New-York tribune., 1872-05-27
THE SUPPLEMENTAL TREATY.

ton for q Supplemental Treaty is only Whao
the public was prepared to expect. Ii vote
had been taken at the time when the Presidents
Message was sent in, there would have been,
even in the Senate, enough OF natural
resistance to arrogant and unjustifable dicta-
ton to have prevented the adoption of the
article ordered by Earl Granville. Most
of the intelligent and independent news
papers declared against 1t. There was
nobody found to defend it, but those organs
which accept everything the Administrator
proposes, and those journals which are merely
pipes. whose stops and ventages are governed
by Wall Street. But the Senate has ceased to
hold the position it once held in relation to
legislation and to public influence. 1t is now,
in independence, in character, and In personnel
inferior to the House of Representatives. lts
composition has greatly suffered OF late years.
from causes not necessary to recapituia'o'
Tho President has to-day much more aoso-
lutte control over that once austere Dody' tnah
the Executive ever dreamed of possessing over
the popular branch. 1t would be lmpos-
sible for men of the caliber of Morton
and Conkling and Pomeroy to rule
the House of Representatives as they
rule. for the President, the Senate OF
the United States. The delay which has inter
yened since the presentation of the Engllsh
ultimatum has been employed TO the greatest
advantage by the Administration Whips. Ana
they have been aided by powerful pressure
from the moneyed interests of the country.
A largo number of gentlemen who are in
terested in placing stocks in England
found their prospects Of gainful Summer
seriously darkened by the possibility OF the
failure of the Treaty. These strong and active
men, at the head of whom, both in character
and activity, stands Mr.. Cyrus w. Field, one
of the chief prOprietors of the Atlantic Iele-
graph Cable, have been unremitting in their
efforts to win individual Senators over to
their way of thinking; and, as very few
of the Senators knew anything what
ever about the matter, it was not difficult to
occupy their virgin minds with whatever
seemed good to these commercial missionaries.
To Judge from the letter of Mr.. Ferry, the
| arguments which produced most effect upon
| the average Senatorial understanding were,
| 1. That,the indirect claims were untenable
2. That England would make war upon us If
we insisted upon them.
Neither of these statements had properly
anything to do with the question. Our Govern
ment insisted, we think with reason, that the
indirect claims were not excluded by the
Treaty from among those which were to be
presented by us to the consideration of the
Board of Arbitration. The fact that they were
badly drawn up, couched in offensive Ian
guage and in highly Objectionable forms,
was a matter for which the Administra-
ton was responsible to American public
opinion. If they demanded more than was
justified by the Treaty, that was matter for
the Board of Arbitration to decide. England
had no more right to break up the Arbitration
and repudiate the Treaty on account of our
Case, than a litigant in cause at law has to
take offense at his adversary's plea and leave
the courtroom. He is free to do this, but the
Court is also free to give judgment in his alb
| sence against him.
As to the threat of war, which was so art
fully used to save the Treaty, it is too puerile
for criticism. England has no quarrel with us,
and no one on this side ever thought of
making war as q consequence of the failure of
this Convention.
The partisans of the Administration, in de-
Tending this supplemental article, have en-
tirely lost sight of the successive steps in the
to have an end of controversy by Withdrawing
the Objectionable claims, they utterly overlook
the fact that they were prepared under Gen.
Grants orders, presented by the Government,
defended through a long controversy by
the State Department, and up to this very
hour retained in the Case as truthfully
and logically there The superservice
ably loyal newspapers and talking men
act as if they considered the wretched Amer
lean Case the creation of malignant opposi-
ton, to be fought and killed by all true adhe-
rents of the President But observe how, in
attacking this Case and sustaining the Gov
ernment in its partial withdrawal, they have
besmeared the Administration with their
maladroit help. AS soon as our Case became
known in England, the Opposition there saw
the opportunity which Mr.. Fish had given
them, and attacked the Gladstone Ministry
upon it. The Premier, to save himself, went
beyond Mr.. Disraeli in denouncing our Case,
and plainly accused our Government of dis
honesty in presenting it. At later period,
Sir Edward Thornton, the British Minis
ter in Washington, made, in O public
speech in New-York, the insulting state
ment that "nO one ever imagined that
"the indirect claims were included in
p" the Treaty." while Sir Stafford Northcote was
still more explicit, and boldly declared that
our Commissioners had agreed not to present
the indirect claims. There you have a sufi-
GENTLY defined position. The United States,
under the Treaty, make their claim. England
saws, with no pcriphrases, "That is not in the
Treaty, and you know it." America
meekly accepts the insult and says with
angelic sweetness "Let the Arbitrators say