The New York herald., 1870-12-09
C.sa tho Pivot Of Politics and tho Tomb
stone Of Grant. =

'ne trQ1t aS~i0. we believe Cuba to be the
/! Question of questions at this crisis to the
country and to President Grant; to the Presi-
dent In very special sense for, by and with
Cuba, we shrewdly suspect, will bis name and
place in American story stand or fall.
The political affairs Of the Union are threat
ened only too plainly with a period of inco-
herence and party anarchy. The issues on
which the A!rusgles Of ten years have been
conducted are exhaus ed for Party purposes,
though history has yet much to do in develop
ing the great things done on the battlefield and
in the council chamber since the first shot was
fred on Sumter. At the present moment q
standard is required and trumpet call to
rally the wavering ranks Of politicians and
call back stragglers to their duty. Beyond
everything else now the republic requires q
great idea, great action, mighty hand; it
r quires, as the very breath of it's immediate
life, something which shall exhibit soul, fire,
large generou, activity OF heart and brain;
something which shall realize in outward
things the consciousness of greatness, Of an
unique vocation among the worlds nations,
which lies so Deep fixed, and unwavering, in
| the breast Of our people. 1t Is weary OF the
day of small things coming after the day Of
such great things. And it is asking with no
small anxiety what pause has come in the
working Of the great soldier brain, which
restored the Union, that to the President it
seems to fur lish so little material for creating
the enthusiasm which, as general in the field,
he had the power so plentifully to evoke.
We are satisfied that we are about this day
to utter word vital and decisive to the for
tunes of the President, and which, if attended
TO, will 60 far TO redeem that appearance Of
anarchy which is coming over our politics--an
anarchy that, taking shape, may deepen into
disastrous confusion. There is law in the
life of nations which, it cannot be disguised,
this Union has been lately disregarding; and
the disregard of which it is that invariably
leads to political disorder 10 every branch and
part Of the affiirs of State. 1t is this. The
nation that does not discharge actively,
vigorously, Increasingly, unsparingly its duty
in International affairs, outside it's borders,
becomes stricken with helplessness and inco-
herency in its home affairs. Volumes might
be written expounding history on this prnci-
pie. The cause is plain. Great international
action brings out nations very soul Of
souls, and stiles all smallness, all intrigue,
ia those microscopic souied politicians whose
hour of profit always comes when a nation is
not doing its work, as such, upon other
nations, in a grand and unco npromising
manner.
This is in no slight degree the case with
ourselves just now, and it makes plain to
the DISCERNING many things in our present cen
dition otherwise obscure. We have for two
years been in grievous default in the exercise
of our duty as the guardians of American and
republican destinies, in the case Of tortured
aud unhappy Cuba. We have not been
living, in this matter, up to the standard Of
civilization and international duty. We have
been passing by on the ether side while our
brothers were being gagged, garroted, plum
derca, murdered. We have been so busy
on rrelling over our own reconstruction that
we have forgotten that it is the function Of this
Union not to reconstruct itself alone, but total
America, IN all the sublime vast fulness Of
that term, which, on the lips Of great-hearted
men, means not physical continent alone,
but new era Of humanity. It is high time
that this default should cease We are all
bound to make it cease forthwith under penal
ties, penalty Of forfeiture of our political CON-
fort, because of some portion Of that which
is Of all things most precious to Americans
our self-respect.
See how this thing stands, and consider our
whole attitude in reference not only to our
dignity and destiny but to the international
practice Of civilized mankind. For two years
there has been waged in Cuba war simply
Of determination. The case and cause,
and mode Of carrying them on, have
been sharply and uneqnivocally defined.
The Cubans, after centuries Of such misrule as
might make faithless men well nigh doubt the
existence Of God, have determined to free
themselves from Spanish sway; and the
| Spaniards have determined to kill every man,
| woman and child Of the native inhabitants
rather than submit. For two years has the
| at last, there has been placed at the head of
| affairs Valmaseda, one of those butchers
! who represents so faithfully the devil-in-
| spired Spanish conQuisdatores who wrought
| such evil in America; those evil genii who
first possessed the fair broad American land,
and who were expelled by tho brakes and
Raleighs, who preluded our Washingtons and
Grants For two years we have stood by with
our arms folded, passively abettipg, by the
shameful silcace of our mighty voice, whose
lightest whisper would have been as effective
to forbid these things as Heavens lightning is
to split mountains, the contamination of this
overwhelming crime. Now, let it be observed,
that since we commanded the French to depart
e ha,z ,ziEt,aal,r asaauaad ana