The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-12

sucn VesselS Dy the shlpS OF the United
States" Whenever an American politician
takes up the question now, however, it is
generally for the mere purpose of going once
more over the old allegations and proofs, with
which ten years of discussion and iteration
have made the public so familiar.
In the meantime, however, the men who
lost their ships during the war, and to whom
the Alabama case has, therefore, a personal
as we'll as political interest, are getting old or
beginning to die off, and, having been
thoroughly familiarized by orators and news
papers with the nature and extent of their
losses, and with the obligation which rests
on England to make them good. and beino
constantly reminded that it is now the bust.
ness of England to come forward at once
with ''the cash, and learning that England
is ready to pay 'the cash" some of them
are not unnaturally anxious to get "the cash"
In. But here the very newspapers which are
most elamorous for ''the cash" step
in and say the sufferers ought
not to receive it except through the Gov
ernment, and by virtue of an agreement with
the Government. In this they are undoubt-
edly right. The owners of vessels DESTROYED
by the Alabama have no direct claim on the
British Government, and the losses they have
suffered were also offenses against the United
States, the atonement for which it belongs to
the United States to exact. But then there
rests on the United States Government an
| obligation of the strongest kind, either to ad-
| just and pay their claims at once itself, and
then take its own time to exact reimburse
ment from Great Britain, or to push the set
tlenent of their claims now with all conve-
nient speed. 1t has no right to use the
claims merely as weapons of offense, and,
| while making the world ring with accounts of
| the destruction Of our commercial navy bv
English cruisers, treat the complaints of the
owners of the navy as of no consequence.
No prospect of advantage to the country at
large through intentional delay in the nego.
tiations will justify total indifference to the
demands of the individuals whosej losses
really give our case most of its weight;
for it is the extent of our losses
which makes it worth while to hold England
to strict account. If the Alabama had
sailed just as she did, but had afterwards done
American commerce no injury, her sailing
would certainly never have been made the
subject of complaint against England.
Now, what are the causes of this unwil.
lingness on the part of the administration
and of portion of the press to define the
satisfaction which Great Britain must give in
order to close the Alabama controversy?
They are two in number one, which proba-
bly, only actuates comparatively small num-
ber of persons, is the desire of revenge
They expect that England will some day get
involved in European war, and that then
the United States will have an opportunity of
paying her off in her own coin; and we can
| tell the Pal Mall Gazette that nothing could
please this class better, or serve its purposes
better, than that fine old rule of international
law, which it says is being revived in Eng
land, that the only obligation which rests on
neutral power with regard to the starting
of war vessels from its ports, for the
service of belligerents, is the obligation of
submitting to their capture without
complaint. If any power in the world has
an interest in preventing the revival of any
such rule, it is certainly England. With this
class, however, there is little use in arguing.
The impolicy of revenge, and the useless.
ness OF nourishing revengeful feelings, and
the essential barbarlsm of introducing re-
vepge as force into politics in our day, is
too well known, and has been too often dwelt
on, to leave any ground for the belief that
those who take this view of the Alabama case
do SO through ignorance. We who believe
that there are such things as principles in
| politics, and that they are not limited in
their application to one country or one CONT
nent, have only one thing to say to these
gentlemen, and that is to request them to
refrain, for decency's sake, from openly
preaching magnanimity and moderation and
| general utilitarianism to Bismarck and King
| William.
The second class consists of persons who
| hope that by holding out we shall get Canada
eNeutudIly III hdtlhlactlOn tne Alabama
| claims. In this class we believe we may in
| clude Harper's Weehly and Senator Trum-
bull. In mentioning these, we mention pro-
badly the two ablest and most respectable
| supporters of the scheme. Senator Trum-
bull has, in recent speech in Chicago set
forth the undeniable advantages political and
economical, both to the United States and to
Canada, of the annexation of the latter. In
| fact, it is something which anybody who
| knows anything of the circumstances of the
! two countries must wish to see brought about;
but it is precisely because we wish to see it
| brought about, and that speedily, that we
deprecate all advocacy of it on this side of the
linein connection with, and especially as a pen
atty levied on England on account of, the Ala
bama case. 1t ought not to be necessary to
| point out to any man who has any familiarity
with history, and has occupied himself with
| politics, that the cession of territory is re-
! garded by all modern nations as a sign of
defeat and humiliation. 1t is something to
which no first class power ever submits, ex-
cept in exchange for something else, or as a
terrible necessity imposed by irretrievable
disaster in war. In the frantic resistance
offered to it by the French, even in the
| throes of despair, we have a striking illustra-
| tion of the horror with which il is regarded
by the leading nations of Europe. With the
| feelings of the French about it, everybody
who is capable of putting himself in
other peoples places-and anybody who
is not ought to let politics, and es-
pecially foreign politics, aloRe-must
| sympathize. Now, Great Britain has not
been defeated in war; she is, therefore, though
willing enough to pay damages for the Ala
| bama depredationS, not prepared to submit