The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-03
AN ATOM OF CUBAN SENSE.

From the W Y. World. r
''The next thing done was to purchase small
schooner, and place on board small cargo OF arms.
A large vessel and cargo were not risked for the
Junta believed that though Secretary Fish said they
could shin them and Collector GrnneI said he
would clear the vessel, the Ukited States Marshal
would not permit her departure.
'Marshal Harlow was invited to go on board the
schooner The Marshal examined the ships papers,
found them 'all right, and said he had no obstacle
Maria, Captain Tmgard, sailed for Cuba with 1900
mnskets, and due proportion OF cartridges and
"The Government was duly Informed OF what was
going on last evening. The state Department tele-
graphed that 4 all was regular as represented, no
'This is all the Cubans ask. They need no more"
N. Y. Sun.
We publish the above statement, not be-
cause we have reason to believe it truthful,
but because it displays the folly which has
thus far marked the conduct of the Cubans.
The organ of the Junta in this city now de-
clares that the permission of this Govern
ment to purchase in and ship from its ports
arms and munitions of war, as a commercial
transaction, sis all the Cubans ask" This
permission they have always had, but the fact
seems never to have dawned upon the fatuous
managers of the cause of Cespedes till now.
Traffic and commerce in warlike materials
are not forbidden to its citizens by neutral
government during foreign war, for war is
the only promoter of such traffic and COM
and powder in the United States
bound to inquire of q customer from
Cuba, seeking such contraband of war; what
relation the latter bears to the legal
authority of the island Outsiders can not
only sell such articles to insurrectionists in
another country, but can transport the same
on the high seas, subject only to the bellige-
rent right of capture. This, with brief ex-
ception in 1886, has been the law of this
country, from the famous declaration Of the
first Secretary of State, Mr.. jefferson, in 1898,
to Mr. Tenant the French Minister, that
''our citizens have always been free to make,
vend, and export arms, down to the declara-
tion of the last Secretary of State, Mr.. Fish,
early in the summer of 1863, to members of
the Cuban Junta, that they could buy in
this country as much munition of war as they
pleased, and that the Government itself would
sell to them. This rule of neutral right and
duty was distinctly announced by this Gov
eminent during the Crimean war, by the an
nual message of the President to the Con-
gress of 1866.
The only exception to this rule was made
by this Government during the patriot War
in Canada, in 183S-(See Vol ", Statutes at
Large, p. 212)-when our customs officers
were required to Seize all arms or munitions
Of war about to pass the frontier, for any place
within any foreign State or colony "conter.
minous with the United States" But this
law of 1888 was limited TO life of two years,
and was careful to provide that nothing in il
should ''extend to or interfere with any trade
in arms or munitions of war, conducted in
vessels by sea, with any foreign port OF
| place whatsoever, or with any other trade
/ which might have been lawfully carried on,
before the passage of this act, under the law
of nations and the provisions of the act hereby
amended" :" Il, .s ..
Nobody now disputes that trade in contra
band of war between belligerent and neu-
trail, within the territory of the latter, is law
! full both by municipal and international law.