New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-06-14
THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.

THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
Unable to concur with all the views ex-
pressed by the President in the Message yes
terday sent to Congress, we can nevertheless
see no force in the objections urged against
the propriety of his sending it. Why indeed
should not the President address Congress on
this subject A war is in progress almost in
sight of our shores. Half our cOastwise trade
passes through the cruising ground of the
powerful squadron maintained by one
of the combatants. American citizens
have been seized and executed. Expedi-
tons have been fitted out on American
soil for the one, and gunbOats in Amer-
can ship-yards for the other; persistent de-
mand is made on the Government for the
recognition of belligerent rights, and it is as
persistently opposed; Congress has called on
the President heretofore for such information as
he is able to communicate it is about to hear
careful reports of its Committees and to de-
bate the whole subject. Why should not the
President communicate, in the customary way
at this crisis, the facts in his possession, and
the views on which he is actingf
1t is with these facts and views, not with
the every way proper and respectful present.
ment of them to Congress, that we find some
occasion for difference.
The President does not seem to us quite
lust in his statement of the progress made
by the insurgents. 1t is probably true that
they hold no towns, and certainly true that
they hold no seaports. But do the gen.
tlemen about the State Department happen to
remember how many towns and seaports
id nrth he hnfnpg
flight of Maximilian7 There are more Cubans
engaged in the movement than seem fairly
described in the Presidents phrase,
"a portion of the inhabitants" Is
there any reason for believing that
any considerable portion of the native
inhabitants is not in full, hearty sympathy
with the aims Of the instruction Would it
not have been more accurate statement of the
case to admit that the native population, wher-
ever not in revolt, is kept from it only by
the presence of Spanish troops that the whole
country is hOneycOmbed with secret societies
hostile to Spain, and that their hostility flames
out wherever they have arms, or whenever
the troops are removed; that the Spanish flag
protects nothing on the whole island of Cuba,
where there are not Spanish muskets beneath
it Is it not substantially true that the entire
native population sympathizes with the few in
| surrectionary parties which have been able to
get arms; that Cuba is as essentially hostile
to De Rodas as Mexico was Cat the gloomiest
moment of those gloomy fortunes which we
never deserted) against Macmillan and Ba-
| zaine2 Is it not worth remembering that Spain,
at her best estate in this century, has never
yet been able to subdue a revolt in a single
one of her Spanish American Colonies, after it
attained even such dimensions as the Presi-
dent admits in Cuba that the cause of all of
them has at times seemed as unprOmsing as
that of Cuba to-day, and that through all dis
cOuragements, with just such irregular, Spanish
guerilla warfare as is now shown in Cuba they
struggled on, and on, and On-the revolution
sometimes smouldering, sometimes flaming
fiercey till in each case at last it swept
over and mastered the countryY
We have a lOng-establisbed habit of SYM
patty with these Spanish American colonies.
1t was strong when Spain was strong; it is not
likely to abate now that Spain is grown at
once weaker and more tyrannical, and
herself governed by the Cabinet of
lucky instruction, merclessy butch
ers all insurgents against her latest
rulers. We have a traditional sympathy with
all peoples struggling for their liberties it is
a custom as native to the mind of the
American of this generation as rev.
erence for the character of Washing
ton and the President must not be
surprised if Congress insists on its expression.
We do not say Congress should recognize bel
ligerent rights-that is very grave question.
We do say it should in every possible way
give voice to the general desire of the
people that the Cubans now struggling
against the tyranny of a cruel and corrupt
power three thousand miles away, for the
right of self-govemment, mayattain it..
Meantime, we beg the Cubans to observe the
Presidents grave and deserved rebuke for
the violation of all rules of civilized war,
of which they, in common with the
Spaniards, have been guilty. Like an honest
soldier, he revolts from a cause that props it
self by the murder of prisoners; and therein
the sentiment of the United States and of the
civiIizpn world suStains him