The New York herald., 1871-03-10
Tue Joint High Commission n-Tac Herald
as tho Organ Of the People.

spleen on everybody. high and low, from the
Astors to the corner politicians, and has been
very lavish indeed of little filings at the NEW
YORK HERALD, which, being harmless to u.s.
and evidently very soothing to the Times, we
allowed to pass unnoticed. 1t took occasion
to intimate yesterday that the outcry set up by
the HERALD in regard to the withdrawal of the
English flag from this Continent having been
taken up and discussed very warmly by the
London Times was likely to excite angry feel
ing, and gives it as one instance Of the harm
that may be done by ''reckless" newspapers
in dealing with international affairs. The
Times, in its paragraph pays us very accept
able compliment. We are highly gratlfed that
New York paper of the prominence of the New
York Times 80 candidly acknowledges what has
long been self-evident, that the HERALD Is TO
the people Of America what the London Times
is to the people Of England-the organ not of
rings, or parties, or governments, that may
fade and change, or be overthrown-not the
mouthpiece of one little faction against another,
advocating Tammany against Grant, or liberal
ism against the tories, but the spokesman of
public opinion, directing it for or against kings,
nations, legislatures and armies, advising
and leading It, training and control
ling it, and bringing 1t to useful
ness as Franklin brought the lightning
into harness. The London Times gives the
people of England the cue as to the real merits
and demerts of every subject that comes under
discussion; and as public opinion in the
enlightenment of the nineteenth century has
become more powerful weapon than the
sword the name of the Times is a word Of
grand import, whether it is invoked in the
court circles to settle the question ofswords at
levee, or in the caves of the Greek brigand
to save an unhappy cockney from destruction.
We therefore thank the New York Times for
its candid acknowledgment of the analogy
between the HERALD and the London thun-
derer. We shall not cease our efforts to
deserve such hearty praise. Our enterprise
will continue on as grand scale as over. We
shall continue to furnish to the people for whom
we speak the opinions Of their great special
leaders-Bismarck, Disraeli, Sumner, the
Pope, Changarnier, Napoleon; we shall con-
tinue to hold up before the people for whom
We speak the evils of jobs in Congress and the
Legislature, of misgovernment in The city and
State we shall continue to give the people and
the governments the earliest and most reliable
news from the four quarters of the globe,
whether from st. Domingo, Abyssinia, Paris
| or Bombay; and we shall continue to speak
for the people and to the people upon this
question, which the New York Times fears we
may complicate--the Joint High Commi ssion
and its negotiations.
The New York Times errs, however, when
it asserts that the blasts and countcrblasts
going on between the New YORK HERALD and
the London Times ara likely, or are intended,
to excite angry feelings or to promote war
between the two countries. On the contrary
| words of candor, we propose to prevent
war. Tie Joint High Commission Is sitting
in secret session in Washington, and when
| not in session the members are dining and
wining and toasting one another, as if the i'm
portant questions pending between US and
Great Britain were to be settled on the basis
Of each members stomackic capacity. The
| people want to know what sort of settlement
| this Commission is to make. It must be q
| frank and full one. There is to be no hedg-
| ing. The peoples demands must be known,
| and they must be met. They want cash, hard
money, paid down on the nail, for the Ala
bama losses, and we tell the High Joint Com
mission and the English people SO. The Lon
don Times says England will give no territory,
and it tells America so. That Is the point at
which the negotiations Of the two Commission
ers of the two peoples have arrived at pre-
sent, and it is certainly satisfactory. The
American people want cash settlement Of
the Alabama accounts, which England seems
fairly disposed to give. England is opposed
to giving any territory in settlement, and
America seems fairly disposed to ask none
| This is the ultimatum Of an honest public
opinion on both sides Of the water, freely
| expressed through the organs of the
people, unhampered and unmystifed by
the intricate devices Of diplomacy. 1t
behooves the Joint High Commission at Wash
ington to weigh and carefully consider the
ul.imatum thus set forth, and doubtless
they will. Let them be honest as men to
men. Let them avoid the aimless meander-
ings Of diplomacy, and deliberate upon the
important questions before them as the Lon
don Times and the HERALD deliberate upon
them-fairly, candidly, bluntly. Telegraphs
and printing presses have already made mo :
mentous innovations on the old routine cir
cumlocution Of diplomacy. The Atlantic
cable has cut away red tape even from the
deliberations Of the Joint Commission ITSELF
and, with the steady march Of enlightenment
and republicansm to the front, the whole sys-
tenn of missions and commissions will fail, and
the adjudication and settlement of interna-
tional questions will be left altogether to free
i