The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1870-06-15

long files, long after they had become
non combatant. No protest was en-
tered by our Government against
these barbaric horrors, and yet every
one of the victims, the patriot Goir-
cour;a among the rest, could have
been saved had the President under
| stood his mission.
To an equal extent do we discover
the incapacity of the Administration
to deal with foreign questions, by its
invasion. In this latter case the
President follows American historic
precedent by issuing a proclamation.
We do not learn, however, that before
he issued it he bargained with the
British Minister that, for this great
service, we should expect him to send
a dispatch to the acting authorities in
| Canada, to the effect that no American
prisoners should be executed in cold
blood. Indeed, it would appear by
/ the tenor of the Presidents procIama-
ton that he could not have made any
such name endeavor ; but that, on the
contrary, he was utterly Indifferent on
the subject. His language is: "And
1 do warn all persons that, by commit
ting such legal acts, they will forfeit
all right to the projection of this Gov
ernmcnt, or to its Gatrrjeeence IN their
behalf to rescue them from the consequences
of their o,0n acts" Now, If the Presi-
dent had not, previous to the issuance
of this proclamation, effected a MEM
orandum agreement with the British
Government, to the effect that Amer
lean citizens taken captive, dhring the
Fenian invasion, should rot be eXecu-
ted, he is not fit to have charge of the
interests of this nation. If he did not
also take similar %precaution to provide
with the British Minister what should
be officially understood as 'fc~onsegnenees
of their own acts," he abandoned the
great doctrine of our war; and, so far
rs his intervention was concerned, he
relinquished our captured citizens to
be hung, drawn, quartered, or blown
from the mouth of cannon, according
to British practice, with a. much in
difference rs he would knock the ashes
from his cigar.
We feel, however, that the Amer
lean people and the Republican party
will not justify General Grant in this
heartless attitude. In the first place,
the American Constitution knows no
distinction between its citizens, wheth-
or of native or of foreign birth. In
the next, many native farmers boys
were pulled into the Fenian tide that
lately swept toward the British bord-
err; but finally, and most important to
OUR protest-it is n detestable heresy
against American patriotism TO say
that q citizen, because of m overt act
against a ncighbor, forfci,s that natur-
al yearning which n parental Govern
ment must always feel for its children.
1t is not only n political heresy, but a
hcresy against human nature, to pre-
tend that any Government can dis
charge itself from that natural inclina-
ton to save its citizens from the con-
sequences of their acts whenever they |
become unfortunate, any more than it
can be said that n parent can become
indifferent to the misfortunes of n
child Such a hcartlcss, cowardly and
unprincipled Government as could do
this would be unworthy of existence ;
and every American patriot will turn
his back upon General Grant in his
utterance of such Il sentiment. 1t will
be well for Gen Grant if the Canadians
governed by a wiser spirit than his
own, do not take him at his word, and
hang any of the Fenian prisoners.
Such an event would efectually dis
pose of him from among the list of
Presidential candidates, (if, such pos
be not out of Thought alrealy,)
and would, with equal certainty, wipe
the Canadian Dominion from the
Northern face of our continent.
Such a mistake on their part is now,
however, we'll nigh out of calculation;
but the Cuban revolution and its at
tendant atrocities still exists, and
ought to be stopped at once. What
is more, the new American doctrine
of "no execution of captivcs," should
be at ono imposed upon the Spanish
butchers i'll the most peremptory man
ner. There is no reason why we
should any longer deal gingerly with
Spain in relation TO these Cuban hor-
rors. That claim TO our forbearance,
which she at first put in (as being her.
self engaged in a war for liberal insti-
tutions), car no longer serve her since
she has relapsed to monarchy, and we
should at nee bring her to her senses,
and at the same time vindicate human.
ity by an immediate recognition of the
native Cubans as belligerents at war.