The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-15
THOMAS IN THE CABINET.


Not long ago we had something to say of
Thomas in the Senate. On this occasion we
shall confne ourselves to the case of his
fellow-unbelie in the Cabinet.
On the Goth of January, 1870, Secretary
Fish sent despatch to General Slckles, the
United States Minister Resident at Madrid,
in which occurs the following passage:-
81 observe you think the Spanish campaign In
Cuba has thus far failed Your standpoint OF Obser
vation Is good one and trust you Will keep the
department constantly advised Of Madrid opinions
on this subject especially as the news received
here though uctuating, indicates, in the main, the
reverse"
1t will be freely admitted that General
Sickles was in the best position to learn the
truth about the Spanish operations in Cuba,
and that his testimony should have had great
weight; in fact, that it was but one remove
from the official utterance of Spain herself,
his knowledge coming largely through officials
who were sure to know the re al state of Spanish
affairs in the Antilles. The Spanards in Cuba
could not falsify to their home Government
as they have falsifed in this country for the
sake of preventing the recognition of the
Cubans as belli6erents. But when MIR. Fish
said that 'the news received here" indicated,
sin the main, the reverse" of the failure of
the Spanish campaign in Cuba, he must have
forgotten the official information which he
had received but few days previously from
Mr.. Phillips, the United States Consul at San
tiago de Cuba.
In the correspondence of the New York
Times of January ga paper that has sup
ported the Fish policy since our neighbors
rose against their foreign oppressors-we were
told that the Spanish Government in Cuba
was ''nothing"-that it was "a mere cypher.
But successes strengthen the powers that be.
Decided defeats of the patriots would have
made the regularly constituted authority of
Spain supreme. But the despotism of that
organized mob-the volunteers their
blood-thirsty and ruthless barbarianism, have
| been standing proofs to the world that the
regularly constituted Spanish Government in
! Cuba has been farce-witness the moderate
Dulce driven from the island-and that the
cause OF the PATRIOTS naturally strong has
been gaining in strength with time. More
over, when Secretary Fish put his opinion
against that of General Sickles, whose advan-
tages for arriving at the truth were admitted
in the same communication, the Spanish
General Pueblo had been absent on a move
ment against the patriots in the interior for
more than a month, and according to Spanish
accounts, had not been heard FROM But in
the 1Ti6une, and other papers of January
2lth-two days before Secretary Fish had
committed himself to such strange opinion
the defeat of Pueblo, with loss of 1900 men,
In his advance against Guaimaro and his sub
account, with the failure of General
Goyeneche in similar movement, was shortly
afterwards confirmed. The same issue of the
J796a2le had accounts from Santiago de Cuba
OF other patriot successes of deep dissatisfac
tion and large desertions among the republi
cans in the troops that had lately arrived from
Spain; and of that Spanish lie, which was an
other sign OF conscious weekness-the for
gerry of an order of surrender from the Cuban
| i'm Nnrly Iy;,h H.
every reason to believe, with the United
States Minister at Madrid, and the Spanish
Government itself (if the adventurers tha
have Spain by the throat can be called by
such name), that the winter campaign oi
the Spaniaras in Cuba had so far failed
And now will neither Thomas in the Senat,
nor Thomas in the Cabinet believe that Cubs
Is fighting hard for her freedom until the
bloody drama, prolonged needlessly, shall
have been rounded out into victory, without
one sympathizing word, or one act of simple
justice on the part of the Government? Il
Thomas had believed himself infallible would
be not have denied even the testimony of hi.
senses? But God forbid that either a Sum
ner or a Fish, or Cabinet or a President
should keep free people from their duty
} These mon are the nations servants, not the
dictators of the national policy.
: How long shall this cruel, useless war, will
the constant murder of innocents that accom-
( panies it, go on at the very door of the re
continue to ignore what Spain has beer
, forced to recognize? And how long will W.
continue to give the enemies of democracy il
9 CuDa all possible advantages, and rigidl,
withhold them from the struggling patriots
4 The least that we can do--and It must be don
r proml tly to save the national honor-is Il
: put the beiligerents on an equal foeting.