New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-03-18
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
RUSSIA AND THE UNITED STATES.
Mr.. Moreton Frewen on the Nature Of the
Ancient Friendship"

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
c.. 7 sunnosa that no FnElishman who has
any knowledge Of American affairs escapes 10
dav the curious inquiries of his countrymeh a'
home IS 10 the nature Of that ancient lll9I'u
shin between Russia and the United states
The query takes this form; why Is fNUssIA SUI
--tsot that national sentiment IN the United
states sides with Japan? japan IS Americas
,o,r Deirhbor. Japan enjoys a constitution ho'
- ~, tban that OF Washington. While
America f. to-day the dumping ground OF nus
It,. .vres Poles and Films and poor RUSSIAN
H., whose nationalities have been destroyed
=, ,,,ot- reonIes outcast and ruined Either ths
Io,,o % liberty professed by Americans Is sneeI
h,,rocr,sv or their sympathies must ine'''aOIE
go out to the japanese -
To eIucIdate the situation II Is OF course 'e>
sssarv TO go back 70 the secession HloVeIl7i'.
~ 1851. on the face OF IT we. VINO hau i'e7N
our slaves at great cost, should nave sS4lIp"
thtzed with the North. But II was rloicUlou9
or, an era when liberty was notnlhs' ''o
l,hsrties' everything; an era when peace anu
good will we're about to inaugurate the most
eo.,I,, ard the most bloody wars IN history; an
era when economic cranks were, as CarlyIe re-
marked. hunting for a calico millennium
..raorsreon Davis has made a nation Mr. Glad
s,ona said. and south OF Mason and Dixon's Hne
n dozen sovereign States were rightly strug-
Cling 10 be free" MT. Gladstone was not
FederaIist. but a Nationalist; this fact. which ne
admitted. accounts for most Of the plumbers OF
his career: he disbeIieved in the federal prlncl-
nile OF government and thus this country was
nearly carried of its feet BY Mr.. Gladstone ana
the cmotionalists The result was that III
Ar,arica an entire generation had had TO go 10
its grave before It's successors have fouhu KING
10 forgive US.
Now as to Russia. Russia was already en-
CARED in selling Alaska TO the Washington gov
eminent. and too the memory OF the Crimean
War was still fresh; these were reasons why
Russian executive should be pro-ATnerlcan ana
anti-English But there was much more IN Rus
SINS efusive frendliness than this. and 1t would
be worth while at the present tuncture 10 review
the "Dislomatic Correspondence OF the Con-
federacy' which IS still. believe, N the Treas
ury archives at Washington in charge Of Judge
Jordan The late Mr.. judah T. Benjamin. then
Secretary of State for the Confederacy. early in
1862. when thus far the fortunes OF the war had
smiled on the Southern cause. thought II worth
willie to send Judge l. c. Lamar to St. Peters
burg to secure If possible the reconsideration or
a note which Prince Gortschakofr had addressed
TO Mr.. Bayard Taylor. the United States Charge
d'Affaires. The note read in part as follows:
Russia has declared her position and will
maintain it. There will be proposals for inter-
ventIon. We believe that intervention could do
no good at present. Proposals viii be made TO
Russia to Join in some plan Of interference. She
win refuse any intervention Of the kind. Russia
Will occupy the same ground as at the beginning