The age-herald., 1898-03-01
"A Half Century of
 Spanish BuIIdozing
eesseseesssossSssseessse
ro the Editor of The Age-HeraId.

8060008080So~0O
 To the Editor of The Age-Herald.
 The writer, together with a very large
 majority of the citizens of the state, great
 Iy admires the bold and patriotic stand
 you early took and have persistently main
 tained relative to the all-absorbing Cuban
 questions. Your commendable course is in
 bold relief to the weak and cowardly posi-
 tion assumed by certain of your namby-
 pamby contemporaries, who would have
 the nation tamely and supinely submit to
 any foreign outrage rather than resent
 the same at the cost of war, even though
 recourse thereto be absolutely essential
 for the vindication of the country's honor,
 self-respect and all worth living for. As
 you strongly put it in one of your editorials,
 ''The American government and its free in-
 stitutions may as well go to hell in a hand
 basket as follow the advice of such mis-
 erable peace-at-any-price advocates.
 Spirit of Conservatism
 For nearly half a century this country
 has exhibited a craven spirit of excessive
 conservatism toward Spain, submitting to
 the extent of cowardice to her oft-repeated
 indignities and crueties, until the arrogant, treacherous and barbarous done have na- turally reached the conclusion that no Insult or aBSTeSSlOn, uOW6NcI d6- gravating, will be resented. It is the same with nations as with individuals. The tolerated bully halts not in his bluster till | brought to taw by superior force. The oft-repeated submissions of this govern ment to Spanish bravado, contumely and contempt has created in the average mind | of the latter a deep-rooted feeling of dis pisement, similar to that now being dis l played by their naval officer, Sobral, in his l interviews with reporters, and that arro- | gant gold-laced fellow is truly typical or l the nation he represents. It would require | voluminous book instead of newspaper | column to enumerate and describe the | many acts of Spanish outrage upon Amer | ican citizens, and the following article talk
 en from the Memphis Appeal, 1850, is a fair
 sample, and will suffice for illustrations: 1 Pilacy on the High Seas
 '"There was an incident in the history of | the Cardenas, of first Lopez expedition, | which, if rightly understood or represented, yet calls imperatively for explanation or atonement. We allude to the act of pi- racy on the high seas by Spanish ship of war upon the American merchant vessels, Georgia" and Susan Loud," which, with crew and passengers, American citizens, were at the moment of capture pursuing | the homeward voyage to New Orleans. l These vessels had been employed to trans port the volunteers, afterward composing | the expedition, to the island of Contoy on | the coast of Mexico, and had not been at | any time during the voyage in Cuban or l Spanish waters, and as it is not pretended | that they had made war on Spanish com | merce, by no possible construction could | they be held as having violated Spanish | or international laws.
 l The fact that the passengers taken to l Contoy in Mexico afterwards engaged in | the expedition against Cuba, cannot be considered as justifying the capture and | confiscation of the vessels originally carry l ing them to Contoy, still less would such fact authorize Spain to hold the crew and 1 passengers of such vessels pirates, this | is very obvious that no argument or | illustration can make it plainer. Though l this simple piracy or capture was enough under the circumstances to have demanded l the prompt interference of our government, | there were other featuresmaking this one of the most atrocious of insults.
 Tortured American Sailors
 1 Within what should be our own waters in l the gulf of Mexico-the American lake 1 American sailors were put to the torture | by these acting Spanish pirates, to make | them confess where they had been, for as yet be it remembered, the Spanish only suspected that these vessels, so illegally seized, had been engaged in transporting the volunteers. From the facts in this infamously cruel manner elicited the ves- | sells were deemed lawful prize O and the l crew and passengers, all peaceably re- | turning home, having never been within l Spanish waters, or from under their own 1 flag, were adjudged and held as pirates. Entering Havana's Harbor
 l It happened to fall calm at the moment these American vessels were about to enter l the harbor of Havana, they were in GUS | tody of Spanish frigate and brig of war,
 and the news of the piracy reached Com
 modore Victor M Randolph whow as in
 port in command of two of our sloops of war. Randolph, gallant son of the l south, knew that a mere executive procla- | mafion against "filibusters' could not de- | ma lalize American citizens or authorize | on tnc part of even Spaniards piracy and | murder. He felt that he was at Havana | the representative of American nationality, and that no paper manifesto ought to sus- l pend the duties he owed to his position | and to humanity. He, therefore, with l the generous instinct of the true sailor, l hurried at once to the palace of the cap l tain general of Cuba, Count Alcoy, and de- | manded the instant release of the two
 American vessels, even before they should l enter the harbor Alcoy, surrounded by | 0,000 armed men, and having the .'pirates'' almost under the drowning batteries of | Moro, refused the demand. You will not give them up, then I will take them, was 1 the response of this American commander.
 "That will be war; was the ominous l reply of the captain general.
 | War let it be- said Randolph, "it is of l your own making" and thus saying he | withdrew. AS he was retiring, Alcoy said: 1 Capt. Randolph, is 1t peace or war;" War" energetically replied Randolph, at
 the same time, as if by an involuntary mo- | ton, clappng his hand on the hilt of his l sword; and thus the hostile interview ter minated. In few minutes after Randolph l gained his quarter deck, the two ships l Albany and Germantown, of twenty-two guns each-were under sail, prepared at all l points for action, standing out of the har- l bor, the American captive vessels in | charge of the Spanish frigate and brig in 1 plain sight to seaward and not more than l a league distant.
 Randolph's Bold Act
 It was a bold act in Randolph thus to | defy the captain general in his stronghold; l thus to brave al 1.-the power of Spain in l Cuba; for though the Spanish marine