The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-25
BLESSED ARE THE PEACE-MAKERs.
Eyo9y fhe A. y World

From the N. Y. World.
Nassau-not of the Rhine but of the Bahamas
-has this winter been prolific in the literature
of ssletters." Hence issued our friend Doctor
Vinton's prayerful epistle. Alas is it not sad
that the prayers of the righteous avail so little,
for does not the heather Sumner continue to
rage3 And now an extinct diplomatic volcano
In the same region has burst into action, and
shot two columns of flames and ashes as far as
New York. In plain prose, our esteemed
fellow citizen General James Watson Webb has
written us tremendous letter. nina
tory and explanatory. 1t seems that last
January there appeared in these columns a
communication signed "a Veteran which has
given offense to General Webb, and from which
he now Sindiqates himself, But on the thres-
hold he peremptorily though with due cour-
tcsy demands the name of our correspondent.
Now on this, from considerations of mere
humanity we pause, or at least defer posi-
tive answer, till, as we trust restored to health
and habitual equanimity, the General returns
home. Veteran" is, we may concede, mill
tary man of the naval branch. Our absent
townsman wears laurels too. There are ashes,
too, which never entirely cool. Wonted fires
live in many an aged bosom. The risk of pre-
cipitating septuagenarian duel we cannot
bring ourselves to encounter.
1t may be said that the barbarism of personal
responsibility" Is at an end and is superseded
by the Congressional system of exchanging
vulgar epithets with impunity, as illustrated by
Butler and Blaine. 1t was, indeed, matter of
surprise to US the other day to see 1t stated that
place on a committee by saying ''he would hold
any one responsible who assailed him; but
Senator Sumner countenances the pacific policy,
and Butler blackguards men as safely as he once
bullied women. But our "Veterans" are of the
old-fsshioned pugnacous kind, and mischief
might come of it. Hence, in the interests of
humanity, we pause.
AS to General Webb's vindication, we must
leave our readers to judge of it for themselves.
The history of the 'Alice Grey" with the Sun
day morning pursuit latter prayers" with the
French admiral and his band playing Yankee
Doodle" as the ships went out, aud ''he, in full
uniform" "See the Conquering Hero Comes as
they returned. is in the Generals best style.
And yet, somehow, the names of the Wachusett
and Captain Napoleon Bonaparte Collins and
Brazil dimly bring back to us some dismal and
discreditable incidents of eur civil war which
one would think General Webb would
rather have forgotten. Did not this
same Wachusett and this same Captain sCol-
lins, at Mr.. Webbs instance, steal the Florida
at Bahia from the waters of a friendly
power? And was not our government, even in
the agony of intestine war, obliged to go down
on its knees to the slave-owning empire of Bra
I'll and beg pardon for what was done? And
did not Mr.. Seward promise to send back the
| "Pirate?" And did not Admiral Porter, then in
| command at Hampton Roads, anchor the prize
conveniently in the main channel at Newport
| News and then have her sunk by huge trans
port? Can General Webb tell us how that hap
pened to be advised in time? These, we say, are
the painful memories which this new contro-
versy revives; and we refer to them timidly, in
the sincere hope that nothing we have said may
tempt either of the parties to renew or prolong
it, AT any rate, before permitting septuagena-
rian horse-pistol single combat to become immi-
nent, we must have permission to draw one
medtative inhalation, and to consider the
blessedness of the state of peace-makers.