The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-03-03

Spain and her Cuban subjects on the other
hand, IL undertook to satisfy the claims OF
individual American citizens, and prom.
Used the eventual abolition Of slavery, the
application Of liberal political reforms to
the island, and the promotion Of unre-
s~tricted commerce. Protesting to be salts
fled with these assurances, which proved,
we need not say, delusive, but really influ.
enced by the forbldding attitude OF the
foreign powers, to which he had referred n
question regarded by previous Administra-
lions as exclusively American, Mr.. FISH
rctreated from the position taken, and
made no further attempt at Intervention.
1t Is less than two years, rs we have said,
since the true inwnrdness of this matter
was d~ivulged, and Mr.. LATANE is the first
to give the facts adequate attention. Mr..
FISH tried to conceal them, and they were
concealed for more than twenty years. It
should be recalled that the substance Of
Mr.. F1sH's note of Nov. 8, 1875, threaten
ing Intervention, had appeared unotlcially
in the European and American press dur
ing the ensuing December, and had given
rise to so much comment that the House of
Representatives asked for the correspond
ence. In reply. Mr.. FISH sent to Congress
on Jan. 81, 1876. the note Of Nov. 8, to-
gether with q few carefully selected ex.
tracts from the correspondence between
himself and Mr.. CUSHING, but moth
ing was transmitted which might in
dictate that the United States had APP
pealed to the powers of Europe to counte-
nance intervention. As rumors to this
effect, however. had appeared in the press,
the House called, on the very next day, for
whatever correspondence had taken place
with foreign powers In regard to Cuba.
Mr.. FISH replied that the note Of Nov. 8
had been communicated to the foreign
orally, but that no correspondence
had taken place. This, as Mr.. LATANE
says. was putting a peculiar construction
the term Correspondence" The
dispatches, notes, and kilograms that
pass between the Government and It's
representatives abroad are the only recog.
nlzed means Of communicating with for
eign powers, n are always spoken of as
the correspondence with those powers.
We concur In Mr.. LATANE's opinion, that
"the whole affair reveals q peculiar lack of
frankness or of courage on the part of Mr..
l. 1911. AO wac shJhh6 W tuiCio Vithci Ii
Administration or himself, and did not wish
the American public to know that he had re.
versed the time-honored policy of the State
Department by appealing to the powers of
Europe to intervene in what had always
been treated, from the days Of JOHN
QUINCY ADAMS and HENRY CLAY, as
a purely American question:" The truth
might have remained suppressed forever,
had not the Senate. on March "a, 1896,
called for all correspondence relating to
and intervention in the affairs
of Cuba from Nov. 8, 1875, until the pacif-
cation of the island In 1875. On April
Is, President CLEVELAND transmitted the
data requested, which form, we are told,
a document of 1877 pages, and include the
I" correspondence" which, according to Mr..
FISH, had never taken place. We are con-
tident that, in his treatment of the final
phases Of the Cuban question. President
MCKINLEY will act In the spirit not of
FISH. but of HENRY CLAY.