The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-01-06
The vlrginius Correspondenes
the Presidents Message.

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the Presidents Message.
The message sent by the President to Con-
gress regarding the virginius affair will never
take place among the explicit in literature.
It is very vague. and seems as though the fog
giness which pervades it at the most impor-
tant parts was studiously outspread 1t cannot
well be otherwise, for the President had to
reconcile strong and firm demands made in
the first instance with feeble and paltry re-
quests made in the second instance, and with
these latter fizzled into nothingness from the
protocol to the performance 1t would have
seemed that the blood shed at Santiago should
have had some place in the President message,
but it is dried into gingerly phrases before it
gets there. OF course dear, old republican
Spain must not be offended; but the most
squeamish hidalgo could not more euphemisti-
cally describe the bloody deeds of Burriel and
his sub-butchers at the Slaughter House than
by the Presidents formulation thereof, as
Spanish tribunals taking jurisdiction over
the persons found" on the Virginius.
This is bad enough but we come Immediately
to another point which is especially vague.
The President tells that he demanded "the pun
ishment of the offending parties" There is not
q hint as to whom he considered or considers
these to be- but plain enough why he lays lit
tie emphasis on this point when we come down
to the flimsy promise of the protocol which is
devoted to Spain's proceeding against" those
who had violated treaty rights. We find,
to be sure in the sentence describing this
part Of the protocol, that "Spain under
took to proceed against those who had
offended the sovereignty of the United
States" Spain would be very much sur
prised to learn that she had undertaken any
such gigantic task. 1t sounds we'll, but
analysis conveys an idea of what could not
be included in any protocol or treaty except
an offensive and defensive alliance. We may
attribute this mistake to simple negligence;
but the reasons given for the loss of the Vir-
ginius and the dramatic touch of the officers
and crew placed in charge, riskng their lives
in the attempt to keep her afoat are admir-
able specimens of the vague art. That ssmost
tempestuous of our winter storms,' coupled
with her ''unseaworthy condition." prepares
us for the catastrophe, as though it was
the most natural thing in the world
that leaking ships should be sent out
to founder. The prisoners, however, reached
New York safely, and there his trouble con-
corning them and their murdered shipmates
ends vaguely Not a word respecting indem-
nifty for the lives taken finds place in the mes
sage. Having wrapped the massacre up
in foggy verbiage it would be too
much to expect that a suggestion
of responsibility, should rest upon
the blood spillers whom be groups as ''tribu-
nails" Out of it all we can gather that the
President has contended that Spain had no
right to overhaul the ship on the high seas, and
that being vaguely acknowledged in the sur
render, he is content to let the fifty-three MUIR
ders and the insults to the American Consul
go begging for vengeance or compensation.
The correspondence presents a sad but GER
tain explanation of all the inconsequences and
shortcomings of the message The servant
who was suddenly called on to explain
for his imaginative master how the latter
shot q buck in the hind hoof and
the ear with the same bullet had a
difficult task to make both ends meet He
did it by declaring that the buck was scratch
ing his ear when the gun went off, President
Grant, trying to make credible story of I'M
furnished national honor and dignity out of
the alternate buster and trucking of Secretary
Fish, had greater extremes to bring together.
The picture of Fish, the furious, laundering
along the cable an order for Sickles to close
the Legation if reparation is not granted,
and gasping at the end request
for the impressive talismanic word
''New jersey" is hard to reconcile
with Fish, the faccid. signing the ignoble
protocol which surrenders Americas case for
o flth-covered ship and the survivors Of the
crew, who were saved by an English gunboat
from the Slaughter House. The President is
not SO ingenious as the servant, and we are
not at all surprised But is this all?