The herald., 1893-06-03
He is DOWN ON THAT TREATY,
General Armstrong Foreninst
the Russian Agreement.
He Draws Sensational Picture OF
the Cars Methods.
a Claim That the Recently Signed Treaty
Is Obnoxious to American Ideas.
Some Points About Russia
and Its Government.

Is remaining In the CITY Tor 6eVefal uhys,
expressed himself very strongly yester-
day in opposition to the treaty Just
signed between our government ana
Russia. The general should know OF
! all men whereof he speaks. He was in
spector general of the European consular
service during President Grants first
term and his official duties took him at
that time to st. Petersburg. q MOSCOW
and Odessa, on the Black sea. 1t was
shortly after his return from abroad,
during the year 1881, that the Interest
of the government and many prominent
people in the United States was directed
toward the making of an extraditlon
treaty with Russia. III,
The late Henry Ward Beecher in con-
nection with other prominent New YORK
diyines prevailed on General Armstrong
to deliver lecture on the Nihilist move.
ment in Russia and the causes
which pyoduced it. The lecture
was deli3ered in Plymouth church
during that year and created
widespread attention. To such an ex-
tent were the public interested that the
lecture WAS repeated some months later
at the Cooper institute, and all New
York turned out to hear it. Several
years afterwards, when the government
took up the Russian treaty, during the
winter of 1884, the general repeated his
lecture before the senators and repre-
sentatives in Washington. At that time
George Kennan was in the audience, and
as he had been all over Russia and had
not noticed the fearful outrages and
abuses which that government perpe-
trated upon its subjects, he upheld the
Russian government and entered into a
controversy with General Armstrong.
This eventually led to Remnants making
his celebrated trip through Russian
prisons which the pages OF the Century
magazine have so graphically told / :.
Today" said the general, "the world
knows the true state OF affairs in Russia.
1t knows OF the autocratic will of the
ruler, whose whim takes away mans
life or consgns him to q country where
lie is worse than death. Yet our coun-
try, with its eyes wide open to the naked
facts, deliberately entered into compact
which turns Americans into Russian
policemen and makes our land
OF glorious liberty an annex to Russian
Rutocrscy. 1t is surprising that such
could be done, and yet when the facts
are looked into, it is not surprising.
This treaty is secret treaty; it has
been before the senatorial committee for
Elk years. The text OF this treaty has
never been given to the press and the
people know nothing about it, beyond
the fact that it has been entered into
and the articles signed. Three weeks
ago it was received from st. Petersburg
with the czar's signature. President
Sic fta66py BACK : Is Eudsia kfd rstgihing
the other How do the people of the
United States know that their will has
not been bartered away from them?5 I
ask that the text of the treaty be given
to the press or to the public in any way
in which they may see for themselves
what is the nature OF the agreementsto
which their government has bound
itself.
II can safely say that when the people
realize what has been done, Indignation
meetings will spring into exist
snce at once and everywhere. Let
me bring home to the American
one fact. No American is safe in Rus
sia either from imprisonment in the
municipal castles or from Transports
tion to the Siberian mines, isss ala
mo matter whether he was born on
American soil and claims the stars and
stripes as his flag or not, il he uninten-
tionally, when within the boundaries of
of Russia, does something displessing
10 the government, he is liable to disapo
pear from his friends or companions
like drop of sand in the sea, and;alI
the power in the United States could
not produce him again. | use the
American as an example, but the same
assertion holds good with every other
European power. The Russian govern
ment, under the will of the czar, will do
as it pleases, all other national comfy
and treaties to the contrary. q Nd-
"Let the people thoroughly under
stand this and then let them realize
that their government has entered into
compact with this sutocratic lord by
which it promises to give up anyone the
car will choose to ask for. Let them
look back to the days OF 1865, when
the colonies from which theif ma
tion has sprung we're fighting
the autocratic power which Great Brit
ain tried to exercise over them. Let
them consider whether when New. York
was held by the British and patriot
escaped from there to Pennsylvania, it
would have been proper and right to
have given him back to the royalists,
according to treaty Of extradition, If
such bad existed, and let him then wear
out his life in foreign dungeon, That
states the case.
"The mass OF the people OF Russia,
and they are called nihilists, are fighting
for their freedom as we did 100 years
ago. The Russian government desires
to stamp out these aspirations and re-
tain its imperial rule. These striyers
after freedom must have leaders to direct
them, and it is against these leaders that
the anger of Russia is most fiercely di-
rected.
Suppose one of them, and there have
been many, should be hunted and
bounded until his only escape from
seizure and the Siberian prisons. would
be to leave the country and come to
America to seek the asylum which is
offered by the United States. Would ii
be right for us to deliver this man
up to the government OF the man who
rules all the Russias in order that
he may be taken back and sent to Ian
guish in the wilds of Siberia. say no
But that is just what this treaty means.
Its propounders have been afraid to
make it public, all we know is that q
treaty had been signed, but of the arti-
cles of that treaty we are in ignorance.
/ think the government should be given
no rest until that treaty is put before
the public in such way that every child
can read it, II it SO desires, and then il
the people Of the United States can, with
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