The New York herald., 1872-07-07

tried and found guilty by duly consti-
tuted tribunal in tho island Of Cuba" We do
not care ct this time TO comment upon the
singular discrepancy between the Secretarys
instructions 10 our representative at Madrid
and his opinion of the case as presented to the
President of the Senate, or to inquire what
degree of respect we can expect from foreign
governments when we assume to-day hostile
tone in demand which, three days hence, we
declare to be of doubtful justice and propriety.
Our object is to inquire whether
the view taken by Secretary Fish
in his letter to Vice President Col
fax correctly represents the situation
in the Houard affair. In the reports of the
trial we are told that the case was badly at-
tended to or the prisoner would not have been
convicted; that Consul General Torbert, at
Havana, ''endeavored to procure mitigation
of the sentence" and that subsequently to the
trial and conviction of the accused, one Manual
Capote, upon whose testimony Houard
had been found guilty, had fed to the
United States, and when safely here had made
written declaration that his evidence was
false from beginning to end From this it
would appear that Houard was convicted on
evidence before the Court, although subse-
quently supposed to have been falsely given,
and the statement of Secretary Fish that the
prisoner was regularly tried and found guilty
by duly constituted tribunal in the island of
Cuba seems to be correct
Under these circumstances the present posi-
ton of the American Minister at Madrid ap-
pears to be unhappily chosen and altogether
untenable. If Dr. Houard has been regularly
tried and found guilty by duly constituted
tribunal as Secretary Fish declares, he can
only be released by q pardon, and refusal to
request one is an act of ungracious bonn
bast on our part and of cruel injustice
to the suffering prisoner. It is impos-
sible to avoid the conviction that our
peremptory and unconditional demand for DIR.
Houard's release, if it has really been made, is
the trick of a ward politician, designed for
effect in the Presidential campaign, but GER
tain to fail in its object. It is neither just,
dignifed nor statesmanlike to make such
a demand of the Spanish government
after the ground has been cut from
under our feet by our own Secretary of
State. 1t takes the appearance of an
unworthy attempt to act the part of bully
with weak opponent in the hope of making
political capital with the unthinking portion
of the people. 1t may be that this Spanish
movement is designed to cover up the humilia-
ton of our defeat by England in the
Geneva controversy; but, if so, the
policy is only the more discreditable. Spain
is distracted and enfeebled The throne
once powerful enough to make Europe
tremble is filled by foreign King, who is
looked upon by all factions as living rebuke
to the Spanish nation. The whole country is
torn by political convulsions and civil insur-
rection at home. while Cuba struggles unceas-
ingly for the independence she cannot fail in
the end to secure. In what light will the world
view the conduct of an administration which
yields to the arrogance of a powerful people like
the English to-day, and tomorrow busters in
an unjust cause before weak and unequal
opponentp What respect can our own citizens
have for an administration that so far under
rates their sense and their self-respect as to
believe that they will accept the staggering of
bravo for honorable courage, or justify an
injustice towards nation that is power
has but few friends in the United
States All over the Union an angry feeling
exists against the cruel oppressors of the strug-
Cling Cubans. But we venture to say that
not an honest man can be found from Maine
to California who would approve of the ap-
parent trick of the American representative at
the Court Of Madrid to make cheap political
capital out of the Spaniards in case in which,
according to the statements of our own Secre-
tary of State we are only entitled to solicit the
liberation of a prisoner and not to demand his
release.
AS a soldier General Grant must condemn
and regret the contemplate policy of the ward
politicians by whom he is, unhappily, sur
rounded. AS o statesman he ought ut
least to be able to see its weakness.
The people of the United States will
be slow to believe that the leader of the Union
armies who granted such noble terms to the
crushed and suffering troops of the dead con-
federacy, would willingly act cowardly part
towards nation unequal to ourselves. But
Grant, as President, has not Sheridan at
his back. Magnificent soldier as he is, he is
surrounded by men undeserving Of his conf
dence, and certain to make his civil admins
tration as great failure as his military ad-
ministration was success. Such political
devices his advisers counsel are the resorts of
the managers of primary elections and district
conventions. When applied to our relations
with foreign nations they degrade us abroad
and injure our commerce at home. Their effect
is to lower our self-esteem and to
depreciate our credit So far from helping the