New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-11-01
LORD SACKVILLE HERE YET
NO PASSPORTS SENT THE MINISTER
MR.. CLEVELAND sPURRED INTO INDECENT
HASTE BY A TELEGRAM FROM NEw-YoRK
CITY-MR BAYARD's SERIOUS BLUNDER.

MR.. CLEVELAND sPURRED INTO INDECENT
HASTE BY A TELEGRAM FROM NEw-YoRK
cITY-MR. BAYARD's SERIOUS BLUNDER.
rBY TELEGRAPH TO THE rxrsuSEl
Washington, Oct 3l.-Thc publication of Sec
rotary Ryards statement to the President"
covering the case of Lord Sackville, has failed
to arouse the enthusiasm and satisfy the demands
Of that wing of the Democratic party which seeks
to secure political asccndancy st the expense Of
National dignity and in total disregard Of the
amenities of international intercourse. There is
to-day not conservative man in this country,
probably, who does not upon calmly reviewing
the facts in this whole matter, regret the indecent
haste-rendered doubly so by the sudden change
Of front at the last moment-which has marked
this latest step in the policy OF Mr.. Cleveand's
Administration. Who doubts that but for the
fact that Presidential election is at hand and
that Mr.. Cleveland is endeavoring to retain his
seat in the White House for another term, the
British Minister would still be acting in hE Of
fetal capacity here? This much Mr. Bayard
confessed himself when he asserted, less than
week ago. that the Government could not take
any notice of Lord Sackvle's letter to his Pomona
correspondent because it had been marked pri-
vate.' The President admitted practically the
same thing. when he told correspondent for
" The World' on Sunday last that we must
do these things with all due dignity and in ac-
cordance with the amenities that must prevail
between two Governments on friendly terms
with each other.'
The desperate straits in which the President
finds his party is indicated by the means TO which
he has stopped ir order to 1t from defeat
at the coming election. 1t must be confessed
that this is probably the first time in the his
tory of the United States that d President has
been found willing to juggle with the diplomatic
relations of the country in order to compass his
reelection. After that Retaliation" Message
however, everything might have been expected
from Mr.. Cleveland
sPURRED ON FROM NEW-YORK CITY.
Tonight it is pretty well understood that Mr.
Cleveand's sudden resolve TO act as he did was
the result of a dispatch received yesterday by a
member OF the Cabinet and signed by several
members of the Democratic National Committee
IN New-fork That dispatch read in substance:
Washington kilograms in to.days papers are most dis
appointing about the Sackvie matter. Does the Presl
dent know that the Irish is slipping OF hands
because OF diplomatic shilly-shaying See l. at once
Something ought to be done to-day.
The L. referred to, of course, is Colonel
Lamont. The private secretary, whose influence
over the PRESIDENT is paramount escaped last
Saturday to his home in Northern New-Yorlz for
brief spell of rest from his arduous labors here
In the course of his absence the President was
lndlscreet enough to see newspaper correspondent
and give him an interview touching the SaclSville
incident. 1t was fatal blunder, in the opinion of
Colonel Lamont, especially as the President said
so much about the due dignity" and deliberation
with which all such diplomatic questions must be
approached. The National Committee must have
been OF the same opinion, for they Immediately
caused the teegraphic dispatch already quoted to
be sent to a member of the Cabinet. with the
Injunction to see IT,"
OF course "Wdshington telegrams in to-day's
papers were most disappointing about the SacSvillo
matter OF course " the Irish vote was slipping
out Of our hands," Of course something had to
be done to-day" And so the astute L." who
derives his ideas of diplomatic etiquette and the
amenities Of international intercourse from the in
formal manner in which cheese is handed over
the counter of country store, or a package of
hairpins is delivered into the hands of a village
beauty set to work inllaming the Imagination
such as it is-of Grover Cleveland. BY degrees !
the intellect OF the latter began TO work until |
it finally seethed, and, dsregaring tradition for
getting his words uttered less than forty-eght
hours before, setting defiance CUSTOM precedent
and decency, and with the only object in view |
of preventing a stampede of Irish votes, he sat
down, and, with the aid of Secretary Bayard con- |
cocted that extraordinary statement to the Presi
dent" together with notice issued |
TO the press, desi gned 10 create the |
impression that the recall of the British Minister
had been d mandcd,' which it never has Truly
never was there a more rete illustration |
OF that clever and now famous apothegm, that
public Office is a private snap
Srch, briefly is the story of the statement,
as current tonight While not authentic 1t bears
all the traces OF being the correct solution of
a riddle which many people have been asking
themselves to-day.
Mr. BAYARD'S USUAL BLUNDER-
The most serious blunder, however, in Secretary
Bayard's " statement to the President was his
reference to Section 1885 of the Revised Statutes
which he asserts has been violated and his Bug
geston that the Attorney General investigate the
case with view to the prosecution of the British
Minister'S correspondent. 1t was shown in these
dispatches last night that this section was in no
wise applicable to the present case but history
Of this law may prove of interest. This is one
of the series OF alien and seditOn laws passed
by Congress in the years l 79S and 799, which
which really led to the overthrow Of the John
Adams Administration. In the debates upon
these measures they were strongly opposed by the
then Republicans, under the leadership of Jetfer-
son and Madison, on the ground that they lodged
too much power with the Executive and that
this was liable to to abuse b These laws avs we're
ginia Resolutions of 1903, Jefferson being the |
author of the former and Madison of the ntter.
Those resolutions were full of political significance
and gave tone to all the sectional discussion up |
to the close Of the War of the Rebellion. They |
first promulgated the doctrine of Nulihcatl0n, or
Secession, and upheld the theory of State Rights |
and those resolutions have been the cardinal
principles Of the Jeifersonian Democracy ever
since Even though these theories were determined
wrong by the arbitrament of war they nave still
been advocated upon the floor OF Congress Under
the present Administration.
1t seems almost a fatality that one of the very
series of alien and scdition laws which have
always been claimed by Democrats as wrong IN
principle and unconstitutional, should be invoked
by rhe first Democratic Secretary of State in a
quarter of a century in order 10 make a political
point for his party. That the section referred TO