The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-24
SPIRIT OF THn PRESS.
Editorial Opinions Of the Loading Journals
Upon Current TODies-ComDlled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
THE ALABAMA CLAIMS.

The great question of our demands upon
England growing out Of war carried on from
her ports in the interests of Southern
slavery and her own mercantile supremacy
is revived in chapter from the State
Department. 1t is long one, but it is as
spirited as it is important, and upon the
whole well worth attentive reading. Those
who have denounced our high-minded Secre-
tary as the slave of Spanish influences, the
betrayer of American principles, and the de-
stroyer of Cuba, might read his correspond
ence with profit. They might then be ena
bled to suggest to themselves why our
Government has not interpreted the law
of 1878 into a justification of the
premature recognition of the Southern
Confederacy, and why it prefers MOTTO risk
the commission of such acts as might tend to
destroy the morality of the complaint we have
SO justly, so earnestly, so feelingly made
against the consummate wrong inflicted upon
us by England. But apart frem any such
consideration as this, Secretary Fish holds we
doubt not, that the course of straightforward
duty is in the long run the best helper of men
and nations, and that as England's premature
and sinister aid only brought prolonged ruin
on the South, so anything less than square
dealing with the Cuban question will only
protract the pains of those whom we desire to
be able to rescue.
Both in his Cuban and English correspon-
dence Mr.. Fish has shown a steady ability
which the admirers of serpentine and san
culinary craftsmanship will have occasion to
acknowledge. No point in the case of our
claims has been omitted by him; and every
argument gains strength 10y the firm and
graceful manner in which he presents it.
While demonstrating that the Judgment of
Congress and the people as to the Johnson
Clarendon treaty has been almost unanimous,
yet he takes pains to show, by reference to an
historical precedent, that the rejection of the
treaty by the Senate was as natural as it was
legal and rightful, and was not to be re-
garded as a discourtesy. Reopening the
general question of the claims, the Secretary
reiterates our right in 1861 to expect ''the
earnest good will, sympathy, and moral sup
port of Great Britain" Then cones our
standard array of facts, reinforced with i'd
mirable statement and clear logic. The de-
termination of the English Government on
the 9th of May to recognize the South, four
days prior to the arrival in London of any
official knowledge of the Presidents procla-
nation of April II, 1861, is Of course dwelt
upon gravely. 1t is by reference to this
proclamation that the Queens proclama-
ton of belligerency has been defended,
but the defense falls to the ground when it
is considered that the purpose of recog-
nizing the South was expressly declared
before it had any proclamation of ours to
Justify it, At the time of recognition there
was no such thing as "a population elevated
into force by the prosecution of war, which,
as Mr.. Canning points out, is the test of bel
ligerent condition" There was no fact of
pre-existing quarrel or misunderstanding to
Justify this wholesale injury. Belligerency,
80 far as the Rebels maintained it, proceeded
argues the Secretary-from the ports of
Great Britain and her provinces. This and
more, he remarks, on the precipitancy of the
Queens declaration, as Mr.. Bright character
lied it--which concession of bellgerency, we
are made to understand, the President re-
CARDS as a part of our case only so far as it
shows the beginning and animus of course
of conduct.
We have neither time nor space to pursue
fully an argument which takes up so many of
our columns But we cannot forbear to COM
mend again the statements that Great Bri-
tain to the end continued to be the arsenal,
the navy yard, and the treasury of the insur-
gents, and that whereas we lost more than q
million of tons shipping by the war waged by
Anglo-Rebeldom, Great Britain increased heI
shipping correspondingly by l, ,120,G50 tons.
Approaching the direct question of the claims,
our State Department complains that month
after month the Queens Courts consumed in
qulbbling over statutory technicalities, which
Parliament might have settled in q
moment by an act. Learned counsel
gave sanction to artful devices of deceit,
and the English Government excused itself
by alleged defects of law and municipal
regulations. Why not have repaired the law
Why not have taken the risk of doing damage
to two individuals like Laird and Prioleau in
stead of wreaking desolaton upon grea
and friendly nation? We need not pursue
the narrative of these claims, still deeply in
teresting to every American, still insisted
upon with the constancy we owe to principle
even more than to outraged feeling Wha
Mr.. Golden said Mr.. Fish now most oppor
tunely recalls-''You have been carrying oi
war against the United States from thes
shores and have been inhicting damag
greater than would have been produced b.
many ordinary wars" Let it be understood
finally, that our State Department lays dow
the principle that no sovereign power Cal
fairly plead defect of its domestic pens
statutes to justify extenuate an interna
tional wrong, or, in other words, that mum
cipal regulations do not constitute the mef
sure of a nations responsibilities.
WOULD SPAIN MAKE WAR ON US?
Fs0m the N. Y. Sun.
Among the arguments put forth by th
Spanish agents and advocates among u.s. pal
AID unpaid-in the State Department and OF
Oh ito deter the American people fror
Going their duty to Cuba, is the danger of
var with Spain. This has boen especial
fdwelt upon by the Spanish journal N OT0nist
I in this city. That paper has exhibited to L
| the Spanish navy, iron-clads an
all, coming up the Bay of New Yorl
under full head of steam, and taking this me
tropolis captive, or putting it to a ransor
of two or three hundred millions of dollars
Other advocates of Spanish tyranny paint 70