Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-10-11
OUR POLICY.


The New York Tribune, of Monday had
an article on American Isolation a
subject which requires attention, and
which, if not voluntarily attended to,
will one day enforce itself on our notice
in a way that will neither be satisfactory
to our pride nor gratifying to u patriot
ism. There have been cases where, in
the interests of peace and other good OBJ
jects, our government has taken a part in
international affairs with good effect.
The results of the attitude we assumed
toward the French invasion of Mexico,
is a proof of the influence We possess
when we choose to exert it. Usually we
do not choose to exert it, but commonly
standing aside, giving no proof of sympa-
thy with the right or condemnation Of
the wrong. We do not even show vigor
in defending our own citizens when un-
justly used in foreign lands. We have
not even been careful to keep up our
shipping, so that in every large seaport in
the world the presence of the Ameri-
can flag should give proof of
our prosperity and our power. Even
our instincts for trade and our
active acquisitiyeness is mainly confined
within our own borders, and we have a
tariff, which like the Chinese wall, cuts
us off, in a great measure, from the trade
of the world. We manufacture goods,
or the means of producing goods, in some
cases in excess of our own wants, and by
our short-sighted policy we have cut our
selves out of the possibility of sending
u surplus manufactures to other mar
kets. How strange such a fact will ap-
pear to the readers of future histories of
the United Statesl The fact that Euro
pean countries are the main supplies of
the markets of this continent is a singu-
lar and humiliating instance of the CON
sequence of IL s~elf-inhicted isolation.
OF our next neighbor, Mexico, we liter
ally know nothing intimate, and the ex-
tension of railroads from our border to
its interior are bringing forth books from
travellers hat are read with as much Gu
Tiosity as books about the interior of
Africa. About Canada our people gen.
orally know less than they do about Eng
land? Is there not something peculiar
in this strange isolation? In South
America Europe is doinga large business,
a considerable portion of which can be
made accessible to ourselves. But with
all cur devotion to the almighty dollar
such is u love of isolation that we al
low the rich prize of the Central and
South American trade to go into other
hands almost without an effort. The
dismemberment of Peru by Chill is n
most Notifying proof of the conse-
quences of our Chinese kind of policy.
Our ministers made some wavering at
tempts to interfere on behalf of poor,
plundered Peru, but Chill laughed at our
awkward laundering, tainted us with the
fact that We had no shipping hat could
meet with her own, and with Insulting
directness she went, in the face of all our
recommendations, and plundered, and
spoiled, and annexed, beyond what she
would have done without u interfer-
ence. Our commercial interests there
were at stake, also the rights and inter
eSts of some of our citizens, but our pol
icy made us powerless to defend either.
So far does our system of isolation go,
and SO injurious are the effects of that
system, that even the high-tariff, protec-
ton New York Tribune is candid enough
to say; ut is a matter of daily complaint
that the markets for American products
are too narrow that the avenues of com
merce all over the world have been seized
by rival nations; that nobody cares to
have the United States for a friend
because its traditional selfshness makes
its friendship practically valueless; that
our diplomatic representation abroad is
niggardly and inadequate, and our naval
force in foreign waters simply contempti-
BILE; that American influence does not
avail to secure favors or TO promote com
mercial relations, even with other repub-
lies; and that We are supposed to be so
wrapped in the solitude of our own gran
deur that 1t makes no difference 10 us
whether other nations treat us or each
other well or ill.," 1t is true that our
wise and foreseeing fathers well and
faithfully counseled us against ''entang-
ling alliances a lesson we cannot take
TO heart too deeply or practice too strin
gently; but alliances that entangle are
one thing, and IN adaptation of our policy
to events actually occurring, and to the
defense of our own dignity and national
self-respect, Is another. For instance
the Isthmus canal will be completed in :
few years. We sit still as if we had
no concern in the matter, and let 8
foreign and aggressive nation, that ha,
already once of late years landed invading
troops upon this continent, construct and
W a work that ought to have been oul
wi When the canal is opened our
maritime position becomes seriously
changed, and our commercial relation.
strongly affected. Is the policy of isola.
ton to be pursued to the point that viii
have the canal as an open gate to coun
tries with which We may, some day, BE-