Year: 1870

At the great war-meeting in Baldwinsville,
described by Artemus Ward, the widest en-
thusasm was excited by a dispatch from
Washington announcing that =" the Govern
"ment was about taking vigorous measures to
"put down the Rebellion" The Brazilians for
some time past have in like manner been in
forming the world that Count dEu is about
"resuming the pursuit Of Lopez" and that the
Paraguayan dictator is at last in corner
from which there is no chance of escape. The
number of times that the war has been
brought to an end and the last remnant of the
army of Lopez disbanded is only equaled by
the frequency with which the blOod-thirsty
President has killed his mother and impaled
his sisters on lances. All the cable news rela-
tive to the Paraguayan war comes by way of
Rio JaneirO, and we long ago learned to dis
trust dispatches that reach us from Brazilian
sources. OF late we have succeeded in getting
what no newspaper in the United States has
had before, namely, trustworthy advices directly
from the Paraguayan capital. Our correspond
ent is gentleman of acuteness and experience,
and entirely unprejudiced His letters confirm
what the long duration of the pursuit" must
have led all thoughtful men to conjecture
Lopez is not fugitive he is not at the end
of his resources T; the people of the country are
devoted to him; the close of the war is to all
appearances as far off as ever.


If Brazil has lied about the progress of the
contest, she has shown equal bad faith with
respect to its meaning. She has proclaimed
this war of liberation, to relieve the Para
guayan people from the despOtism of a tyrant,
and to open the Parana and the Paraguay to
Of ha ha has
the emancipation of slaves in Paraguay, and
after expelling Lopez from his capital has es
tablshed there Provisional Government pro-
fessedly representing the liberated inhabitants.


The facts, however, are gradually coming to
light. The people prefer Lopez to Dom Pedro,
and follow their President through all manner
of hardships with heroism which no one can
help admiring. Asuncion under the rule of the
deliverers is a charnel house. The whole
country within the Brazilian lines is starving.
The provisional government" Is only foreign
satrapy, consisting of Senior Paranhos, one of
the Emperors chief ministers of state, whose
rule is an absolute despotism, tempered only by
orders from Rio JaneirO. There were no slaves
in Paraguay to be emancipated. The COM
merce of the rivers had been free, under con-
ventions with the United States and other
countries, until Brazil closed it during the
present war. In the tripartite treaty by which
Brazil, Uruguay, and the Argentine Confedera-
ton formed an alliance for the purpose of this
war, the Empire appropriated large slice of
the Paraguayan territory, and Dom Pedro's
apparent intention to possess himself of the
remainder seems to have thoroughly alarmed
his allies and the other small South American
States.


Lopez is doubtless cruel and despOtic, but
he seems to be fighting for the independence
of his country, and to be sustained by his own
people. We have no reason to believe that
his defeat would insure the regeneration of
Paraguay on the contrary, there is every in
dication that the republic would be appro-
priated by the slave-empire of Brazil. The
people of the United States would watch the
expansion of q mOnarchical and slaveholding
government over territory now ruled by re-
publics with deep concern. They have, more
over, direct commercial interest in the issue.
The tripartite treaty, which is said to guaran-
tee the free navigation Of the rivers, guarantees
1t only to the three allies, who thus virtu-
ally claim tho right, if they do not indicate the
purpose, to exclude all other nations. This we
cannot suffer in silence. Our trade with Para
quay is small, but it may be larger The country
Is rich IN natural products, and ought to afford
good market for our manufactures. At any
rate, the right of free navigation which we OBJ
tained with difficulty, will have to be respected.
We perceive that Congress places such low
estimate upon our interests in that part of the
world that tho Diplomatic Appropriation bill