The Saint Paul globe., 1898-02-13
DE LONE HAS DEFENDERS
MAINTAIN he HAS CoMNETFTED No
PUBLIC OEFENSE

PUBLIC oEFENSE
That an Insult In an Intercepted
Private letter Cannot He Made
the Subject of official Inquiry If
the Dignity of the State Is to- BE
Maintainesll
Washington Bureau st. Paul Gio5e, !
eorc0Kan Building.
Special to- The s. Paul Globe:
WASHINGTON. Feb. Pm treating
the Canalejas. letter incident as. prac-
tlcaHy closed, the president has taken
counsel of his own Judgment instead
or Following the advice Of some Of the
more experienced diplomats, in the lit
| tie, circle, he has gathered about him
Fhe air of the, state department was
TOR forty-eight hours charged with
the spirit of vengeance. On every hand
1t was asserted that Dupuy de LONE,
should not ard could not escape by a
mere resignation. Not a few of the
advocates of a more spirited foreign
pohcy were ready to make the minis
ters ofTense doubiy grave by declaring
that he had followed bad manners with
trickery. They argued that it would
nave been a serious enough matter if
| MS Wrongdoing had ceased with the
casting of slurs upon the president;
piit When he followed this by putting
In his resignation ahead of the demand
by cur government for his recall, he
was palpably trying to evade the con-
sequences of his act, and this was al
most as reprehensible as the act itself.
a Mere Charitable View
of Senor de Lome's conduct was that he
h,f,
ton, and, since he had brought about
this tension, felt that all that remain
ed for him was to get both govern
nlentS out Of the snarl as c0mforta bly,
as he could, regardless of what became
OF himself. A resignation was, of
course, In certain sense q restitution.
Ihat is, his government having con-
fded a certain trust to his keeping
ana ne having by an indiscretion mis-
used 1T, both honor and courtesy de-
manded that he should surrender his
stewardship to the hands from which
he received it,
Ihe course taken by President Nc
Kinley in this matter must not be ac-
cepted as precedent to govern cases
arising under more favorable general
conditions. His Willingness to ignore
the full rights to which he believed his
administration entitled by common
diplomatic usage, and to let the Offend
er OH without any further punishment,
he intends as a special evidence of
magnanimity toward Spain, inspired
Dy MS recognition of the difficulties
with which her government is at pres
ent contending at home. The only re-
cent cases recalled in diplomatic cir
cles mere in which our government has
permitted an offending minister to as-
cape with mere resignation accepted
or transfer made by his own governs,
ment are those of Lorin Thurston and
Senor Muruaga. Muruaga was going
tc leave his pest any way, and for that
reason no special noise was made ever
fms departure In the case of Thurstop.
a demand for his recall was prepared.
but by some accident never satisfac-
torily explained was. sent to Japan in
stead Of to Hawaii, and meanwhile his
resignation had been sent by himself
and accepted by his government.
Sentiment Divided.
Sentiment is by no means a unit as
to Senior de Lonae's blameworthiness in
the present incident. mo one said
a we'll informed Washingtonian. who.
has seen service under the department
/ or state and knows the late minister
well, can question the ability which
/ Sefiof Dupuy decLoEfa has shown as a
| dspionlatfst, oi the: dignity with which
he filled his position at a most irving
time. He has been assailed in CON
gress with a bitterness that bore strik
ing testimony to his strength of char
acter in refusing to hetray his govern
ment; and through the MANY mont hs
/ When congress sought to force the
hand OF the president the Spanish min
lister remained silent in the face of
taunts and sneers which must have.
been calling in the extreme to a man
of his native pride.
There has been no case in our his
tory just like this. Genet was recalled
because Of sentences in dispatches for
maiiy addressed to the government of
the United States, severely condemn
ing the policy of the administration
Marquis Yrujo was dismissed beca use
he attempted to bribe a newspaper in
Philadelphia to print an article criti
cising President Jefferson. The demand
for Jacksan's n's4-feeall was based upon
a sentence in one of his letters to the
secretary of state which was interpret
ed by Madison as containing charge
at once Of falsef1ood and of duplicity'
on the part of the administration. Ca
taoazy, it was held, had by his open
comments on the president made fur
ther communication with him irnpos
sible. Sael1ville Vests case may be
summed UP by saying that he STEP
ped outside Of his regular function TO
give advice on what was purely a mat
ter of domestic concern to the peonle
Of the United States.
''The letter of Dupuy de Lone stands
On a different basis frem any of these
1t was a private utterance on a cues
| ton in which he had a responsible as
well as an active interest; it was writ
ten to a friend who was to make q
special study of the Cuban question i'm
Cuba, and whese relations with the
minister were such that the utmost
ffankness between them was matter.
Of course. It is not charged that he.
has openly criticised the president or
his policy, that he has been discour-
teous in his conduct toward the de-
partment of state, or that he delhi
erately placed himself in antagonisn
to congress, although the provocation
must have been very strong at times.
He was not persona non grata to the
administration as was Catacazy. or y
| briber Of newspa pers like Yrujo, nor
has he taken part in the domestic con-
troversies of American politics. In
short. on public grounds. it is hard to
see how the administration could with
dignity have taken notice of what. by
the confession of the chief party in in
II;