Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1897-01-14
4 TRIBUTE TO MR.. BAYARD.
London Standard, Dec. 18th.

name will ever be associated with the |
discovery of America. The proceedings |
were not intended to partake of the |
character of formal farewell, but they |
nevertheless possessed the sentimental |
interest of greeting which was offered |
In distinct view Of an early parting. |
This feeling of an approaching break
in relations which had been close and |
cordial found effective and felicitous
expression in the speeches both OF hosts
and guest. Nor, we would fam hope,
is there any danger that these indica-
tions Of the high regard in which repre-
sentative Englishmen hold the minister
OF the Great Republic of the West will
be misinterpreted by his countrymen.
Whatever tendency to encroachmeDt
may be- imputed to the old country, we
do not claim to have annexed Mr..
Bayard. We should not have appre.
ciated him, perhaps, so much it he had
not been in our eyes, first OF all,
an American. He will leave US the
richer, it may be, for the knowled ge
that he has heen the means OF main
tanning the friendship between two
kindred peoples; but he will return to
his own country as purely patriotic
citizen of the United States as he left it.
In this consistency to national character
and tradition lies, of course, the charm
and the worth OF ENJOYS; and no nation
has been more happy in it's choice of
messengers than that which gave Mr.
Bayard his commission to the ruler and
people of England. 1t will not GER
tainly be resented as presumptuous II,
from our own insular point OF view, We
remark on one feature of the American
Constitution which works to our detri-
ment. That Ministers and Ambassadors
should share the fortune of the party
that originally nominated them is a
principle which Democrats and Re-
publicans have a perfect right to up
hold, without the smallest reference TO
the pleasure of Tories, Liberals and
Radicals. But IL it has warrant in
the convenience Of Transatlantic states.
manship, it involves certain amount
of discomfort in the communities to
which the spokesman OF the Washing
ton administration are accredited. 1t
| deprives them OF friends whom they
| have learnt to know and, knowing, to
value. Great Britain may assert
| particular grievance on this score. For
we have been exceptionally fortunate in
| those whom the Presidents Of the
l
| 10 u.s. Much as many of us rejoice at
| the triumph of what we regard as
| financial, or political, morality in a
| Presidential election, We have to pay
| the price for the triumph of virtue in
losing men like Mr. Russell Lowell and
| Mr.. Bayard.
1t is no small praise TO Mr.. Bayard
to say that he has most worthily sus-
tanned the tradition of courtesy and
dignity, of geniality and culture, be-
| queathed to him by his predecessors.
For some monthe, it must be added, it
has been his lot to play his part under
circumstances of peculiar difficulty.
Finis coronat opus. Farewell must lose
a great deal of its sadness when the
departing guest knows that the clouds
which gathered during one portion of
his stay had departed before the last
words had to be said. We will not
exalt the merits Of the Minister at the
expense of the great nation which he
represents. Nothing but a combina-
tion of adverse fates could ever have
succeeded in the long run in embroil-
ing the United States and Great
Britain in hostiities over the small
episode OF the Venezuelan boundary
dispute But the path of compromise
would have been, on both sides, less
easy to traverse If, at the American
embassy, there had been less patient,
less interchangeable spirit of peace.
Patience, trust, faith, self.reliance and
conrage-these, as Mr. Bayard rightly
remarked yesterday, are the qualities
that have to be built up and relied
! upon to accomplish the great events oil
! life, whether national or individual.
Diplomacy is rather means of over
coming friction than form of energy
yet the saving is enormous if the
human instruments are we'll attuned tt
their work. Mr.. Bayard has been a.
once loyal and strenuous exponent q
the views of his own government, apt
, a conciliatory channel of communica
] ton with our own. The result is hi
3 reward. 1t is too soon to say that W,
Englishmen are rid of the Venezuelan
=, trouble. But in no wise is il prema
: ture to feel that all the jar with Ameri
' can statesmen, all the possibility o
conflict with popular opinion 10 tn
: States, has passed away. This is no
y the time to consider how far Mr.. Olne
was judicious in his original statemen
OF the ground on which the state De
, partment felt scruples, and how fa
Lord Salisbury was wise in raising tn
: controversy as to the legitimate meanin
and international aspects of the Monro
!, Doctrine. Englishtnen gladly recog
4 nized the purity Of the motive whic
animated the first protest. There wa
a an apprehension that Venezuela, as tn
"a weaker power, might be overcome b
. the mere insistance of Great Britain o
"a an arbi trarily defined frontier. But W
!. believe there was no disposition a
20 the White House to thwart our clait
to any territories to which we had
better color of right than our somewha
turbulent neighbors OF Caracas. Th
e whole difficulty, therefore, was TO fin
8 some method by which, without derogs
n tlon to its elementary rights as gret
q power, Great Britain could dissipai
IT the anxieiies felt by American statel
II men. 1t took a long time-uutsider
1t who are apt to judge hastily, will Sd
d an unconscionably long time-to !igt
d upon the very simple contention /
u which arbitration on matters fair
,, open to controversy is reconci!ed wit
Il rigid respect for prescriptive occ,
J. pancy. Our honor is safe; the col
le scinnce Of the United States is sati
10 fed. II Venezuela conforms to the r.
j. concentrations OF power which hi
8 shown such conspicuous solicitude II
is IDS right to judicial treatment, we
AZ aud good. But if President Crespo
vi unable to avail himself of the tern
lie arranged, Washington has done i
I'd duty; and Whitehall must deal wi
| in FIJI fu mi