, 1878-09-12
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
WAsHlNGToN. DC. Ann o. lS7s

~ AN"uI'Udi IltpuDIICdH vi yes
terday seems to speak EX CATHEDRA
OF the Mexican business. 1t gives
the following as the basis Of the pol.
ICY agreed on in Cabinet meeting:
all raiders are to be pursued till cap.
tured and punished if that DEsIDER.
ArUM is possible to the small military
force available for the protection of
our Southern frontier. Battle will
neither be offered nor declined and
the right Of self defense is inculca,
ted. Our soldier will remain on
Mexican soil no longer than abso.
luteiy necessary to accomplish the
one object of their invasion, to wit:
the suppression Of further maraud-
ing. No collision with Mexican
troops south of the Rio Grande in
pursuance of this object will neces
sarlly constitute a CASUS BELL; but
the crossing of that stream by the
latter with hostile intent will very
likely be deemed such. Any offense
to the Mexican government in the
conclusions aimed at as above emu.
merated, is disavowed, the only pur-
pose being the protection of our cit
liens in their rights of life and prop.
eity. Final y the question is to be
brought before Congress in all it's
bearings SO soon as it shall have con
vened in December. Notwithstand-
ing the reassuring words and manner
of the Mexican Minister, the preva-
lent feeling, unaccompanied by much
excitement, is that long years of con.
tlnued provocation on the one side
and of remonstrance on the other, is
about to eventuate in war or a strict
observance of her international du
ties by Mexico towards us hereafter.
The occasional recurrence of pes.
tilenees like that now decimating
southern cities and grimly stalking
up the Mississippi to find new cen
tres of radiation in the fishing towns
along its bluffs, has reduced us to
the necessity OF abandoning the old
theory of retributive visitations of
Providence in its most remorseless
mood, if we would be consistent in
the hygienic measures now almost
exclusively relied on by intellectual
communities to wholly prevent or
mitigate their ravages. Modern re-
search has been fatal to the super.
natural origin to which all such nat
ural phenomena were once not so
very long ago either-attributed.
The priests and religious teachess
who now rely on days of fasting and
penance to stay the progress of such
scourges as yellow fever. find the
more intelligent of their focks dis
pose to couple their recommends
tions with the use of the hoe and
shovel, copious libations of water
and approved disinfectants. Very
few believe that yellow fever would
have been known in New Orleans
this season had it been subjected to
such purgation as that by which
Butler drove it from it's lurking
places in 1862 and 1868. The sense
of comparative immunity and con
fidence now observed is In marked
contrast with the apathetic dread and
widespread CONSERVATION that ac-
companied the invasion of epidemic
when they were regarded as the min.
listers of divine wrath that would
search us out though we were to
hide in the bowels of the earth or in
the depths Of the sea; and any
means to check their courses by
agencies other than those mentioned |
were denounced as in the higest de-
gree presumptious and impious, moth
ing short, indeed, of taking up arms
against the Deity.
The crude, unassimilated stuff
that invited witnesses have brought
before Hewitt's Committee to aid
it in getting down to the causes
underlying the five years of
business prostration and financial
distress from which the country
seems slowly emerging, isn't one
whir ahead of that contributed by
"Citizen Schwab" and those of that
ilk who volunteered their invaluable
advice without money or price.
While Kearney's nasty billingsgate
and ruffian nature that would make
him the vilest of criminals were his
courage equal to the promptings Of
his beastly instincts, have proved so
revolving that most of his hearers
have turned from him nth feeling
Of positive adherence and detesta,
ton, his success in getting himself
before the public seems to have fired
the ambition OF thousands in the
same direction. They seem about
as competent to solve abstruse social
and economic problems as the crowd
Thurman is pandering to is to mend
our finances; as such an opportunity
as wise Hewitt has offered them toI,