The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-20
THE FATAL BLUNDER.
Fro1n the ~. y. Sun.

From the ". y sun.
To carry the next House of Representatives,
and more especially the next Presidency, the
Republicans need a new hold on the peoples
hearts. The tie that has bound together the
incongruous elements of which the party has
been composed since the outbreak of the war
is dissolved, and some other bond of union is
now indispensable to prevent the organiza-
tion falling in pieces.
The Cuban question, and the still greater
and broader propositions on which that ques-
ton is based, rose as if providentially to
afford the very materials for this new bond of
union. But the majority of the Republicans
in Congress, instead of eagerly seizing and
apprepriating these materials, are disposed to
recklessly throw them away, or to barter them
for promises of Office for themselves.
The Cuban question is not new in its ma
ture. 1t is essentially tn same as the Ame-
rican Revolution of 1776. 1t is the struggle
of an American people to be relieved of
European tyranny. Such a struggle always
receives the sympathy and support of
every American heart. This is particularly
true of Cuba, because the expressions and
wrongs to which she has been subjected inf
nitely transcend any ever inflicted upon any
British colony in the worst period of history.
There is also another powerful impulse in
this case. 1t is a determination of the peo-
pie of the United States that at no distant
period European domination shall cease in
every part of the North American continent
and its dependencies.
While our people will not prematurely
hasten the solution of this problem, they
nevertheless will insist that the issue shall
never be evaded, but be manfully met, aud
settled on its merits, whenever it arises in a
case like that of Cuba. The administration,
yielding to the base counsels of Sidney Web
CD I;cI e1-,,ll- l..
issue; and it is this exhibition of the white
feather, at the demand of a bankrupt, third
rate European power, which is arousing the
indignation of every free spirit in the land
and dividing and running the Republican
party. Honest and brave men who do not
wear the collar of the administration are
ashamed of its pusillanimous course, which
they know is the joint product of cupidity
and cowardice.
Had the Republican party been guided by
ordinary sagacity, it would have pressed into
its service the indomitable love of freedom
and the passion for the early exclusion of
foreign rule from the Western Hemisphere.
But the Cabinet and the Republican majority
in Congress have worse that refused to take
advantage of it. Because Hamilton Fish s
son-in-law gets seventeen thousand dollars
in gold at time from Spain, Congress and
the President have fallen on their knees and
kissed sceptre that is so foul and feeble that
even the European adventurers to whom it
is freely offered spit upon it with contempt.
The halting of the Republicans in Congress
will not arrest the march of American princi-
Piles on this continent. The sons of Cuba
will achieve their freedom by themselves,
amid bloodshed and desolation. The move
ment for human rights will go on and tri.
umph, but the Republican party will be left
far in the rear, with Grant and Fish and q
mass of such dead material on its decayine
hands.