The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-01-14


fort for tho Revolutionists.
Some things can be done as well as others,
and if the present administration will consult
public documents of the times of Madison and
Monroe they will discover that almost from
| the outset of the Spanish colonial revolution
Of that day our government, though bound to
Spain by the strictest obligations of neu-
trality, recognized q state of war and granted
full belligerent rights to her colonies in revolt
each party" declared Mr.. Monroe in his
Message of March 8, 1918, "was permitted to
enter our ports with its public and its private
ships, and to take from them every article
which was the subject of commerce with
other nations.' And did this recognition
come after the revolutionists had demonstrated
their power to achieve independence by war
| of four years duration-such war as Mr..
Fish, forgetting the small beginnings of
our own struggle for liberty, pronounces as
mere ''civil commotion in the dominions of
Spain?" BY no means. Belligerent rights
were conceded in 1911, or less than six months
after the provinces of Venezuela and Colon
bia took up arms. By Mr. Madison's proc
lamation their flags were officially recognized
in our ports long before the wane of Spanish
power in fact, prior to the reduction Of the
revolutionary forces to three or four hundred
men, the fight of Bolivar to Jamaica and
Spain's recovery Of Caracas and other i'm
portant places. Bolivar in his best estate
never had as many armed men as the Cubans
have put into the field nor did the Spaniards
ever have opposed to them as many troops as
the insurgents have employed in the Eastern
districts of Cuba. In her vain efforts to
retain her most precious American pos
session Spain, since the Winter Of
1863, has marshalled more troops
than when Mexico, Central America, Colon
bia, Venezuela, Chile, Peru and Buenos Ayres
proved the right of self-government by the
might of victory. History, therefore, war
rants no such fancy as that which many good
people now hug to their timid souls. e.,
that the colonies recognized by statesmen like
Madison, Monroe and Clay had given greater
evidences of strength, with larger promises Of
success, than have the Cubans. History, on
the contrary, proclaims this popular fancy the
baseless fabric Of dream.
Looking at present events in Cuba by the
light Of the plain presidents established in
1911, and recognized in our neutrality laws of
1918, it is difficult to account for our State De-
partment's late departure from them, as
to realize the gravity of the Cuban movement
it is not necessary to go beyond the
official dispatches of Mr.. Fish himself.
| ~ k1,o of s,n
letter to the American Minister at Madrid, Mr..
Fish INDUCED in an amount of plain, unvar-
nished truth that must strike terror to his
memory, if he be possessed of so dangerous
and inconvenient faculty 'For nearly
year." wrote Mr. Fish, 'the insurgents have
maintained themselves against all the forces
which Spain and the Catalan volunteers have
been able to put into the field against them.
In the Judgment of the President, in which
believe the whole civilized world will coincide,
the time has come when this struggle should
be carried on in more humane way" Again,
when writing somewhat later to the Spanish
Minister at Washington Mr.. Fish said ''The
civil war in Cuba has continued for a year;
battle after battle has been fought, thousands
of lives have been sacrificed and the result is
still in suspense" Strange that after three
years continuance the 'clvil war; of 1869
should decline into "civil connection" Will
Mr.. Fish please rise to explain?
After this plain language from truthful Mr..
Fish Spain heavily reinforced her Cuban
army, and the severest engagements of the
war took place. yet not to the discontinue Of
the insurgents, who are as irrepressible as the
ancient hydra. In his last annual Message to
Congress President Grant formally declared
that Spain was no nearer the repression Of
Cuban revolt than she had been q year before.
Such being the case, and as by the language of
the Neutrality laws, any "colony, district or
people" are placed on precisely the same foot
ing regarding neutrality and belligerency with
"any foreign prince OF State" how much
longer can the United States government re-
fuse belligerent rights to the Cuban revolu-
tionary party? -Four years of bloodshed and
flames, and Spain is defed more boldly
than ever. A Spanish army of one hun
dred and seven thousand men cannot
| exterminate q civil commotion ''kept alive
by few thousand half naked vagabonds 4"
Will the Secretary of State be good enough to
enlighten us? Has not the time come ''when
this struggle should be carried on in more
humane way?" We pause for reply, and We
expect q more satisfactory one than has been
furnished by Secretary Fish in his recent con-
versation with one Of our Washington cor
respondents He told us on that occasion
that the Cubans are no better entitled to
recognition now than they were three years
ago because in that time they had failed to
establish semblance of government :;
because they hold no Notifications, no cities,
no ports; because they are hiding in the