Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1902-07-03
THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON

In a volume just issued by Hough-
ton, Miflin & Co.. Boston, entitled.
Lee at Appomattox and Other Pa
pers." Charles Francis Adams has
given what is doubtless the most thor
ough and fair exposition yet made Of
the public and inside history leading
up to and covering the negotiating and
making Of The Treaty Of Washing
tom"
Apart from his recognized ability
and thorough knowledge of the history
of our country, including the unwrit-
ter, as well as the written history, Mr..
Adams was especially competent to
undertake this work on account OF the
advantages which his position gave
him for knowing the Inducements
that really directed affairs far more
potentially than those which were visi-
BILE to the general public, however
keenly observant. He has given a most
instructive and valuable contribution
to history. and no American who has
ambition to be informed in regard to
the great diplomatic events of his
country can afford to omit its perusal.
The treatise bears upon its face evil
dence that 1t was written from a stand
point OF conscientious history-making,
and that it is not special plea in any
ones behalf. Too much of Jul so-called
history is a distortion of the real
truth In the effort to glorify patrons or
friends. The corrective to these hero
worshippers comes slowly, but it comes
at last through the judicious labors OF
conscientious Investigators. An Illus
tration of this is given in this work OF
Mr.. Adams. without having it as an
object in view, he has necessarily in
developing the secret history OF the
Treaty Of Washington" taken from
Mr.. Sumner the chaplet with which ne
was crowned by his over-zealous biog-
rapher, Mr.. Pierce, and placed it where
it undoubtedly belonged. on h brow
of the Secretary of State, Hamilton
Fish. His exact evolution of all the
facts. sustained by undoubted docu-
mentary evidence, demonstrates that
the success of the negotiations result
ing in the treaty was due alone, so far
as the American side was concerned, TO
the tact. extraordinary common sense
and frmness of Mr.. Fish, and this he
sums up pithily as follows:
Under the skillful business guild
ance of Mr.. Fish. the settlement moved
quietly and rapidly to its f~oreordained
conclusion. . . A heavy shadow
was lifted from of the future of the
British empire. That it was thus lift
ed must in all historic truth be as
cribed to Hamilton Fish"
If il had not been for the sound
Judgment and common sense of Mr..
Fish. nothing could have saved the
negotiations from being wrecked by
the extravagant and offensive demands
of Mr.. Sumner. He started out, as a
preliminary condition of settlement,
with the demand that Great Britain
| should withdraw her flag from Can
d and declared that in order to
make the settlement complete. the
withdrawal should be from this m
| phere, including provinces and ISL
ands. Such a preposterous demand
would have shut the door to all nego-
tiations, and the logical sequence OF his
position was the treaty should be
baked or that he should be retired
from the Craftsmanship of the Commit
tee on Foreign Affairs. The questions
involved for the future of all civilized
countries were of such paramount in
terest that to a man having the fore
| sight and patriotism of Mr.. Fish there
could be, however painful the pro-
cesses of reaching 1t, but one choice
in the solution of this problem.
Mr.. Adams unfolded with intense in
terest the differences between Mr.. Sum
ner and Mr.. Fish, and Mr.. Sumner and
| President Grant, leading up to the
forced recall of Mr.. Motley, virtually
Mr.. Summers appointee, from the min
istry to England, and the retirement OF
| Mr.. Summer from the craftsmanship OF
the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
The breach between Mr.. Sumner and
the President was partially healed, but
that between him and Mr.. Fish was
never healed. While it cannot be
doubted that Mr.. Fish suffered keenly
from the estrangement of n whom
he had admired and upon whose coun-
sci he had leaned, it is nevertheless
quite certain that he must have found
sufficient consolation in the conscious
ness of having discharged faithfully a
most momentous and patriotic duty.
The treaties will be of especial inter
est to Southern readers inasmuch as 1t
gives a careful history of the building
and commission of the Alabama, the
Shenandoah and other Confederate
cruisers. all diplomatic complications
growing out of the same, and the out
come of the treaty resulting In the
Geneva OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES Amer
lean.
81 DIDO l will surprise my young
readers" writes T. P. O'Connor, when
| tell them that l remember the time
when a man who wore a beard was re-
garded as something Of a phenome-
non, and, indeed, as scarcely gentle
manly: but so it was. AT the bar a
young barrister who wore a beard or
a mustache would so outrage the ETH
ouette of the profession that he would
be refused a hearing by some judges
and by others so sneered at as to make
solicitors unwilling to employ him. A
Judge who has only just left the bench
protested one day, while he was lis
tening to a junior, not to understand
what he was saying, and when at last
the unfortunate junior began to shout
the Judge sweetly remarked that it
was very difficult to understand any