New-York tribune., 1871-10-19
GEN. BUTLER ON l,HE TREATY.

uEN, bUILEh UN LHE IHbhI1
Gen. B. F. Butler brought out a new sub
ject of complaint on Monday night in
Philadelphia, which had the advantage OF
including in one comprehensive summary all
his political failures of the past two years.
| We gave o synopsis of it in advance. Gen.
Butler, as we all know, wanted to fight Great
Britain for the Fenians (or behaved as II ne
did), wanted to fight her for the Alabama
! Claims wanted to fight her for the Gloucester
fishermen, ,and wanted to fight hcr because In
a general sort of way she not friendly.
But when he proposed to lead on to the field
of glory nobody got up to follow him. Inc
Treaty of Washington was signed, with the gen.
eral approval of the country. and although, ike
all treaties which close long dispute, it was
compromise rather than surrender, the ad-
yantages it secured to the United States were
80 obvious that very few, even of the bitterest
enemies of the Administration, Ventured to
oppose 1t. But that Gen. Butler should not
like it was O matter of course. 1t Overthrew
all his pet plans for the formation OF Butler
party, and left him to go before the country
| at most interesting political juncture' aoSo-
lutey without a cry to his back Inc speech
in which he arragncd the labOrs OF the Joint
High Commission is a lament. therefore, over
his numerous guns which would not go OIL,
and trial of them all over again.
If the General had been little more inScn-
uous in the statement Of his objections, we
might think it worth while to give them a
serious answer. But he is too earnestly Dent
upon making a case to be just in stating what
the Treaty really contains. He mentions sew
cral things which it does not settle, such as
claims dating from before the war; and he
might have added with as much reason that 1t
also leaves lis absolutely without any assurance
respecting the Darwinian theory and the authcn-
ticty of the Pentatcuch. He complains that we
have not made the British Government liable
for The damage done to the "vessels of his con-
"stituents," inasmuch as those damages were
inflicted by the Tacony, which never was IN
British pOrt-al which, if true, would seem to
be an excellent reason why Great Britain
should not pay for wrongs which she did not
commit. He believes that, under the clause
empowering the tribunal "to award u sum in
"gross to be paid by Great Britain to the
1" United States for all the claims referred to-"
the British Government may assume, first, that
| it owes nothing to anybody except to tho
| United States and secondly, that it owes
nothing to the United States, because by par
| doning the Southern Rebels have forgiven
the debt-a bit of chicanery which we venture
| to say would never have occurred to anybody
| on the face of the earth except Benjamin r.
| Butler.
The General is thoroughly frightened by
the unknown claims of British subjects which
are to come up for adjustment 1t probably
has not occurred to him that if we owe any
| ha fo nov
as fast az we can; but let that pass. What
are the chief items in the account according
TO Gen. Buffers own scheduled There are
claims for property destroyed during the war.
But it is "scttlcd law" that foreign resi-
dent at the theater of hOStiities must take his
chances with native citizens, and has no claim
whatever for redress if his property is ruined
by the fortunes of war. There are the claims
of British slave-Owncrs for their property set
| free by Mr.. LncOln's proclamation. But Is it
possible that Gen. Butler has committed the
monstrOus blunder of suppOSing that Great
Britain recognizes the right of any of her
subjects to hold slavcsf Then there is the
| Confederate Cotton Loan. Of the property
pledged to the holders of these bonds Gen.
Butler declares that we destroyed many mil
lions and put some forty million dollars more
Into the Treasury realized from its SALE" The
whole amount of the loan was f3OO0,OO0.
There are only two grounds upon which we
could be asked to pay it; either that we have
succeeded to the debts of the Confederacy, or
that the confscatcd cotton was virtually the
property of bOnd-holders, whose debt it was
intended to secure. Now the former absurd
proposition is not maintained by anybody, and
the second is excluded by the terms Of the
Treaty The Commissioners are authorized to
consider the claims Of British subjects upon the
Government of the United States ARISING
"out of acts committed against the persons or
property of subjects of Her Britannia
Majesty" during the period between the
18th of April 1851, and the 9th of April,
1896" The cotton was seized long after the
9th of April, 1865, and the history of the ne
gotiatious preceding the Treaty leaves no
doubt that the date was fixed expressly in
order to exclude these very claims.
1t does not seem worth while to pursue
| Gen. Butler any further. We cannot help be-
lieving that he knew how baseless were all
his objections before he made them; but when
man is fractions he will quarrel with fate,
whether he has cause or no cause.