The times., 1898-11-26
very Long nn snmnron.

the Secretary of the Navy caps the eli
max of carefully pre-arranged plan
TO falsify the facts of the battle, and to
change hours, distances, and incidents,
in order to show that Sampson, the
favorite, who holds mysterious whip
hand over the Administration, was
present and participating in the affair,
when nothing could be palmer or more
ncontrovertible than the public evil
dence that he was never. for practical
| purposes, any nearer to the battle scene
| during the fighting than he was to Ma
Mia Bay while Commodore Dewey was
sinking the Spanish ships of Admiral
Montojo.
II, is with nearly unutterable. aston
ishment and modification that we are
forced to take notice of the fact that the
head of the Navy Department has
chosen to lend the influence of his high
station to the suppression of the now
universally known truth regarding the
battle in which Commodore Schley de-
feated and destroyed the Spanish
squadron under Admiral cervera, and
to accept and indorse a story of the
| episode in American history, which he,
| as well as every other man who has
| intelligently examined into the matter.
knows to be absolutely false, and an un-
speakable outrage upon the distinguish
| ed naval commander, and his subordi-
nate officers. to whom credit for the vic
tory is so notoriously due, that we
should begin to despair of American in
| stitutionsaif we could believe that they
can be robbed of it, even with the con-
nivance of a naval minister with a
whole Administration at his back.
1t is one thing to see disappointed,
inefficient, despicable pet of govern
ment ring, playing fast and loose with
professional honor, decency, and the
truth. We have grown used to such
things in connection with the nepotism
and corruption of Republican Spanish
| war methods. 1t has become quite a
matter of course to submit to the perse-
cution of brave and honored soldiers by
a functionary whose character for pro-
bity in his recent war conduct is not
essentially on different plane from his
| reputation for courage in the Civil War
|
pect decorum and truth from Secretary
Long, and the negation of both present.
ed in his statement of the battle OF
July is incomprehensibie.
1t can only tend to crystalline into
conviction suspicion, which has been
steadily growing, that Sampson has
performed some secret service for the
Administration, which cannot safely be
ignored. and which must be rewarded
even if at the expense and to the
ruin of an honest officer and gen.
tleman. And Mr.. Long knows that
the suspicion in question, whether
justly or otherwise, points to the
investigation into the destruction of
the Maine. He knows also that his
antecedent friendly association with
the financial elements most publicly in
terested in preserving the Spanish al
lance against Cuba. has seemed to pro-
vide ground upon which that suspicion
could rest. 1t was the intense desire of
people like Atkins Olney, McCook, and
others. that nothing should happen to
break the offensive and defensive under
standing between the Administration
and the Spanish government. Their in
fuence was potent enough in the first
year of Mckinley to dictate the policy
which they had successfully fastened
upon his unworthy predecessor, which
was an attitude of hostility to the Cuban
revolution, and the use of the American
navy to throttle every chance of outside
help to that movement. If il We're not to
foster such a policy that Mr. Long was
put in the Cabinet, the general opinion
of his contemporaries has done him in
justice.
The Maine was blown up at length,
and panic thereby fell upon the inter
ests anxious for peace, and certain other
things connected with sugar and Span
ish bonds. The very first thing that
occurred to them was that it was vitally
necessary that, in any investigation
which might follow, the responsibility
of the Spanish government should be
practically eliminated''-to slightly par
| aphrase remark made by Mr. Long on
well remembered occasion. We may.
for the present, drop this branch of the
history; only adding that Sampson con-
Quoted that inquiry and that, ever since.
his word and wishes have seemed to be
laws unto the department without any
regard to the nature of his word. or to
the propriety of his wishes
Barnum once said that the American
people liked to be and would always
pay to be humbugged. The Sampson
part of Mr.. Longs report would suggest
that they like to have things crammed
down their throats which they and the
proponent both know to be untruths.
quite far gone enough in supine sub
mission to official oppression to take
the medicine willingly or quietly. The
ascertained facts of history and geog-
raphy can no more be altered to suit
the designs of department conspiracy,
than the procession of the equinoxes
can be changed by act of Congress.
Secretary Long states that at $3.50 a.
M, on the third of July, when Cervera' s
squadron came out of Santiago harbor,
the New York, with Sampson on board,
was about four miles east of her block
aiding station, and about seven miles
from Morro." He asserts that immedi-
ately the Spanish ships emerged, Samp-
son turned back and displayed the sig
nal ito close in toward the harbor en-
trance and attack vessels" 1t is i'm
material whether Sampson did or did
not display the signal asserted. The
evidence of thousands who were in the
| Goh fnI