considered as specimen of
the latter, it is quite Incompatible.
We take it that the Hon. Wilson was
quite in earnest, as what Republican
orator would dare to be otherwise upon
such subject
Mr. Grants administration has been
conducted, says the Radical orator,
"on a higher plans than any since that
of Adams which indicates, not to be
polite, very high old plan. Has it
given dignity to the Nation by single
bold and statesman-like stoke Of for
eign policy? Has it advanced the ma
terial interests of the country by a sim
gle wise and patriotic measure? How
has the administration met the Ala
hama claims question and the Cuba
question? These are the only impor-
tant foreign questions that Mrr Grant
has been called upon to settle, and he
was confronted with these in the inaug-
uration of his administration. The
terms of adjustment of the Alabama
claims, agreed upon between Mr.. Rev
erdy Johnson and the English govern
ment, having been slighted, England
washes her hands of the matter and
waits to hear what our Government
has to say. But Mr. Grant, rs usual
has nothing to say, nor is he likely
soon to have and so the whole matter
as indefinitely postponed. The jeers
OF the British press, the contempt OF
foreigners, the disgust of Americans,
because of the Alabama matter, are
easily borne when compared with the
light in which the miserable and pusil-
luminous Cuban policy has placed US.
Processing neutrality, the administra-
ton has played into the hands of the
Spaniards from the first, and by its
manifest hostility to the struggling in
4surgents, has outraged every American
instinct. Once it pressed formal note
Epon the Spanish Directory at Madrid,
through Mr. Sickles, proposing terms
of settlement. That note set forth the
fact that the war on the part of Spain
"was conducted In a cruel manner,
and the United States could no longer
restrain the people, and that ''the be-
-igerency of the Insurgents would be
recognized unless Spain acceeded to
the views of the United States" The
disgrace of pressing this bullying note
was only exceeded by that of the re-
suits it provoked. The Spaniards at
once assumed an attitude so menacing
that Mr. Sickles was constrained
to make haste quickly to with
draw it. This is not all, nor the worst.
During the past year many Americans
have fallen into the hands of the Span
ish authorities and were butchered In
true Spanish spirit, without trial or
any sort of hearing. And it was not a
charge against these men that they
were aiding the Insurgents. Many of
them were not doing SO In act or de-
sign. So fragrant and constant these
Outra9es became, that Mr.. Grant sent
Admiral Hof to Cuba to investigate
and report upon them. That officer
entered protest to the Spaniards, and, !,
returning, said that the execution of
certain Americans named was nothing
less than murder. The only response
MIR. Grant has made to this report. is
to double his diligence in hunting
down the privateers and flibustering
expeditions sent out in behalf of the
Insurgents. It is hardly necessary to
say, since all men know it, that there
Is not to-day nation upon the face OF
the earth, if We except our own, that
would not retaliate with it's fullest
power upon such outrages as Spain in
Cuba has inflicted on the United States,
in numbering our citizens. This non
pesenting, insult-taking plan may be a
part of that higher plan eulogised by
Mr.. Wilson. That is all there is of the
foreign policy-ap policy that has made
the e1nblematic American eagle roosi
upon a very low limb.
At home the administration has
done-what? Collected the revenue,
and, since the Freedman's Bureau il
abolished, military government abol-
lished IN seven of the ten Southern
States, the extra bounties to soldiers.
of nearly twenty-five millions per an
mum stopped-since all of these aus
pieious events have arrived, without
Mr.. Grants connivance, Mr.. Bout