, 1874-01-01

TEE VIREINIUS AHAIN,

| 11ecent deVe1opmcuta concerning tho official
| responsibility Of our Government for tho char-
acter of the Vireilius and the expedition under
taken by her, indicate that in future ncgotia-
tions With Spain arising out OF the matter tho
United States will be At disadvantage. The
| Administration took high ground in demanding
| froya Spain tile concessions made in the recent
protocol. That Spain agreed to tho terms at q
tirae when sho was'possibly III tho wrong will
ii it be proved that our Government has been at
fault. We demanded return Of tho Yirgiuius,
and q salute to The flag, on the ground that the
vessel WIS regularly cleared au American
ship, that the Government WAS ignorant Of any
hostile purpose on her part, and that the Ameri-
can flag protected her from seizure on tho high
seas. There has already been an official confess
sion TINT tho Virginius papers were frnudulently
obtained, and it is now intimated that this con-
fesMon was ,nadc with tho purpose Of protecting
the Government from still mora embarrassing
position. Our advices from Washington hold
that Spain will find no difficulty in proving that
the Tirginius was allowed to depart on li!ibus-
tering expedition by the United s.ates authori
t;;"s after they lsd been fully fore
warned concerning her real mission
It is charged that the evidence detailed, in the
Attorney Generals opinion, WAS procured for
the purpose Of throwing all the blamo OF fraud
ulent registry upon Patterson, the Eeputed oHns:
OF the vessel, in order to demonstrate tll.t the
United States authorities were deceived. This
evidence, Patterson himself says, was collected
in q secret nnanner, and he WAS virtually tined
and convicted Of perjury without having an op-
portunity to make defense. 1t is now stated,
on the part Of Spain. that not only did Spanish
navy officers warn OUT authorities of the object
of the Yl-Sinius expedition, but tho Spanish
Minister in Washington made two protests, with
in the Lass two years, to Secretary Fish, urging
tha: tho Virginius was not entitled to the protcc-
tion OF the United States Government. No at
tention waa paid to these protests. and 10 effort
was made to arrest the vessel about to engage in
s. hostile demonstration against Power with
which cur Government Was at peace.
II this shall prove to bo a cor
TeCE statement QI the CDuNtIl0N OF LQ1I:Sa
before the smiling OF tle Virginiua, thon our
Government ia placed in q very embarrassing |
position. On this statement OF the case, Spain |
has almost the identical case against the United
States With the Tirginins that the United States
had against Great Britain with the Alabama. |
An essential feature Of the Alabama case, and |
that which secured us m award, was the warn-
ing given to Great Britain concerning the char |
at&er Of the Alabama before she left the British
pt,st, and the failure of the British Government |
after thi1 to make any effort to detain her. II
Spain can provo tho eanae warning and the game |
failure in regard to the Virginius, her case will
be complete. It will not be necessary to go over
liz question whether Spain is entitled to dam
yes or not. That question was completely dis
rpsed Of in the Geneva arbitration. The only |
question will be as to the amount OF damages.
It is possible that the damages will be Offset to
some extent by the counter-case which the |
United States will be able to present on account
Of the butchery OF the Virginius crew. Before !
civilized and humane tribunal, this feature,
though after the fact, will probably exercise
considerable influence over the final adjudl"
catiou