Year: 1873

ernments


There are crimes which outrage humanity
and exhaust the patience Of the civilized
world-crimes which, by their enormity,
prompt the uprising Of vigilance committees
and the swift punishment of the offenders
without the tardy process of the machinery
hurried butchery at Santiago de Cuba OF
ifty-six of the persons captured on the
| virginius and carried into that port by o
! Spanish man-of-war The atrocity OF the act
Is SO great as to render it difficult to write of
it dispassionately and with that calmness of
Judgment necessary in the consideration
of questions involving great national interests.
The first impulse of the American people will
be to avenge the murders that have been COM
mitted and the insult that has been offered to
us as a nation by retribution as swift and
terrible as the crime by which it has been pro-
voked. The popular voice would applaud the
action of the President if he should send q
fleet of iron-clads to Santiago de Cuba to de-
mand the surrender of the Spanish butcher
Burriel and of the commander of the Tornado
to be dealt with according to their desserts
under the penalty of the destruction of the
town and the sinking Of every Spanish
| 10, hor
of refusal The long list OF outrages
by which this last crime had been preceded
has deprived the Spanish rule in Cuba of the
sympathy of all Christian people, and the
world would rejoice if its career of rufianism
and blood should be suddenly brought to q
close by the just vengeance of an indignant
nation. But we have duties and responsible
tiles which we cannot disregard, and which no
passion, however natural and however violent,
should tempt US to forget Our great strength
as a nation and the feebleness of the tottering
government which has offered us the insult
render it the more incumbent upon us to
exercise some degree of patience and to be
ton.


Fifty-six of the people found on board the
yirginius have been murdered by the Spanish
butchers in Cuba. We use the term murdered
advisedly; for they had no trial and were
under the lawful protection of the American
flag, of which they could not be legally de-
prived until the virginius had been proved
before competent court to have been other
than an American vessel entitled 10 the pro-
lection of the United States The evidence
that the murder was wilful one, committed
with the full knowledge of the character of the
crime, is proved by the words of the Governor
of Santiago de Cuba, who declared that the
prisoners should be slaughtered before any
outside interference could be offered
by the interception of the telegram
of the acting American Consul at
| Santiago de Cuba to our Consul at
Jamaica, and by the cutting of the tele-
graph wires to prevent the reception of
any orders 20 stay the executions from
the Captain General at Havana or the home
government at Madrid. There was not pre-
tence Of law, therefore, to warrant the killing
Of the men, and the words and acts Of the
murderers prove that they were sensible that
the crime would be prevented if time should
be allowed for legal interference. Nothing
that may hereafter be proved against the vir-
ginius can alter these facts. But we
now have more reason than ever to
was in violation of treaty obligations
and international law, provided she was
of American ownership From oil the ac-
counts OF the time consumed in the chase
and the position Of the Virginius when
captured, it is certain that she was not in
Spanish waters, but on the high seas when
sighted by the Tornado. Such being the fact
she was not liable to capture in time of peace,
and her case is precisely similar to that of
the Deerhound. Spain has persistently
denied the existence Of state Of
belligerency in Cuba, and o nation
must accept all the consequences of the po-
sition she chooses to assume. There can be
no articles contraband of war if war does not
exist and unless the Virginius had been
caught by the Spanish authorities violating
any of the municipal laws or regulations Of
their ports she was not, according to the argl-
ment of Secretary Fish. liable to search and