The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-15
WEDNESDAY, JUNE Is, 1870.
THE CUBAN QUESTION.

PUBLIC interest in the Cuban question will be
materially increased by the speech delivered
by General Banks, in the House of Repre-
sentatives, yesterday. He takes direct issue
with the administration, and as he is the big
gun of the Cuban cause, Chairman of the
Committee on Foreign Affairs, and an orator
of no mean pretensions, it is not surprising
that he created q sensation. 1t was perfectly
natural that he should be applauded by gal
leries we'll filled with Cubans who have come
here to fight their battles on our soil, and
who view the possible expenditure of
American blood and American money on their
behalf with as much philosophic indifference
as Artemus Ward displayed in regard to the
fate of such of his distant relatives as were
drafted for service against the Rebellion. 1t
is always a popular thing to make speeches
for liberty and independence, and
defamation against tyrants sounds nearly as
well in Congress as on the stump. Even if
the Cubans had issued no bonds, and if our
spread-eagle orators did not cherish the
slightest hope of pecuniary reward from the
creoles, they would still be 10th to lose the
opportunity for fine speech-making which
this domestic convulsien affords Ever since
the Government was established similar ques-
tions have arisen and while, to the credit of
American administrations, they have refrained
from active interference, there was always
hot-headed party in Congress ready and
anxious to plunge the nation into inextricable
difficulties Washington laid down the true
rule when he warned his countrymen against
entangling alliances, and in resisting the
popular pressure for a close affiliation with
the French revolutionists, he discharged a
sacred duty only one degree less meritorious
and useful than his military services
1t may be a fine thing for Con-
gressmen eager to earn oratorical
fame, or possibly something of greater
pecuniary value, to become the champions
of guerillas, to exalt voluntary exiles into the
purest of patriots, and to urge the American
people to become parties to desperate quar-
rel. But the nation which is to foot the bill
of all these fine experiments, and which is
now slowly recovering from the exhaustion of
its own bloody war, will pause long and
ponder deeply before it departs from the ira
ditional policy which has SO admirably served
its true interest All Europe groans under
burdens imposed by unnecessary aud
unwise interference in foreign wars, and the
modern experience furnished by the French
attempt to establish Macmillan in Mexico,
and the English efforts to aid the Southern
Rebellion, furnish new proofs of the folly of
a departure from the strict line of interna-
tional law and the established rule of our own
Government. 1t will be time enough to
grant belligerent rights to the Cuban insur-
gents after their title to such recognition is
founded on an indisputable basis, and
after the arguments and statements contained
in the late special message of the President
are conclusively refuted.
Presuming General Banks own statement
that the forces now in the field in Cuba con-
sist of about 55, 600 Spanish soldiers against
10000 or 10000 Cubans to be correct, our
own late history shows how desperate must
be the prospects of the insurgents under
these circumstances. The best thing that
can be done for all parties is, to hasten the
suspension of such an unequal conflict more
especially as it has degenerated into m massacre,
murder, plunder and devastation, or the sort
of war that jeff. Davis might
have waged for time after
the surrender of the armies of Lee aud John
ston, if he had not been captured, and if he
had been able to keep few bands of que
rilas in the field. 1t is beneath the dignity of
a great government to N the embers of such
an expiring flame. 1t should strive rather
to extinguish them in the most speedy mau-
ner possible, and display its regard for those
who are implicated in an unsuccessful re-
bellion by efforts to secure for them the best
possible terms of reconciliation.