Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-02-15
The Dupuy De LONE Incident.

fOf tle ScVenUn GlHe IN our history
a foreign minister has become so often
sive to our government as to make it
incumbent on the president to demand
his recall. The last unpleasant incident
of this kind occurred in Mr.. Cleveland's
first administration when the British
minister wrote the well remembered
Murchison letter, and was promptly in
formed that he was persona o grata.
And now in the presence of the very
delicate relations existing between our
government and his, Senior Don Enrique
Dupuy de LONE, the Spanish minister,
so far forgot his duty to both govern
ments as to use the following insulting
language in a letter to Senior Canalejas,
an editor of a Madrid paper:
1.-THE message has undeceived the in
surgents, who expected something else,
and has paralyzed the action of con-
gress, but | consider it bad.
"BesideS the natural and inevitable
coarseness [groseriall with which he
repeats all that the press and public
opinion of Spain has said of Weyler, it
shows once more what Mckinley is:
Weak and catering to the rabble, and,
besides, a low politician, who desires to
leave a door open to me and to stand
well with the jingoes of his party"
Senior De LONE, when asked if he had
written the letter in question, answered
Eyes" and made no attempt to justify
his conduct. The American minister at
Madrid was instantly wired to demand
De Lome's recall, with the additional
instructions that if he was not recalled
before midnight of that day, De Lome's
passports would be handed to him at
once. Taking time by the forelock the
minister forwarded his resignation to
Madrid and the resignation was accept
ed, and thus the case stands at present.
And now with the bumptious i%nsolence
which urges John Bull to poke his nose
into other peoples business, comes the
Tory London Post and to show the
friendship which VIC hear 50 much
about when the English want anything
from us, filings this choice specimen Of
billings at the president. After justify
ing the writer of the letter and saying
that it was a natural communication for
anybody to make in De Lome's positions:
"Amid the breakdown of his fiscal
policy and the gloomy prophecies of the
coming elections, this supposed insult to
the presidential Office is a happy dis.
covery for Mr.. Mckinley, enabling the
cabinet to assume an air of outraged
dignity. 1t was Immediately seized by
Mr.. Sherman, who is himself a notori-
ously polite letter writer.
''The intercepting of the letter and its
publication, if it is genuine, will create
an unpleasant conjecture, which a gov
eminent respecting the amenities of in
ternational relations could easily have
settled with decorum. The impetuous.
high-handed proceedings Of the govern
ment at Washington form another Illus
tration of the total contempt for good
manners which characterizes the De-
partment of state. In this particular
case energy has been stimulated by the
opportunity for pleasing the rabble of
their party, without actually provoking
Spain to declare war"
And it is with this "rabble of their
party which constitutes the over
whelming majority of the American peo-
pie, that the English government are
nov maintaining an obsequious lobby in
Washington begging for an arbitration
treaty which they ought never to get. A
better specimen of English hatred of
this country could hardly be found,
even when they are-asking f%avors, they
cannot conceal their enmity to us. The
fact is, that many of these foreign gen.
tlemen who come here to represent
their governments are too apt to forget
the respect they owe to the dignity of
this government, and use language to-
wards it, which they would not think of
using to the pettiest kingdom in the
world. An occasional reminder like the
De Lone incident is necessary to recall
them to their duty and to inform them
from the highest to the lowest, that the
American people, who are the govern
ment, will not be insulted with impunity.
''That we know our rights and knowing
dare maintain them.