The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-24


bold and reckless and compassion for their
IGNORANCE, if not respect for their generous
impulses, should induce the Government to
save them, if possible, from the commission
of offenses which it is far better to prevent
than to punish. I|t
The failure of General Grants administra-
tion to pursue this usual course, and its af-
feoted blindness to enterprises which we're
perfectly notorious, were naturally regarded
by the Cuban agents as proof that the Gov
ernment would give them its secret con-
nivance, if not its open sanction; as proof
that the neutrality laws would be treated as
a dead letter. and that the sympathies of the
administration were really on the side of the
violators of the laws. This was very unfair
and very unhandsome dealing, if the admins
tration intended to act against these enter
prises with vigor and severity when they
reached ripper stage. The organizers and
promoters of such expeditions should not have
been left in doubt as to the mode in which
the Government would treat them. If con-
nivance and secret encouragement were the
policy of the Government, the connivance
should have been uniform and consistent; but
if the Government recognized its duty to en-
force the laws, it should have made its pur-
pose clearly understood as soon as the subject
began to occupy public attention, in order
that the unwary might not be enticed into
such enterprises by the hope of impunity, and
afterwards punished for permitted acts
In this respect, as in most other respects
the course of General Grants administration
has been marked by discreditable vacillation
and laundering. The new President has
marvellous aptitude for dissatisfying all
parties upon almost all questions. In this
Cuban business, he first earned the distrust
of citizens who think the neutrality laws
1 Il l. I r I. I
feited the confidence of the abettors of the
Cubans by his tardy vigor. He cannot re-
cover the forfeited respect of the frst for the
obligation to enforce the laws was as binding
from the beginning as it is at present. If he
had issued a seasonable proclamation, the
mere warning would probably have sufiiced
without any necessity of resorting to punish
ment. Hisrecent vigoris 50 far from atoningfo
his former lenity that it brands the lenity as a
foolish weakness and short-sighted mistake,
by which multltudes have been deluded into
belief that the acts which are now punished
had the secret approval of the Government
His past connivance will cause the Cubans
to hate him as n renegade to their cause
whereas if he had consistently enforced the
laws from the beginning, they would Mt worst
have merely looked upon him as an enemy,
| and more probably as a conscientious officer
| who felt that he had no authority to suspend
execute.
They can now Justly blame him for deluding
them with false hopes while the other party
| blame him, with equal justice, for having
so long shirked plain duty, and created a
necessity for severity by his neglect Of timely
| prevention.
We suppose the truth to be that General
| Grant has changed his opinion as to the
chances of Cuban independence; and having
| become convinced that the cause is hopeless
he wishes to escape the modification of en-
listing his administration on the losing side.
His present opinion is probably correct; but
it is unfortunate for his reputation that he
should have been found, within so short a
| period, favoring opposite sides in the same
contest Besides forfeiting the good opinion
and mourning the odium of all parties by his
inconsistent and tluctuating course he has
! postponed that ultimate annexation of Cuba
to the United States which has long been
expected by our most enlightened states
men, and desired by a majority of
our people. Every premature and un-
! successful attempt to sever Cuba from
! Spain furnishes topics of discouragement
when the time shall be really ripe for the ac-
| QUESTION of that important island Cuba is
too small for an independent nation. It's geo
graphical proximity to the United States
marks out its destiny as part of the Anne
rican Union. We can afford to wait as there
| is no danger that it will pass into the hands
of any other power than Spain; and it is not
expedient for us to attempt to assimilate 6
foreign population of different race, Ian
guage, and religion, until our Union shall
have become knit together and consolidated
after the disintegrating effects of the late
civil war, and the admission of such vas
mass of barbarism and ignorance as the
Southern negroes into our politics. Con-
sidering that Spain itself has Just gone
through a remarkable revolution, and is
striving to establish liberal institutions, i
would not be creditable to our magnanimity
if we should take advantage of her unsettled
state to attempt to wrest from her part o
her dominions which will surely fall to us il
time by the natural progress of events.
BRITISH OPINION OF THE ALABAMI