Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-04-13

war, If war there be, consists in the orders
issued to the commanders of the squadron,
and the diplomatic notes addressed to the two
powers. The purport of these orders and
notes is that during the tendency of the ques.
ton of annexing Domingo to the United
States the rival Republic of Hayti must not
assail her weaker neighbor. The squadron
was there, then, simply for police purposes
to maintain the peace and not to inaugurate
war. Mr.. Summers definition of war is faint
ed with the extravaganza which c'aracterizes
his treatment of facts. If as he asserts, the
exhibition of force by one nation to influence
the action of another is war, then we wage
war in every part of the globe where we send
our fleets to protect the interests OF our citi-
zens. If we do not send our war vessels to
China and South America, as we'll as to the
Caribbean Sea, to display force, and to use
force, if it be necessary. for the protection of
our national interests, then the maintenance
of an armed force in any sea of the globe is
not only grand impertenence, but an I'M
warrantable waste of national treasure.
In truth, Mr.. Summers definition of war de-
serves to be characterized as the adrot gloss
of an interested advocate, rather than as the
impartial deliverance Of the bench 1t may
be that the United States nave acquired no
such interest in Dominica as to justify its pol
icy of protection, though the presumption of
the administration from the charge of wanton
aggression and authorized war against a
| weaker power.
Mr.. Sumner argues that the policy of the
administration is in violation of international
law on two grounds, namely, that of the es-
sential equality of nations, and that Of speci-
| fic violation of public law as established by
the consent of leading publicists. 1t is no
part of our design to answer these arguments,
NJ 70 Nsv,N th. H., h>.r ,f
many Of his citations from text writer's on
his propositions. But we cannot forbear to
suggest in reference to his doctrine of the es-
sential equality Of nations, that iii gives Hayti
a right to wage war on Dominica, it also
| gives Dominica the right to seek protection
of a friendly power. And surely no man with
any. pretensions to a knowledge of the prin-
ciples involved in national protectOrates will
deny the right of independent governments
to assume them, if they find reasons sufficient
to themselves for such a course. And these
points be admitted the whole case is taken out
of the categories of the extracts and prece-
dents so drearily elaborated by Mr. Sumner
under the second head.
The last point of Mr.. Sumner is to the eff
feet that the exercise of such protectOrate
by the President is practical usurpation
of the war power, which by the Constitution
is vested in the Congress. This, however,
involves the question of the distinction be-
tween constructive and overt war, and we do
not propose TO discuss it, Enough to say that
there is no real war in this case, no one con-
templated it. no one now apprehends it. The
course pursued by the administration is the
very thing which has rendered such an issue
impossible. And as practical men this is all
we need to inquire about.
We regard the whole speech as more spe-
cious than candid, and there is latent venom
: in every allusion to the President and all as
, ISOLATED with him, which divests it Of all
force with fair-minded men. The real ami
mus of the speech is fully disclosed in those
paragraphs where the Senator charges the
President with neglecting the people OPP
pressed by organized robbery and violence in
} the South and with bringing the leader of
''the Ku-Klux on the coast of San Domingo"
We do not hesitate to say that this passage,
which the well-known correspondent of the
Boston journal declares was delivered with
great applause in the Senate, and was copied,
with hfs own hand from the manuscript of Mr..
Sumner, is one of the most wanton, unjust
and objectionable assaults ever made by
Senator on the chief of the nation. 1t is de-
liberate, studied, open malignty, and ought
to have been received with indignant frowns
by the audience to which it was addresd Un-
fortunately this Outburst can scarcely be con-
sidered as exceptional. The tone of bitter
invective and the fuse of harsh and offensive
epithets constitute a marked feature in Mr..
Summers political warfare. The Ku-Klux
are well known as a secret organized band of
murderers and assassins. and these are the
men to whom our senior Senator likens the
President of the United States, charging him
with doing on the coast of San Domingo, what
these miscreants are doing in the South. If
a charge SO false and fragrant should injure
any one but the man who so shamelessly ut
tered it. the issue will show that we have
over-estimated the justice and magnanimi,y of
the American people. We marvel that man
who, stands up for the vindication of public
justice should himself stoop to one of the
most unjust charges that falsehood spurred on
by hate could invent.
| We deeply regret that Mr.. Sumner should
have INDUCED his personal pique and enmity.
in this open way. There is reason to fear that
his worse qualities are becoming more promi-
| nent as years advance. He has always been
vain, conceited, over-bearing and even arro-
CANT to an offensive degree. If these quail
ties, instead of being mellowed by age, are to
be intensified by it, they will become simply
intolerable. He has rendered great SER
vice to the country and to mankind. He is
industrious, painstaking, honest and brave in
the treatment of public affairs. These are
great qualities. What a pity they should be
clouded by the self-conceit and arrogance
which have brought him into hostile collision
with nearly every public man with whom he
has been associated. He had broken with
President Lincoln, and nothing but the un-
timely death of that honored man prevented
the quarrel from becoming open and pro-
nounced. His course towards his peers in
the Senate is well known. As for the Presi-
dent he has made many mistakes during his
administration, and possibly this San Domin-
| 90 business is one of the prayest of them all
but his honesty, patriotism, and faithfulness
to his trusts, as well as, services he rendered
the the country in its hour of deepest
peril, entitle him to the generous consid-
Grafton of our people, and to the admeration
of mankind.