Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-07-18
BAYARD AND THE CANADIANS.


Ii is notorious that the present Secrc-
tary of State sympathizcd with the rebel
South when it sought the destruction of
the Government by all instrumentalities
that treason and civil war could command.
1t is the truth of history we'll known. that
powerful aid to defeat England in the war
of our National independence, in the war
Of 1872, and in the war which the Confed-
crates and their English allies waged
bons of the South do not like the New
England fishermen. Thomas F. Bayard.
fully sharing Bourbon sympathies and
prejudices, has no special love for New
England fishermen. and cares not for their
wrongs. senator lIoar in his recent re-
markable speech has clearly brought out
the strange conduct of Secretary Bayard
in dealing with the Canadian authorities
as to the outrages which Canadian officials
have inflicted on our fishermen. In words
that burn he states the facts in the case of
the Bridgewater, describes the circum-
stances of the Illegal seizure and detention
of the vessel, the refusal of the Dominion
Government to listen to the owners de
mand for redress, and the contemptuous
reference of the Canadian official to the
American Department of State. On this
point the testimony of Capt. Allen is
direct and emphatic. When the Canadian
Minister of Customs had given Judgment
that the owner of the vessel had no claim
for damages against the Canadian Govern
ment, although the wrongfulness of the
seizure could not he denied. Captain Allen
remarked: 1T is unfortunate you confess
to the violation of law, but deny the re-
dress. The matter will now go to the
rather than personal matter" The
Canadian Minister replied with a smile !;
"You will get nothing there. OF all the
claims which have been lodged there
called upon to pay one; we simply heard
nothing more about them" Senator Hoar
justly considers these expressions of con-
tempt flung in the face of an injured
American citizen an arraignment of the
cowardly or treacherous diplomacy of
Cleveland and Bayard. Though we have
recently published his speech at length, it
is well again to call attention to the cut-
ting and eloquent language of the Massa-
chusetts Senator, by which he shows the
craven policy of Secretary Bayard as con-
trasted with the conduct of the Depart
ment of State under Lincoln aud Grant:
Those were days when the flag, beautiful
as the flower to those who loved it, terrible
as meteor to those who hated it, ioated
everywhere in peaceful seas and was honored
everywhere in friendly ports. No petty En-
glish officer hauled it down from an American
masthead. No Canadian Minister of Justice
laughed in the face of an American citizen
when Grant was in the White House. con-
fess that when think of these things | take
little satisfaction when | think of Grover
Cleveland. | do not like the policy which
everywhere robs American citizenship of its
glory. do not like the methods of fraud
and crime which have destroyed popular
election in so many Democratic States. l
would have the box where the American
freeman cast his ballot sacred as sacra-
mental vessel. do not like this conspiracy
between the old Shareholder and the English |
manufacturer to strike down the wages of |
the American workmen and the comforts of |
the American workmen's home. | do not
like your refusal to maintain the American |
navy and to fortify and defend the American |
coast, And l like no better the present
treaty. 1t leaves the American sailor to be
bullied and insulted without redress, and
abandons the American right to the fisheries,
older than the Nation itself, which the valor
of our fathers won for us, and the wisdom of |
our fathers preserved for u.s."
I'm 1856 more than seren hundred Ameri-
can vessels seized, and in 1887 more than
thirteen hundred and fifty seized, their
officers and owners insulted-more than
1000 vessels in two years with the flag of
the United States flying over them, yet I
giving them no security, treated as though
this Government were powerless and fit