The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-01-13

for the blockade of the Southern ports. But
even supposing that the recognition could not,
in these respects, be considered as precipitate,
is there no foundation for the complaint Of
the United States with regard to itp The an
swer is thought to be absolutely conclusive
that they had blockaded the ports and thereby
themselves proclaimed the belligerency
of the Southern States But is it possible
that Government has not the power, at the
outset of an insurrection, to blockade ports
which may happen to have been seized by
Rebels, without conferripg upon them belli-
gerent rights, and emitting them to the poll
tical status which those rights involve? How
would it suit Great Britain to accept this
doctrine for her own ports of Cork and Water
ford, supposing them to have been suddenly
seized by Irish rebelsp Is it, or is 1T not the
fact, that when these very United States
were rebels against Great Britain, we block
AIDED some Of their ports, and, SO far from
admitting that belligerent rights were
thereby accorded to them, treated as
a cdSuS beAi the admission of some
of their cruisers into q foreign port? 1t Is
not here asserted that to these arguments on
the American side no answer can be given on
the part of Great Britain; it is not even as
serted that they have not been answered by
our Government in q manner which, to many
persons, will not unreasonably appear con-
elusive; all that is contended for is that it is
really absurd to assert that on this point the
American Government is so absolutely and
hopelessly destitute of all shadow of argu-
ment and all possible pretext for complaint
that this is q case to which arbitration is
wholly inapplicable. 1t is perfectly possible,
and even probable, that Lord Clarendon's
reply to Mr.. Fish might be considered as
conclusive by the arbitrator. What seems
impossible is that any conceivable arbi-
traitor at all qualified for the position should
consider that there was absolutely nothing to
be said on the other side. Another answer,
supposed to be decisive as against the view
taken by the United States in regard to the
recognition is, that in his correspondence
with foreign Governments on the subject,
their Minister spoke of the insurrection as
a regularly organized "civil war;" But it is
surely not difficult to see that this argument,
though q fair weapon of controversy, is
by no means unanswerable. The insurrec-
tion of the sh-American colonies
which led to their independence was
as regularly organized; and if any
one had said that those colonies had levied
Imminent, fragrant, deadly war" against
Great Britain, he would have said that which
was neither very unnatural nor very incon.
sistent with the facts of the csse yet no one
can imagine that such statement would
have prevented an immediate declaration of
war on the part of Great Britain if any foreign
State had dared to accord to the colonists the
status of belligerency. On the whole, it
seems impossible at the same time to pretend
to impartial judgment, and to deny that,
whether the view taken by the United States
on this subject be erroneous or not, it rests
upon some plausible foundation.
REFERENCE TO ARBITRATION. -4A
The other great objection on the part of
England will probably be that the proposed
| reference to the judgment of neutral pswer
of her right to recognize the belligerency of
the revolted States would not be consistent
with national self-respect. 1t is true that
this objection has been SO far invalidated as
that, by the Clarendon j Johnson Convention,
England had agreed that this grievance of
recognition should be submitted to the arbi-
traitor appointed to adjudicate upon the Ala
bama claims as one of the data for his guild
ance; but the difference in degree between
this concession and the direct reference now
suggested will bestrongly insisted on. Nor can
it be denied that such amode of deciding such
O question is more alarming to national sus-
capabilities than would be it's decision by
that time-honored tribunal which dispenses
justice through the medium of explosive
compounds. But the question is, which of
these two methods is really most worthy of a
great nation? If it were not for the strange
hallucination which supposes that nations
and individuals are amenabie to different
moral laws, it would be seen that this is a case
in which the more peaceful course is also the
most magnanimous. In civilized society, the
man who, in disputes with his fellows, resorts
to violence rather than to conciliatory inter
position, is not the man who is most
credited with due sense of his own
dignity. Nor is it easy to understand how
State, whose representative was the chief
author of the paragraph in the protocol ap-
pended to the treaty of Paris, in 1856, and
which expressed hope on the part of the
European powers that serious international
differences would in future be referred to
arbitration, can reject arbitration on an occa-
sion such as this. That paragraph must have
been intended, if it had any meaning at all,
to counteraet the undue sensitiyeness of ma
tional honor; and it is not easy to
perceive, if in applicable to this
question Of recognition, to what
great international disputes it can ever be
considered to apply. Reference to arbitration
in such case as this seems almost forced
upon nation which is neither so weak thai
it need be ungenerous, nor of so little account
in the world that it need stake incalculabl,
interests on points of international punctiliC
"a nation which, fourteen years ago, led tn,
way in the onslaught against that pride o.
race which refuses to submit to judicial in
quiry and has been the parent of the mos
calamitous wars that have desolated tn,
world.
IMPORTANCE TO ENGLAND OF PEACE WITT
AMERICA.
There is no need to insist, in the interes
of speedy and peaceful settlement of thi
unhappy dispute, on the general advantage
OF international amity, or on the special i'm
portance to England Of good understanding
with the United States. But there are SOM
: considerations which are apt to be lost sigh
: OF, but which appear to recommend to us