The Portland daily press., 1872-05-18
Our New York Letter.

Noisy opposition to the Supplementary Treaty
Jefferson Brick and Deacon Po0ram not E1-
aggerotions-A False Idea of National Honor
What Interests Demand the Supplementary
Treaty-Mr. Delaar ReappearS-TAe Republi-
can State Convention. alb . r.r,-. .....
Whoever supposed that Jefferson Brick and
the Hon. Elijah Pogram were exaggerated
characters, should read just now the screaming
double and treble loaded fulminations of those
great metropolitan organs the Daily "Tron,-
bone" and the Daily "Bldtherskite" They hurl
defiance at the British lion. They threaten an
Inhalation to Queen Victoria. They assure the
President that destruction must follow if he
makes sthe humilating and infamous surren-
der to the buster and threats of England, inn
piled in the acceptances of the terms of pacif-
cation now under discussion in the United
States Senate. The merchants of New York
who favor peaceful settlement are denounced
as Commercial fossils and charlatans." A
determined effort is being made to frighten the
administration into an offensive rejection of the
supplemental treaty proposed by the English
government, thereby re-opening controversy
which the country fervently hoped had been
honorably disposed of by the treaty of Wash
ington. ia = i
1t is just possible that this cheap patriotism
and melo-dramatc rant will shake the common
sense of President, Cabinet and Senate. Public
men are fallible, and Presidential election is
near at hand. But that the sober thought of
the people will approve the acceptance of the
honorable terms by which the two great nations
can be brought into relations of amity have no
doubt. The indirect claims are so intangible
and impossible of adjudication that nobody has
ever supposed farthing would be realized from
them. Mr. Fish has repeatedly declared that
he didn't expect them to be sustained, and that
he hoped they would be rejected. If the prin-
ciple so long recognized as our rule of conduct
in our intercourse with foreign nations, "to ask
for nothing that is not clearly right and to SUBJ
init to no wrong is a correct one, it was mis-
take to have preferred the claim for indirect
damages at the outset But without debating
that point at present, it is enough that a per-
fectly equitable, feasible and honorable method
has been DEVISED whereby both litigants can
come to a friendly agreement before they go
into court, as to the case which is to be passed
upon by the arbitrators" The business men of
New York as well as of the whole country are
speedy settlement of the difficulty. The cable
has brought the two nations so near together
that English capital is daily transferred to the
marts of New York by lightning and any dis
turbance in the 1diplomatio relations of Eng
land and America sends shock of distrust and
uneasiness, not merely into the bank parlors of
Wall street, but into the counting-rooms of
merchants in all branches of business, and into
the workshops and manufactures where labor
is more largely employed.
The meeting of the Chamber of Commerce
yesterday indicated the state of public opinion
on the subject. The one negative voice was
quite as potent as an index of the general SEN
timent as the entire affirmative vote. 1t eman-
ated from man whose tendency to be wrong
on every political project seems as irresistible
as the law of gravitation. Originally at the
head of the Bureau of Statistics, he availed
himself of his official position to prepare let
ter on the eve of Presidential election setting
forth the utterly desperate condition of our ma
tional finances, the great excess of the debt over
the published amount of it, and the inevitable
bankruptcy of the nation. This letter was adj
dressed to three eminently respectable gentle
men of this city, all identified with the Demo-
cratic party. 1t was doubtless meant to produce
powerful sensation and to influence the can
vass immensely But it so happened that its
author, SO far as he was known at ALL was
known to be a very Munchausen in figures, and
consequently nobody could be persuaded to be-
lieve his startling revelations. The Democrat
ie newspapers published it with abundance of
large type and exclamation points, but it was
laughed at by some and utterly unheeded by
great many others; and when the facts came to
be known its concoctor was remanded to the
contempt of the few who had not entirely for
gotten his existence. How he came to turn
up in the Chamber of Commerce or by what
means he obtained membership in that body is,
as Dundreary would, say ''what no fellow can
ever find out but his vote against the treaty
was in harmony with his past career and an ad-
ditional proof that the measure he voted against
was right -.-:- ~ ..- ,..f att ...r1tF
The State Convention has endorsed Grant
with enthusiastic unanimity, as was expected
1t was an uncommonly well constituted body,
containing more solid men and fewer politicians
than usual. There were no ofice-holders in the
Convention. 1t was literally gathering of the
people-of thoughtful, earnest citizens of the
State, who are resolved that the charlatanry,
which is seeking to make breach in the Repub
lican party shall not prove effectual. - - =
-...- ,f..-.- e.. e.t e.-- YARMOUTH.