Year: 1873

and Jealous journalism.


During the excitement attendant upon the


unlawful seizure of the Virginius and the swift
butchery of large portion Of her officers,


passengers and crew, there was an evident and
probably natural desire on the part of the ad-
ministration at Washington to allay the popu-
lar Indignation against the government which
was responsible Tor the outrages, in order that
peaceful solution of the difficulty might be
reached. The semi-offcial reports sent out
from the State Department were designed to
accomplish this object, and the administration
organs, with unquestioning party fidelity,
labored to the same end. The HERALD, as an
| independent journal, owing service only to the
| people, and more anxious to preserve the honor


Of the nation than to guard the interests of o


political organization, did not think proper to
| conceal or misrepresent facts, or to aid in


deceiving the people as to the true position of


our government in the diplomatic negotia-


tions to which the difficulty gave rise. The
efficiency of our foreign service enabled us to
obtain intelligence which was beyond the
reach of our contemporaries, and we con-
sidered it our duty to place the news before our
readers regardless of the wishes of officials or
the interests of individuals. Our special
dispatches brought the first information of
the demands made by our government upon
the government at Madrid through our Minis
ter at the Spanish capital, of the heated
interview between our Minister and the
Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs to which
those demands gave rise, and OF the subse-
quent resignation of General Sckles. Our
contemporaries published a portion of our
news, in the absence of any special advices of
their own; but some of them subsequently
thought proper to question the truth of our
reports and to make all sorts of stupid attacks
upon their authenticity They took their cue
from the semi-oficial dispatches from Wash
ington, in which it was asserted that no de-
mands had been made by our government
upon Spain that the five points alleged to
have been presented to the Spanish Minister
of Foreign Affairs had been concocted in the
HERALD Office that no difficulty or contro-
versy had arisen between our representative
at Madrid and any member of the
Spanish government; that General Sickles had
| not rendered his resignation, but that, on the
contrary, his course throughout the Virginius
controversy had met the approval of the ad-
ministration, while the friendly relations
existing between our Minister and our Secre-
tary of State had remained undisturbed. 1t is


possible that these false statements were re-
garded at Washington as demanded in the
interests of peace, and that in the singular
ethics of our State Department the attempt to
place the brand of fraud upon truthful reports
was applauded as q shrewd stroke of diplo-
matte policy But the ferocity with which
certain of the New York journals seized and
enlarged upon these slies diplomatic indi-
Gated petty envy as unbecoming as it was
impoitic.


For time could not fail to substantiate the
truth of all our intelligence. The facts of the
heated interview between General Sickles and
the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs and
of the hostile demonstrations against the
American Legation in Madrid soon appeared
in the European papers. The Presidents
Message officially confirmed the dispatches of
| our Madrid correspondent by recapitulating
the demands made by our government upon
Spain in almost the exact words in which
they had been originally transmitted to the
HERALD. And now we have the announce
ment in the party organs of the administration,
not only that General Sickles has actually
resigned his Spanish mission, but that he has
done SO on unfriendly terms with the State
Department So that all the news we exclu-
sively obtained in regard to the virginius nego-
tiations and their consequences is now fully
confirmed. We do not call attention to these
facts as mere journalistic triumph, nor do
we allude to them for the purpose Of assailing
the motives or the judgment of our jealous
contemporaries. A journal which enrolls upon
its recent successful enterprises the Living
stone expedition, the O'Kelly mission, the
Modoc campaign, the Polaris triumph, the
cable correspondence from the Vienna Expo
stion, the Ashantee and Khiva missions and
the exclusive news in regard to the Virginius
controversy can very well afford to smile at
the envious snarlings of would-be rivals. Our
object is to publish an Independent and thor
ough newspaper and to trust to an intelligent
people for our reward hence we are indif-
ferent to the personal squabbles and abuse in
which certain journalists seem to suppose the
public feel deep interest. We have a higher
motive, then, than personal triumph in
alluding to the complete verifcation of our
virginius news. We desire to prove to the
administration the folly and danger of that
Machiavelian diplomacy in which European
nations have been wont to indulge and the adj
vantage Of openness and candor in our trans
actions with foreign Powers. 1t is unques-
tionably true that the first demands made of
the Spanish government were such as the
honor of the American nation required
and such as the American people could