Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-04-27
4. a,;,astrs tlltelIigrnrcl,
THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL ~, 1882.
A Baited Bully.

A Baited Bully.
Mr.. Rlaine's testimony before the com
mittee shows that President Arthur was
made fully acquainted with the instruc
tions taken out by Mr.. Trescott, and
that he sanctioned the policy declared by |
his secretary of state; policy which
was reversed within few weeks time
bv Mr.. Blaine's successor, also with tie
sanction of President Arthur who
therefore appears before the country as
cithera very stupid or a very vacillating
executive. 1t is hardly desirable po-
sition for a president to occupy if he can
help it which we incline to think that
he cannot !; nature not having made him
to shine in great place.
We must believe that Mr.. Blaine read
to him, as he says he twice did, his Peru
Wan dispatches. The query is, did
Arthur understand them; or was he
but wax in Frelinghuysen's hands as in
Blaine's, adopting the different opinions
of each as each presented them from his
chair as secretary of state ? Possibly
the fact is that Mr.. Blaine tells the
truth more in letter than in spirit. Pos
sibIy he reads these dispatches to the
president in such a way or with such
comment as to obscure their real pur-
pose. Mr.. Blaine is an apt hand at that
game lie is an INSCRIPTIONS user Of
words. He may be called anaturai-born
falsiiier. Hetried his talent upon Mr.. Bel
mont, his Democratic examiner before
the committee, and with some success SO
far as raising a laugh in the room
against his less versatile opponent went.
a reporter describes the contest us re-
sembling the shaking by terrier OF a
rat and it is probablya fair description.
We observe at any rate that the rat got
the terrier by the ear and hung on to it
stOutly, exciting Blaine to violent ges-
ticulatiOn and defamation to throw
him off. Perchance it was case, too. of
the cat playing with the mouse, when
Blaine WAS getting Arthur's endorse
ment of his South American policy a
play which was cminently successful
at the time, but which now does not now
appear to be rs much SO.
Mr.. Blaine was greatly troubled by
Mr.. Belmont S persistent desire to know
lust what he meant by his direction to
the American minister to call Peruvian
attention to the Landreau claim. Mr..
Blaine said he meant no more than Sec
retary Fish had in doing the same thing.
lo{& t,,I in11x N
structed our minister to present the mat
ter unotlicially," cautioning him that
it was the settled policy of our govern
ment in such cases to extend to its citi
Z.ns only its friendly offices with foreign
powers against which they had
claims. Mr.. Blaine had not given
this caution, nor had he used the
word " unofficially" in his instructions
which were moreover drawn in language
capable of u warlike Interpretation
which the pronouncedly pacific words OF
Mr.. Fish absolutely forbade. Minister
Hurlbut, according to his brothers testi
mOny, had furthermore been distinctly
impressed 10y Mr. Blaine with the idea
that Mr.. Blaine's policy was vigorous
and war threatening. Yet Mr.. Blaine
swears that So far rs the Landreau claim
was concerned he had no thought of
threatening force any more than Mr..
Fish had and that the omission of the
word officially " III his dispatch had no
significance. He cavorts about in a frantic
way upon the witness stand i'll the effort
to tramlle upon lis examiner for sug
gestinS that it was of any consequence
whether the minister was instructed
to intervene officially or unotlicially
He wants to know whether his examiner
knows what unoliicially'' signifies
And when he is reminded that he is the
witness, lie testifies that the word
unofiicially' is used It's IA qualification
1t is to give distinct information that
while the claim is believed to be a just
claim, it is not the intention of the gov
ernment to make demand for lis pay
ment to be backed up by force," which
is giving it all the significance claimed
for it by the examiner, who criticised
his failure to employ it in the dispatch
which Blaine had claimed to be rs pacific
without it as that of Mr.. Fish with it.. ,
Blaine is a natural bully; as he sought
to bully Peru, SO he undertook to bully
Belmont.
It may be, us he thinks, that his policy
would lave gained its purpose in Soutl
American diplomacy without war. 1t may
be true that Frelinghuysen's reversal of il
has given English spectators possession
of the country. One thing at least is
certain, that between the policies of The
two secretaries the United States have
fallen into humiliation and discredt in
South American diplomacy.
II was error to assume that the va
cancy in the board of county auditors
caused by the death of John X. Reed, i!
to he filled by appointment of the cour
of quarter sessions, until the next gen
eral election, under the act of 1884. Th,
new constitution, article XIV, in chang
ing the mode o! electing commissioner
and auditors, also provided, in section
that any casual vacancy occurring il
either of these Offices shall be fillet
for the unexpired term, presumably by