The New York herald., 1876-02-02
Secretary Fish and the Monroe Doc
trfne.

The London Times had yesterday a note
worthy leading article animadvcrting on the
Cuban circular of Secretary Fish and his
own personal explanation of it. Mr..
Fish is treated with considerable severity by
the Times, the substance of whose article
is cabled as special despatch to the HERALD
and printed this morning 1t is too evident
that there is great deal of ground for the
vigorous criticism of our London contem-
porary, and that Mr.. Fish has, to use a slang
phrase, put his foot in it."
When his extraordinary circular was first
brought to the public knowledge by the
HERALD despatch from Vienna the authen-
ITCHY of the despatch was decried in
chorus of contradiction from journals sup
porting the administration. The ground Of
their strong declarations of disbelief was the
alleged absurdity of supposing that Mr.. Fish
could so fly in the face of the Mon
roe doctrine as to invite European
| Powers to intervene in the affairs of the
Western Hemisphere. The placid Secretary
of State must have had his serenity good
deal rutiled when he read the complaisant
adroit denials rested on grounds which were
complete condemnation of his pol
| icy He must have been mortified and
astounded when he saw that those who had
the greatest interest in defending him were
constrained to deny the facts in order to
shield him from blame Their denials had
the excuse of kindly intentioned ignorance
Int M- Tieb ,I< ba facts al
have had ''a fearful looking for of retribu-
tion" when the country should come
to know that the very thing which
his friends had discredited on the ground Of
impossible absurdity was thing which he
had done past recall and could not long con-
ceal In general popular apprehension, as
interpreted by those who sincerely wished
to support him, he had abandoned one of
the most cherished and time-honored
American principles and perpetrated O
stupendous political blunder. Their prompt
incredulity and their stubborn disbelief
which impelled them to deny the facts be-
cause the facts seemed so absurd, was such a
condemnation of Mr.. Fish as no statesman
ever before received in the guise of honest
friendship. The confident denials of the
authenticity of. the HERAID's Vienna de-
spatch, on the ground that it made Mr.,
Fish chargeable with an abandonment of the
Monroe doctrine, showed that, in the opin-
ion of his friends, his application to foreign
Powers was utterly indefensible. They vir-
tually told him that what he had really
done, and they kindly disbeIeved, was
repugnant to the public sentiment of the
country.
When at last concealment of the facts
was no longer possible, and the correctness
of the HERALD's information was about to be
vindicated by official statements, Mr.. Fish
sought or at least permitted, an inter
view with the Washington correspondent
of friendly democratic journal, in
which he undertook to explain his
position and defend himself against
the criticisms of the journals of his own
party whose ignorant denials of the facts
were concession that he could not be de-
Tended on any other ground. In that inter-
view he entered quite at large into the his
tory of the Monroe doctrine and at
tempted to show that the popular con-
ception of it is erroneous This line
of defence was an admission that he had
gone counter to the Monroe doctrine as it is
commonly understood. OH S'erc,tSe sac
cllse, and Mr.. Fish's attempt to explain away
the Monroe doctrine in that interview was
a virtual plea of guilty to having
violated it in popular estimation
(, But the American people stand by the
Monroe doctrine as they understand it and
as it has been held for three generations
They are ready to maintain it and fight for
it in its accepted sense and in
government controlled by popular
opinion it is absurd to go back
and refine on the actual text and
history of President Monroe's celebrated
declaration. The country has accepted it
for more than fifty years in its spirit, and
not in its mere letter, which paid due regard
to diplomatic reserve. The country has
popular heart not feeling itself bound
by those forms of official decorum which
|. this government is not at liberty to violate
The people stand behind the government
and control it ; they regard it as their SER
want and not their master il is their own
Interpretation of the Monroe doctrine, which
they have both the will and the power to
, enforce. II. therefore, Mr.. Fish's Alternating
historical explanations had been correct they
would have been to little purpose, since the
people have the same right to declare their
sentiments now that they had in 1923, and
their present views of European interference
on this continent are embodied in the ordi-
nary and popular view Of the Monroe doc
trine.
j But, in point Of fact, Mr.. Fish's explana-
tions are historically untenable as well as
repuqnant to settled American sentiment.
~. l.