The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1876-04-07

WashbCrne and the Germans.
The Tribune remarked last Friday as
follows
There 10000 Germans in the city OF Paris
when the siege commenced. . i Our minister
spread over them the broad and ample folds Of the
Great Republic. He extended to them the same
care. assistance and protection II they were
citizens of the United States He stood by them to
the last, and never faitered in h engagements to
these helplcs and friendless strangers among their
enemies.
Mr.. Medill, in the above passage rises to
quite lofty style of words, inspired by the
grandeur of his theme, Here Minister
Washburne is not painted upon the retina
OF the imagination as stump-tailed, wall
eyed, eth-gnashing watchdog" but as
u mighty exponent Of Mercy to belaguer
cd people-a great angel Of benefceDce,
with the attributes Of the divine human,
standing WITH one foot resting on the rock
of cur National Constitution, the other on
the great principles of international law
laid by Grotius and Puffendorf: branishing
in the faces of fiercely hating Frenchmen
the two-edged sword Of Might aud Right,
and driving back the cdBdtHe and pc
trOileuSe as their bloody fangs are about to
meet in the sausage padded, well-develOp-
ed calf Of some succulent German's leg.
The picture is incomplete without atten-
ton to cost The great American
Savior oil Germany in Paris stands before
the minds eye, clad in striped pants short
and with straps, long swallow
tailed coat, and, in general, robed in
the habilimeDts with which Mast
clothes his ideal Uncle Sam in his famous
political cartoons. But, like ali creatures
OF the imagination, Washburnc, as he APP
pears to his admiring friends, is one man
as he appeared to the Germans themselve:
at the time and on the spot, another anC
a very different man. The New Y ork Ma
ton, of November 10, 1870, has lCttel
from its German correspondent, Frederick
kapp, dated Berlin, October I, who dis
cusses from the standpoint ofthe Germans
themselves, the way in which our nIiniste
to Paris fulfilled his sclt-impOsed duties o
loOSi1g after the interests OF the German,
III France. tie says among other things
II Mr.. Washburne had wished to exert himself il
n neutral field, he would have found ample Occa
zion for doing so In the protection of hosc poo
SO.OOO Germans who were brutality driven ont O
France for other reason than that they belonged
to the nation which had been provoke to this war
lie had seen In his country he Cruelties which
from 1861 To 1850, the rebels committed agains
loyal northern men visiting In the south, and con
sequcnt y. knew by experience what heart-rcndinl
distress, misery, aud starvation attended these
pulsiOns In masses. In the present neutra
could help and benefit thousands Of innocen
families. There was even no actual Intervention
required; the energetic protest Of the representa-
tive Of the United States would have suniced for
discOntiuuance OF these mean French prac ices
and even II the Empire had insisted upon them
the acknowledgment Of the Republic, under the
express provisO that II should stop this medieval
bhrbariiy would, as we have learned since, nave
had the desired effect But MIR. Nashburne wrote
home for instructions, and instead OF interpreting
them literally, az he did In the case OF the social
ed Republic, he pcdantically adhered TO the letter
and igdshsd his hands Of his German clients Writ
ing home, instead Of aching AT once, his grea
blunder
Thus at every point we are met by these
stubborn statements, which strike at the
root Of the banyan-tree under which Ger.
many in France was sheltered, according
to the Jones.Medill version of the case.
These facts, gathered at the time, written
while the subject was fresh, and from the
German capital, seem suited to produce
conviction. They tend to discredit, direct.
" and completely, the stories told by the
Tribune, and Endorsed (of late) by the
Stats. Zeitung, in regard to the benefit
Minister WashburDe was to tie Germans
whom he volunteered to protect. 1t looks
as though the Stats told more truth in
1870 than in 1876; then it stated, as pub
lished in the Post and Mail of yesterday,
that Washburne's policy was summed up
In one protane phrase, ''D-n the Dutch ~