The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-12-30
TnE cH1LLrAN EMnRoeL1o.

Notwithstanding the serene surface
and conservative policy maintained by
the government at Washington in regard
to the Gillian affair, interest in tine
pending situation has become universal
throughout this country and has been
given expression through the press, and
the almost unanimous expression has
been demand that the government
take vigorous measures to compel repa-
ration for the outrages perpetrated
against the United States by the Chlians
on the part of that government. These
expressions and demands are made as
| vigorously from the south as from any
other quarter, and among the papers
that have become conspicuous in this re-
gard is the New Orleans Times-Demo-
crat, which paper took special pains, a
few days ago, to defend the American
minister at Santiago and the sailors of
the cruiser Baltimore from the insults
and outrageS inflicted upon them in
Santiago and Valparaiso by the Chilians
For this, some one at Scranton, Miss,
chide the Times-Democrat for its course
in the discussion. The plea set up in de-
Tense Of the Chilians is that ''they are a
people justly proud of being one of
the foremost nations south of the eQua-
tor, and that being a self-respecting peo
pie they would respect genuine Ameri-
cans; but that they are not TO be blamed
for resenting impertinences from for
eigners who masquerade, or seek shelter,
under the stars and stripes" This is
simply a begging of the question, though
it is a notion held to by individuals here
and there who constitute the exception
TO the all but unanimous sentiment
which supports the American idea as it
is involved IN the embroglio. The de-
Tense set up for the Chilians implies
that Minister Egan is in fact an Illegal
representative of this government. An
egregious error. True, he acquired his
title to call himself full fedged Ameri-
can citizen but a short period before his
appointment to the CHILEAN mis-
sion, and it was to this fact. we
think, rather than to any doubt as to the
legality of his citizenship that the cry
was raised against him III certain quar-
ters when his name was sent to the SEN
ate. Egan, although he is an Irish
American, is no more a foreigner mas
queIading under the stars and stripes |
than have been, and are, many of our
ablest and most acceptable representa-
tives, Communications and Anglo !
at foreign points. The place
of an American minister's nativity, or
his Quondam nationality, has nothing |
earthly to do with his fitness to repre-
sent the American people abroad; and,
indeed, that is a question, the United
States administration responsible for the
having passed upon it in
the first instance, with which
the people to whom he is ac-
credited have little, if anything to
do, and with which they rarely, if
ever, trouble themselves. 1t is the Gre
dentials of United States representative
that constitute his Americani5m; and
that Americanism is nowise affected by
of birthplace or of pre-
vious nationality.
So in the case Of the Baltimore sailors;
there is no navy in the world in which
the blue-jackets are all of the nationality
by the flag under which they
fight. The uniform in their case consti-
-utes their nationality; and one of Uncle
. 10, -, !
and never naturalized in the United
States, is as much an American, if he be
n the uniform of the United States
navy, on the streets of Portland, Eng
and, and is as much regarded an Ameri-
IAN there, as if he had been born and
cared in Portland, Me-, or Portland, Or.
And not only so, but it is wide of the I
mark to imply that it is the origin or
nationality of our representative in ]
chilli, and of our sailors on the Baltimore,
hat renders them obnoxious to the
proud and self-respecting Chilians. No :
me who has kept up with the trend of {
vents and actual occurrences down there,
detailed in the dispatches from day to
lay, would hazard such suggestion.
Hardly dispatch has come from Val I
araiso for the last four months in which I
t has not been distinctly and emphat- !
cally stated that it is the Americanism {
f Egan and the Baltimore sailors, and I
othing whatever in connection with !
heir personality or their original nation S
lily, that is offensive to the Chilians. Y
f, indeed, Egan was a representative of
he queen, and if the sailors owned allie
lance to the union jack instead of to |
he stars and stripes, the Chilians, in |
pite of their high-faIutin' pride and l
ieas of self respect, would not dare to l
how discourtesy to them, let alone |
nurdering and outraging them.
Nothing short of full reparation for I
he high-handed and unprovoked actions
f the Chilians and their continued inso-
snce, including the dilatory and uncon-
erned policy of that government in the
natter, will satisfy the people of the
United States, and it is safe to say that
othing short of that will be accepted by
le government.