American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1915-03-18

IldLhliAOu NOIh anu get lne lluduCSS
of the nation in order.
In the meantime a large immigra-
ton poured in from England and Scot
land and more especially Ireland-and
every Irishman was at heart an Amer
ican when he embarked for this our
try.
After the Napoleon wars ceased, the
Germans began to come in greater and
greater numbers until at last they ex-
ceeded all others.
In the Mexican war. the Irish and
Germans, under our flag were espec-
tally conspicuous.
Then came our great war of the re-
bellion and when the life of the nation
was hanging in the baalnce, the lust
for conquest seized upon Napoleon III
and the commercialism of Great Brit
ain as manifested through her ruling
| classes and great manufacturers had
full sway.
Both countries with unseemly haste
acknowledged the confederacy as a
belligerent power; the attitude of both
governments was rude, bordering on
insult, England built privateers armed
and manned them and supplied them
to southern naval officers to prey upon
the of the United States;
She had just adopted the American in
v%ention of the compound marine en-
CINE, her merchants built scores of
fast ships to run between the Bermu-
das and our southern ports, shipping
from England cargoes for them to the
Bermudas, and never ceased until our
minister to Great Britain, Charles
Francis Adams, informed Lord John
Russell, that if a certain ship then
nearing completion was permitted TO
sail, 1t would be held as an act of
war by our country. In the mean
time most English statesmen, includ-
ing Mr.. Gladstone, had declared in
favor of Intervention for the south, so
had many of her clergymen; our min
lister, Mr.. Adams, vas treated with
rudeness bordering on insult. and
Henry Ward Beecher, assaying to lee.
ture in England, was assailed by
hooting and cat calls for half al hour
until by the sheer force Of his intel
lect and magnetism 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 a 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 favor
of the confederacy, Russia's premier.
G~ortchakof, replied in a short and
sharp note declining and adding that
If such Intervention was attempted,
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 Allan
tic fleet swung into New York harhor,
her Pacific fleet into San Francisco
harbor and remained there many
weeks until all danger of Intervention
had passed. 1t was understood then
and has never been authoritatively
denied that both admirals had in
structions to report TO our govern
ment for duty. After the war closed
Secretary Seward began negotiations
for the purchase of Alaska. II 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 a great tract of land? The other
was the price paid. 1920 900. If we
believe what was often stated at the
time. that the s7,00h,o00 was TO rein
burse Russia for what she had done
for us and that the $4,000 was 10 pay
her for what she had spent for coal
in serving is, neither proposition
seems out of reason.
But really the service she perform
ed for us, could never be paid for In
money and u gratitude to her shoulf
be an annuity drawing interest forever.
But while what the ~aristocracv, the
manufacturers, the great merchants
and ship companies OF Great Britain
did in that war to destroy u ship
ping-which was of greater Tonnage
than that Of Great Britain when the
war began, and what they did TO rend
our country into fragments, will al
ways be remembered, we should not
forget that England's great queen, her
prince consort, a few OF her states-
men and the poor employees who by
tens Of thousands were made to suffer
semi-starvation because of the war