The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-21
THE POLITICAL SITUATION.
: Spirit ofthe Times.

The country at large is delighted to see
that Congress has at length aroused itself
against the Cuban policy of General Grant,
and that among the ablest voices which de.
nounce him for his pusillanimity are those
who stand foremost in the Republican ranks
They have perceived, as we told them they
would more than month ago, that the Re-
publican party was losing its hold upon the
hearts of the people through the Presidents
mistakes, and that unless they came quickly
to the rescue, and followed the lead of Gene
rails Banks, Logan, Morton, and other brave
spirits in the loyal ranks, the affection of the
masses would become inverted, and we shall
lose not only the next Presidency, but the
majority of both houses of Congress in the
fall elections.
Until within few months the Spirit sup
ported the Cuban policy of the administra-
ton to the extent of endorsing its non-pro-
clamation of belligerent rights. We took this
position when the American clamor in behalf
of the insurgents first broke out. We gave
as our first reason for forbearance that Spain
was herself engaged in struggle for repub-
lican liberty which would result in the eman-
cipation of her provinces; and next, that the
proper settlement of the Alabama claims
with England was a matter of such para
mount importance that it would be
foolish to impair our position in that by any
action which would be deemed weakening to
the main point at issue. Since then, how
ever, Spain has thrown off all pretensions to
republicanism; since then the insurgent Gu
bans have proclaimed emancipation to the
slave; and during period of eighteen months
''Spain, to use the language of General
Grants own message, ''has not been able to
suppress the opposition to Spanish rule on
the island, nor to award speedy justice to all
nations, or citizens of other nations when
their rights have been invaded"
This altered the state of things materially.
1t disposed at once of the natural sympathy
which we had felt for the Spanish struggle,
and concentrated it solely on the Cuban cause.
1t permitted us toremind ourselves that Spain
had recognized the Confederates as q mari
time belligerent but three months after the
outbreak of the rebellion; and that, therefore,
the plainest rule of retaliation warranted our
stepping in and making a proclamation of
like character to hers, in behalf of men who
had raised the flag of ''republicanism against
monarchy, and emancipation to the slave
Still, we did not interfere, hoping for pro-
gress in the English question; but when we
found there was no progress there, that the
English caricaturists were representing Lord
Clarendon as landing a star-spangled fish
amid the jeers of a surrounding multitude;
and perceived, at the same time, that our
succeeded in contracting for thirty gunboats
to be built in our waters to hunt down the
American youth who might be caught swim
ming in the Cuban tide, we came to the con-
clusion that we had waited long enough.
We then protested, in unmistak-
able terms, against the false and
cowardly policy of the administration; de-
nounced the gunboat speculation as a viola
ton of neutrality, ard pointed out the double
dealings of our Minister to Spain, whose in
terest it had become to keep the Cuban con-
iict up, as the preliminary to hundred
million job, and as an auxiliary to the fiuc-
tuations of Spanish bonds on the London
Stock Exchange and Paris Bourse. But what
was the worst feature of the American atti-
tude in this shameful complication, was the
dull Indifference shown by the President to
the murders perpetrated by the Spanish
butchers upon captiyes in cold blood,
many of whom were citizens of the
Ito reasen from his Fenian proclamation, as
well as from his Cuban policy) that citizen
once guilty of allowing his patriotism to run
into neighboring quarrel is dead to this
country, and not even to be inquired after.
That Grant has acted upon this mere soldiers
theory, is proved by his own words when he
says "on either side the contest has been
conducted, and is still carried on, with a
lamentable disregard of human life and of
the usages and practices which modern civili-
zation has prescribed in mitigation of the
necessary horrors of war" and that he has
not the capacity to act upon any higher
theory, is shown by his lamentable dullnsss
to the fact that great principle had twinned
with emancipation as the product of our war.
in the new doctrine established by botl