The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1915-03-11

bulAS oNuASS VI last sllpo 70 run De
tween the Bermudas and our south
ern ports, shipping from England
cargoes for them to the Bermudas
and never ceased until our minister
to Great Britain, Charles Franci;
Adams, informed Lord John Russell
that if a certain ship then nearing
completion was permitted to sail, il
would be held as an act of war by oul
country. In the meantime most Eng
lish statesmen including Mr. Glad
stone, had declared in favor of inter
vention for the South, so had many
of her clergymen; our minister, Mr.
Adams, was treated with a rudeneSs
bordering on insult, and Henry Ward
Beecher, assaying to lecture in Eng
land, was assailed by hooting and
cat-calls for half an hour until by
sheer force of his intellect and mag
netism bullied the crowd into silence
and then charmed them into wild
cheering by his eloQuence.
But when Lord John Russell and
Lord Palmerston decided to quit, two
things had happened. Ericsson had
built the Monitor which in Hampton
Roads served notice on both Great
Britain and France that their navies
would be but paper ships in the event
of war. That was one thing. The
other was that when Napoleon III in
vited Russia to join with France and
Great Britain in Intervention in fa-
vor of the confederacy, Russia's pre-
mier, Gortchakof, replied in a short
and sharp note declining and adding
that if such Intervention was attemp-
ted, Russia would construe it as an
act of war.
Then as soon as word could be sent
to the admirals of the Russian navy
in the Atlantic and Pacific, her At
lantic fleet swung into New York har-
Dor, her Pacific fleet into San Fran
cisco harbor and remained there
many weeks until all danger of in
tervention had passed. 1t was under
stood then and has never been au-
thoritively denied that both admirals
had instructions to report to our gov
ernment for duty After the war
closed Secretary Seward began nego-
tiations for the purchase Of Alaska.
1t was not considered of very much
value and when the deal was closed
the people of this country who did
not know any better referred to it
as Stewards folly" They have
changed their minds since and so
perhaps has Russia. There were two
singular features about that sale. One
was that Russia sold-for where did
she ever before sell great tract of
land? The other was the price paid
81, ,240, 900. If we believe what was
often stated at the time, that the ST.
100000 was to reimburse Russia for
what she had done for us and that
the $4,000 was to pay her for what
she had spent for coal in serving us,
neither proposition seems out of rea-
son.
But really the service she per-
formed for us could never be paid for
in money and our gratitude to her
should be an annuity drawing inter
est forever.
But while what the aristocracy, the
manufacturers, the great merchants
and ship companies of Great Britain
lid in that war to destroy our ship
was of greater tonnage
han that of Great Britain when the
war began, and what they did to rend
our country itself into fragments,
will always be remembered, we
should not forget that England's
great queen, her prince consort,
few of her statesmen and the poor
employees who by tens of thousands
we're made to suffer semi-starvation
because of the war; were true from
the first to last in their determina-
ton that there must be no clash with
our country, no perpetuation of sla-
very through their country's help.
But it was with bad grace that the
others relinquished their plan. Ma
poleon III did not dare intervene
alone, but he sent an army to back
The Austrian prince who dreamed of
being sovereign of Mexico, and when
-he Kearsarge ran the Alabama to
bay, and her commander, at last
forced to fight, went out from Cher
)urg harbor to engage the Union ship
all the shore around Cherburg was
lned by thousands eager to see the
ship, armed with Eng
ish guns and manned by volunteers
rom the Britain naval reserve, sink
he kearsarge, and when the result
vas not quite as expected, an Eng
ish yacht was at hand to rescue the
american commander of the British
quilt ship and carry him away to
england.
In our war with Spain, all the SYM
)athies of France and Germany were
WITH Spain, and their newspapers pic
ured with glee how Cerveras s fleet
You'd sweep the paper warships of
he United States from the sea. But
hen Great Britain was our friend
md the service rendered Admiral
Dewey in Manila bay perhaps saved
'ur country from war with Ger i,
many. At that time a distinguished |
ierman in this country made a re.
mark which was most significant.
When asked why Germany was so ur- !
'ent in building a great navy, he re-
'lied: Zone of these days she will
'ome over and poke large hole in
our Monroe doctrine"
The foregoing only shows that ma
ions are governed-at least all but
'ur own-by their own interests.
when an emergency comes. It is
lear, too, why we cannot afford to
axe sides in the present European
onflict.
In our great war our foremost ,
commander in the North was of
'cotch-Irish descent, the second was
Puritan descent; the foremost of
he Southern side came down from