Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1888-10-27
The Daily lntelIigencer.
LANCASTER. OCTOBER ~. isss.
They Laugh When They should weep.


The Republican press and orators affect
to see in the letter that the British min
ister was trapped into writing, an effect
as fatal TO Cleveland as Burchard's Rum,
Romanism and Rebellion was to Blaine
their idea being that the British minis
ter's expression of opinion that Cleve-
land would treat the Canada matter
with conciliatory spirit, would inflame
Irish sentiment against him. Just how
they can get this opinion 1t is not easy to
see because the more they excite atten.
tion to this Canada business the more
clearly will they discover to the Irish
voters that the Republican Senate refused
to give to the president the retaliatory
power which he asked for and which the
House promptly granted. The resolution
laid dead in the Senate for a month be-
fore Its late adjournment and, as Judge
Thurman has just said, " i'll lie dead for
ever, so far as Republican effort can
make it dead.
Where then is the Republican capital
10 come out of the letter of the British
minister expressing the opinion that
Cleveland's policy toward Canada would
be conciliatory, even supposing that this
was correct opinion? In the first place,
q conciliatory policy is what the good
sense of the country will demand from
the president in his treatment of foreign
countries, for no sensible citizen wants
to be rushed into war when 1t
can be honorably avoided; and
supposipg that there is bloody Irish
element, that is not sensible when con-
sidering our relations with England, how
do the Republicans expect that this
element will be drawn to sup
port the Republican party, in face
of the fact that the discussion
of this Sackvile West letter makes 1t
clear to everyone that the Republican
Senate refused to the president the retail
iatory power against Canada which he
demanded and pledged himself to use If
granted ? 1t is certain that the anti
English feeling Of the country cannot
be attracted to the Republican party on
this issue and that it is in vain that its
leaders will denounce the Democratic
party as insincere in its declaration in
favor of retaliation, when the Republican
senators have demonstrated certainly
that the Republican party is not in favor
Of that vigorous policy, If the Dem
cratic party was to be put in hole of that
kind the Republican Senate ought to have
given the Democratic president the power
he asked for, and have made him face the
music. 1t was afraid, knowing very well
that he would do what he threat
ened; and it is silly in the highest
extreme for the Republican party now
to claim for itself the political support
that the Republican Senate deliberately
rejected. 1t is wonderful exhibition of
cheek. And whenit is understood that the
British minister was made the victim Of
a Republican trick, it is still less likely
that his party will take anything byit II
is far more likely to bring it to grief
along with Lord Sackville West, who
proved too confding and unsophisticated
to stand up against their game. He is the
victim of their conspiracy and not the
president and the Democracy, whom 1t
cannot hurt.