Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1896-01-07

L
Venezuela again--The Boasts, the In
| consistencies and the Fears of Sec
retary Olney--Interventioni in behalf
of n Military Despotism.
To the Editor of the Alexandria Gazette:
At the risk of challenging once too
often the attention of your readers to
the Venezuelan boundary question and
the course of the administration in re-
gard to it, cannot refrain from some
additional remarks on both. The su-
preme interest of the theme justifies
the hope that further discussion of it
may be readable.
The remarkable thing and the de-
plorable thing about the whole business
Is not the fact that Secretary Olney and
President Cleveland consider England's
wanting more of Venezuela than they
think just is hostile to the Mon
roe doctrine, and that they think it i'm
proper she should refuse to submit the
boundary to arbitration, but the manner
of their saying so, and above all the
Presidents accompanying it with a
threat. The annoyance of Mr.. Olney's
letter and Mr.. Cleveland's message is,
we venture to assert, without parallel
among such papers except those design.
ed as the direct precursors of war. If
it be urged that they did not so intend
them, we reply that, by men in their
positions and considering what it may
involve, such laundering, if not crimi-
nal, deserves the sternest reprobation
as being certain to render a peaceful
solution difficult-perhaps to make it,
without discredit to us, impossible.
AS to how far binding upon this gov
ernment the Monroe doctrine, as orig
inally promulgated, is, and as to wheth-
er it is really involved at all in the set
Element of the Venezuelan boundary,
enough for our present purpose has
been said in 8 former article-and much
more than most people will care to read
will be said by the newspapers in COM
ing months. Let us now examine some
of the utteraDces of the Secretary of
State in connection with the subject,
and Indirectly those of the President.
The Secretary sets out by declaring,
most properly, that the Monroe doc.
trine "does not establish any general
protectorate by the United States over
any other American States" but an
nounces the broad principle that any
boundary claimed by European power
and denied by South American State
must be ascertained in such manner
as ,ce are satisfied is just. What more
could an avowed protector demand :?
But he goes still further. "To-day, he
says, "the United States is practically
sovereign upon this continent and its
fiat is law" The expression "this con-
tinent" includes, of course, the hemis-
phere. Considering that Great Britain
owns more of North America than we
do, that four other European powers
have American possessions, and that
the bulk of South America, where we
own nothing, is held by Independent
nationalities, this assumption is proba-
bly, not one which any other power will
concede. Having launched so extra
ordinary proposition, the Secretary is
naturally desirous to support it,
and adds, after some introduction,
the following as q reason: ut is be-
cause, in addition to all other grounds,
| its infinite resources, combined with its
isolated position, render it Il. e. the
United States) master of the situation,
and practically invulnerable as against
any or all other powers. Did Napoleon
l., in his pslmiest days, ever indulge
| in boasting more vulgar or braggodocio
more insolent :? Fifty and wittily does
the Baltimore Sun remark: Euro
pean powers, Great Britain included,
| ought to be thankful to the Secretary
for not ordering them off the face of the
earth, instead of merely off the Ameri-
can continent"
While MIR. Olney's Inconsistency and
impudence cannot be better exhibited
than in the above extracts, both are
further illustrated by another. He
says: "That distance and 5000 miles of
intervening ocean make any perma.
| nent political union between a Euro
| pean and an American State unnatural
and inexpedient will hardly be de-
nied." This must be strange reading to
Spain, whose direct title to Cuba is
| nearly lOuE tlLuSS dS Olu etS OulS w tuC
mainland; or to England, whose foot
ing in Canada is thus quietly dismissed
as unnatural"
But the fears of our gallant Secre-
tary are as vain as his vaporing is fool
ish. He tells US, with ingenious cir.
cumlocution, that we can have no
peace if Great Britain gets an undue
share of Venezuela. If the principle
involved be conceded, any power doing
so "would Immediately secure base Of
military operations against US. Our
own real rivals in peace as well as
enemies in war would be located at
our very doors. We must be armed to
the teeth, convert the flower of oul
msle population into soldiers and sail
ors, and thus annihilate a large share
of the productive energy of the nation.
Could anything be more absurd thar
| this? The only European powers tc
which he can refer are those which al
ready have possessions in South Amer
ica-Holland, from which certainly
there is nothing to apprehend; France
/ | ~ 4.