Year: 1873

|


Subject.


The people of the United States were favored
yesterday through the columns of the HERALD
with three views Of their difficulty with Spain,
or rather with the Spanish rufiians in Cuba,
taken from as many different standpoints.
One was the opinion of the London Times,
the recognized organ of British sentiment, in
regard to the five demands reported to have
been made upon or indicated to the Spanish
government as the atonement for the Vir-
| ginius outrage another was the plea OF Ad-
miral Polo, the Spanish Minister at Washing
ton, in justification of the acts of the Spanish
war steamer and the Cuban authorities, and
| the third was o dissection of the case by the
keen, analytical mind of Reyerdy johnson.
The London Times, we are told, approves Of
all the alleged demands except the irst-that
is, for the surrender of the Virginius. The
release and restoration to our protection of
the surviving captives; money indemnity to
the heirs of those who have been butchered;
the trial and punishment of their murderers,
and the immediate and unconditional
abolition of slavery in Cuba as the source of
all the pending troubles, are demands Of
which the English organ approves and in
which it believes the British government
might well join but it does not consider that
the United States can in justice ask the sur
render of the Virginius. In the brief cable
despatch announcing these conclusions the
reasoning by which they are reached is not
given but we must conclude that it is based
upon the admitted character of the business
in which the captured vessel was engaged
rather than upon any doubt as to her nation
| ality-frst, because the right of the Virginius
to sail under the American flag is accepted by
our government, and next because the con-
! demnation of our demand for her surrender
appears to be made absolute, and not condi-
tional upon the proofs of nationality We
can readily understand this apparent sym
pathy with the act of the Tornado on the
part of England who still clings lovingly to
the right of visitation and search, although
she has long since yielded the desire to
attempt the enforcement of the one and alb
solutely relinquished the other, except as a
belligerent right in time of war. But the
| United States has written in the blood of its
citizens, and at the cost of war with
England its determination to maintain
the freedom of the high seas to vessels of
all nations in time of peace, free from
visitation or search. Spain has elected to
deny the existence of war in Cuba, and she
must abide by the consequences of the posi-
ton she has taken. Our government denies
that the Spanish war steamer had any better
right to visit and search United States vessel
than to land upon and invade our soil.
Hence we claim that the seizure of the Vir-
ginius was an act against our sovereignty as
nation, whatever may have been the character
of the trade in which she was engaged, and
the act would be equally unjustifable if it
should be proved that the captured vessel had
landed men and arms in Cuba q hundred
times prior to her last voyage. The contempt
shown for our flag by the disregard of all
laws that would apply even to legal prize, by
the failure to notify the representative of the
United States at Santiago of the capture and
by the suppression of his communications
with his own government, are only aggrava-
tions of the outrage. The demand for the
surrender of the virginius will therefore be
firmly maintained by our government for it
embodies a principle of wider importance
even than that embraced in the demands for
the release of the surviving captives in
demnity to the heirs of the murdered men, the
punishment of the murderers and the aboli-
ton of Cuban slavery.


While we regard the opinions of the great
English organ with respect, as rejecting the
popular sentiment of the nation and the
wishes of the government and while we are
glad to receive the endorsement of England
as to the justice and propriety of the majority
of our demands upon Spain, we must repeat
what we have before said, that the quarrel
which has been forced upon us by the
Spanish-Cuban government is one that affects
the honor of the American Republic, and in
the settlement of which we cannot permit any
other nation to take part. We must deal with
the Cuban question now as an American ques-
| tion alone; as one which affects our interests
and safety at our own DOORS and with which,
as such, We alone have the right to deal In
saying this we do not desire to be understood
as Indifferent to European opinion or as
prepared to treat the views of England or
any other friendly nation with contempt. We
simply claim that the interest of European
Powers in the political condition of Cuba is
distant and indirect, while to the United States
it is a near and vital question. In the outrage
upon our flag in the swift murder of those
under its protection, many of whom were our
own citizens in the insults offered to our
representatives in the danger of war thrust
upon us without any justification, we see only
the elimination of long series of wrongs in.
ficted upon us by a system which for five
years past has defed our national rights and