The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-12-24

tIlAOuSH us own agent, or 0l dllN Edttl ! should have sought and found, before illuminating such Q paper. It is an unheard of thing, that an emergency so grave and looking toward desper- ate war, should nevsr before have been l thoroughly investigated by the state department, and should need thus, at the last moment, the assistance of an outside commission
 | Because Its threats are irrelevant and unfriendly, for they are unwisely introduced previous to any occasion, or else imply fund of information as to the inadequacy of England's position and her tort in the premises, This tho diplomatic notes of the administration plainly show it doss not possess, Because; Whether war-lilie or not, the tone Is at least so distinctly un- friendly that it finally precludes the ac- ceptance of our own good offices, as an arbitrator, and hampers prenatally the very investigation it's commission is expected to prosecute For who can suppose people of the very same stock ! as ourselves, win submit to us, acting in quasi arbitration, and under dur ance of a threat, they being quite as ! powerful and even more prepared for war, the proof they were unwilling to accord to any outsider they having al- ready deemed it wise to decline arbi- tration, for reasons. whether good and | sufficient or not which are of no right eous concern to us. We lately offered our own good offices as arbiters to Japan, and they were declined but th1tt of A looking towards its infllction upon them was not dreamed of. The present case is not sufficiently different to warrant an offensive interference, for England is quite as much an American power as we are, and her own interests bal ance ours in these premises, which in no wise touch the definition of the Mon- roe doctrine (vide Calhoun, Webster, Adams, Clay, Benton, Jefferson, Madi- son, among the elders, and Won Hoist, Woolsey, Hyde, Hewitt and many oth- CTS as later jurists).
 Because: At best the commission must act ex-parte, taking Venezuela in to conference without previous request and leaving England out of 1t in spite of our ignorance of the foundation of her side of the case-the very point at issue
 Because: The initiation of war is ad- mittedly repugnant to American sen- timents; it is always un-Christian, and is not only unnecessary here, but has by no means been forced upon us.
 Because; We are not justified in straining the Monroe doctrine in order to find ground for violating the far broader and better one which is a part of it, of non-intervention, be it at home or abroad
 Because; So long as either alien or fraternal powers have material inter- ests in possessions in South America, or anywhere in this western world, they have as much right to manage them without emibarrassm as Spain has those in Cuba,
 Because By interfering here and yet so far from home and that in a mat ter that so far as yet made out, ap- pears to be none of our business, upon the disingenous plea of championship of the weak, or under the weak subter- fuge of self-prsservation We are at the same time ignoring an appeal, merely to recognize Cuba, now for a long time and far more near to us, struggling for freedom from all old world inter- ference whatsoever.
 Because: We are straining a a gnat and swallowing a camel, for with tho American interests suffering to death in Turkey, and Armenia, we are not even counted among the nations that may be looked to for protecting them vigorously out of the deference to the principle of non-interference that in such case does not bind us, while here, with her friendly interests over two American miners said to be the imme- diate occasion of England's suddenly strained relations to Venezuela, we are actually interfering as against kith in their protection of our own kin, and that with no obvious right in the premises, even if subordinate circumstances are not as represented.
 The fact is we have originated an alarm amongst ourselves, which had not yet even quickened the pulse of a single South American republic as to the danger from foreign encroachment, and which had the factsvof the case borne any resemblance to encroachment odLSlIC OL LllC NiSpulEN lGILliOIN, lldu long ago ignited all in those nearer neighborhoods in most decided op- position to England
 The whole message therefore, was either blunder or worse, and should be repudiated by the sober minded at Fonce, and that in no uncertain terms or else speedily white washed by the commission, which should bring in a verdict without leaving their seats.
 It is one thing to be patriotic and to stand up for a principle; it is quite another to stand by an agent who has made a palpable and unfortunate mis- take, and awakened the Lares of the country without an adequate cause. We Anglo-Saxons fight to win, but are not : wont to fight without sound reasons, : and least of all should we go to war with each other over fictions ill-defned, It is a crime to utter aught that makes a war even remotely possible unless it be in reply to an open menace that is made plain to everyone.
 It is a remarkable fact that in all this furor over the Monroe doctrine not a solitary argument has been advanced to show that in any one of it's bearings the Venezuelan boundary dispute falls