The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-09
which General Grant will be compelled to

which General Grant will be compelled to
pursue.
Democrats affect no tenderness for General
Grant; but they are unwilling to see him
bumiliated when he maintains the honor and
dignity of the country. They will support
him in a policy Of, honest, impartial neutrality,
because such a policy is not his, but the long
settled pelicy of the Government, from which
he cannot deviate if he would We have a
treaty of amity and with Prussia;
we have also q treaty of amity and commerce
with France; and botho OF these treaties remain
in full force. Our peaceful relations with
neither nation can be sundered by the Presi-
dent, but only by Congress. And so long as
we are at peace, the neutrality laws, which
were passed before General Grant was born,
leave him no other liberty than to maintain
neutrality with a proclamation or to maintain
il without one.
Neutrality in foreign wais being the set
tied policy of our Government, and the clear
duty of every administration, no political
party can ever gain anything by espousing
the cause of a foreign belligerent; and least
of all the party that is responsible for the
Government. When the current of popular
feeling runs in favor of one side, an opp0si-
ton party might indeed be tempted to turn
the current against the administration; but it
is sheer faulty for it's professed supporters
to stir up a feeling which renders neutrality
difficult. This is the folly which so many
Republican politicians are now per-
petrating, and which compels Gene
raj Grant to announce a proclamation
which will bring him into antagonism
with his party. If Democrats had
attempted to make party capital out of the
pardonable sympathies of our German citi-
zens, their course would be Ineligible,
though not wise. Opposition to General
Grant is their party cue; but an indlscrimi-
mating opposition is too apt to recoil to be of
any real service. We could not attack General
Grant for maintaining neutrality without
attacking principles on which our Govern
ment has been conducted from the beginning
by all our wisest statesman. And as the Gov
eminent must necessarily be neutral, no party
can do it any damage by attacking it when it
is SO strongly entrenched behind a long line
of honored precedents from which no admin
i~stration has ever deviated.
Even If any other course were open to our
Government than honest neutrality, it would
still be idle and childish to carry this ques-
ton into our party politics. This war will
probably be ended before General Grants
term expires; or if not, its character will have
SO changed that no opinions we can now form
will be adapted to the state of facts in the
Presidential election of 1872. If it we're per-
missible to take sides, neither political party
can tell now on which side it would wish to
stand when the war has made further pro-
gress. The Emperor of France may die or
be de%throned, and the war be continued by
a French republic, to which a sister republic
could wish no ill; or Great Britain may be-
come the ally of Prussia, in which case we
might seize the opportunity to force q settle
ment of the Alabama claims; or half a dozen
other contingencies may arise which would
render a previous committal embarrassing.
No wise politician can wish his party to
evince any leaning to either side in the pre-
sent state of the contest, even if it were a
proper subject of party action. But the
policy of neutrality is so safe for all parties,
SO simple, so accordant with duty and uni
form precedents, that when General Grant
publishes his proclamation we hope it may
receive the undivided support of the country,
leaning to either ~belligerent. l