The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-02-12

mr.. Fish-Anerica Does Not Want Money,
| but Justice.
A contemporary prints an article upon our
relations with England, which is interesting
as an expression of the views of the Secretary
of State. The proposition conveyed in
this article is, in so many words, to with
draw our case from the consideration of
the Geneva Tribunal and accept from
England specified gross sum In liquidation of
the Alabama claims We infer, therefore,
that Mr.. Fish contemplates this solution as
bis only escape from the overthrow of a treaty
which has been very dear to him and upon
the success Of which his fame more or less
rests. In addition to this, the very full and
interesting special despatch from the HERALD
Bureau in London, confirms the news Of
the situation already printed in the HERALD,
and show that the English Cabinet will lady
accept any solution that does not destroy the
treaty. At the same time, as our despatch
from the HERALD correspondent in Washing
ton inform us, President Grant stands firmly
upon the ground announced by us several days
since.
Now, we should be very glad to encourage
the Secretary of State in any plan which will
avoid war and establish upon lasting
basis the relations between the two
countries. If our diplomacy can arrive at
that solution it will be we'll for America, and
especially well for England. But let us see
where the proposition of Mr.. Fish will leave
us. The readers of the HERALD have read
the extracts from the English press, the de-
bates in Parliament, the extraordinary decla-
rations of Mr.. Gladstone. Here we have an
extract from private letter written by
one of the most distinguished English
writer's, man who has never concealed his
warm friendship for America. ''What case
is this you send to Geneva!" he writes. lit
has put ON end to the idea of arbitration as
substitute for war. 1t will be cheaper to fight
another time. Your people have lost good
chance of impressing our opinion finally of
raising the political tone by showing modera-
ton and spirit of legality. However, we
were oil wrong in the first instance, and when
you once begin wrong doing it has trick of
not ending" The only construction we can
put upon these declarations from liberal. and
tory, Cabinet Minister, journalist and pri-
vate gentleman, is that England has come
to have one mind on this question;
that it feels that America, by some
chicanery or astuteness, or misrepresenta-
ton of circumstances, has taken an advan-
tage Of England; that we induced the Eng
lish to accept a treaty which meant one thing
| to our Cabinet and another to the Cabinet of
London; that, in short, we behaved to Eng
land as Lord Give to his Indian negotiator-
we made a false treaty and induced Lord
Ripon to sign it in place of the true one.
This being the position-America having
swndled the English-the fault will be over
looked and peace assured if we name sum
of money that will solace our wrongs and
thus avoid the necessity of going near
| Geneva.
When the Treaty of Washington was signed
the Americans were content. We felt that,
all danger of war having passed, we could de-
velop our resources, pay our debt, reduce
taxation and restore the Union by pacifying
the South. We trusted that this spirit of
amity would continue until, in time, England
and America would see their way to our an
nexation of Canada, thus cementing the Anglo
Saxon nations into an alliance that would
make the Englsh-speaking nations masters of
the world. We cared nothing about the money
part of the treaty. We took little interest
| in the Geneva Conference. Some of our pub
lie men, familiar with the case, imagined that
we might receive twenty millions of dol
lars No one ever fancied there would be
larger award. Others believed that we
would receive nothing whatever from the tri-
bunal that England would Offset our claims
with statement of her own injuries, and that
the practical effect of the treaty would be to
establish certain principles of international
law that would hereafter make war
very difficult on land or on sea, and that our
action would 60 into history as precedent
that would prevent war. So general was
this opinion that when man like
General Butler opposed the treaty his
act was so unpopular as to extort admira-
ton for his courage, however much his judg-
ment was censured We knew nothing of
| our case, nor of the case Of England.
| These cases were secret diplomatic docu-
ments, and were only published last week
in tae HERALD. We really cared very
little about them. The President had Sc
lected able counselors. The Queen would do
the same. They would gather in Geneva, and
dine and talk and browse the summer away,