The New York herald., 1869-04-08
Prominent Departures.
Diplomatic Faliacies and National
Hopes.

Hopes.
The telegraph brings us some very contra
dctory assurances relative to the attitude held
by the government at Washington towards the
Cubans, who are now struggling for liberty
and independence. We are told that Congress
will authorize the recognition Of belligerent
rights on the part of the revolutionsts that
Admiral Hoff is ordered to stop the departure
of expeditions from the Mississippi river, and
that ''the representatives of the Cuban revo-
luton in Washington have been given to un-
derstand that the administration would not
regard with favor, in the question of the Pc
ruvian monitors, any act likely to interfere
with the commercial interests of any Power
friendly to the United States" This last diplo-
matte phrase, stripped Of its verbiage, means
Spain.
Now, we protest against this double-faced
system of diplomatic lying and deception and
long for an administration bold and brave
enough to tell the truth. There is not man
in Washington, whether in the government or
out Of 1t, nor man, woman or child in the
whole country, who does not know that the
entire body of the American people would be
glad to have Admiral Hod not stop any expe-
dition intended to aid the struggling people of
Cuba, and that they (the men in administra-
ton included) would hail with joy the fact of
transfer of the Peruvian iron-clads to the free
government of General Cespedes. If the OBJ
ject of these double-tongued assurances is to
;oL "a cxsI.
miserably in that; for there are no statesmen
better versed in the lies Of diplomacy than those
of Spain. But if the object is to convey distrust
and despair to a people struggling, unarmed
and unaided, but hopefully, against an organ
lied and ruthless power, then is it success
for the heart of every freedom-loving man sinks
within his bosom when told that the govern
ment of the great republic is hostile to his
cause. For him the lies of diplomacy are
great but sad truths.
The cause of free Cuba is cause dear to
every American heart. 1t ia a part of the
march Of American ideas on this Continent,
and yet it has been resisted and counteracted
by Cabinet after Cabinet at Washington,
through cowardly policy which has led every
administration to belle its deepest convictions
and to assist in defeating its own aspirations.
The Jefiersonian policy, as evinced in Louisi-
ana and practised by Jackson in Florida, is
admitted to be the only possible policy for the
United States to pursue. Yet John Quincy
Adams in 1925, Miard Fillmore in 1850 and
poor Pierce in 1854 each in his turn, stopped
the advance of the American idea in Cuba and
riveted anew the chains of despotic Spain on
that unhappy island Had either of them had
the courage to avow his own convictions and
admit, in diplomatic parlance, the inevitable
tmarch of this country, the result would have
proved that page to be the brightest in the
history of the administration. But while some
Cabinet members were hoping and conniving
with the march of freedom the Secretary
of State would be industriously creating STUN
bling blocks for its path, and with admitted
lies defeating the hopes Of himself and his
companions. From the tenor of the dispatches
which emanate from Washington we very much
fear that the Cabinet OF General Grant is com
mitting the same gross mistakes with its pre-
decessors and blurring the most promising
record which can open for it.
We now want bolder and more truthful
policy from the administration. Spain has
held Cuba only by the sufferance and aid of
the United States since the year 1925. But for
that aid Bolivar in that year, Lopez in 1850
and Quitman in 1854 would have driven the
| Spanish power from its last hold on the New
World. To-day the Cubans, driven to des-
peration by tyranny, have asserted their
rights, and the Spanish cohorts hold only the
towns where they can gather in mass or rely
upon the guns Of their feet. They ask only
for the common rights of belligerents--
the right to purchase arms and ships
and the moral support which would
flow from an open and frank expression on the
part Of those who favor their cause. The first
should be accorded to them by Congress in
the immediate passage Of the Banks resolu-
tions, and the second will become the new
administration much better than diplomatic
assurances In direct antagonsm with the hopes
of every party in the country and orders tc
Admiral IIoT which every member Of the
| Cabinet hopes will not be executed. In our
recent civil war Spain played q boldcr
part. She wished to see our country
divided aud our Union destroyed, and hardly
had the echo from the first gun against Fort
Sumter reached her shores when the Cabinet
at Madrid issued the orders conceding bel
ligerent rights TO the rebels and converting the
harbors of Cuba into cradles and refugees for a
host Of blockade runners. Let US. then, have