Year: 1873




are vain and worthless; and we must simply
accept the fact as we find it, that as the SOL
diers Uttered their horses in the temple, so
badly advised Executive has put Mr. Williams
OF Oregon. in the place once occupied by John
Marshall, of Virginia.


Aspects Of the Cuban Difficulty.


Fortunately for themselves the Cubans seem
to have found an ''if, more or less to their
satisfaction, under cover Of which they can
accept the inevitable and creep out of the
position in which they have placed themselves
by their magniloquent declarations of their
own prowess and of their intention to die
thousands of consecutive deaths rather than
yield hair. Just now they are anxious only
to YIELD but are somewhat troubled as to how
they shall compass that desirable result with
the least possible appearance Of submission.
But few days since there could be no sur
render; no power, no consideration on earth
should change the resolution of the Cubans
that the Virginius should never be given up.
ginius shall be s,irrendered-if something
else is done. Up to the present moment they
have suggested three conditions, in view of
any one of which they will consent to bottle
up their inextinguishable wrath and let the
ship go. The first condition was that she
should be handed over to neutral Power, to
be held till it should be legally decided who
was right; the second was that she should be
surrendered, and the United States compelled
Immediately after to pay hundred million dol
lars damages; and the third is that she shall be
sent from Havana, not to the United States,
but to Spain, thence to be handed over to our
authorities. All these wrigglings are anus
ingly indicative Of the Cuban frame Of mind,
but they indicate none the less that Havana
sees it is necessary to come down from her
Captain SCOTS coon should have tried to make
bargain with the famous hunter that she
might be permitted to come down the tree in
such way that her neighbors and the world
would never suspect that Captain Scotts rifle
was the main inducement.


The demand that the ship should be deliv-
cred to a neutral Power was logical conse-
quence Of one feeble point in our part of the
negotiation with Spain. 1t was not insisted
upon by our government that full reparation
should absolutely be made; but part of the
reparation was left to be contingent upon an
investigation of the ships papers. We have
already indicated that this was an error, mas
much as we had no right to interfere if the
ship was not ours, and if she was ours no re-
suit o inquiry could lessen our right to repa-
ration. Into that bad place in our defences
the Cubans naturally advanced the notion that
if it was good to settle part Of the difficulty
after inquiry it would be good to settle all in
that way. Their second fancy that they would
give the ship up and claim heavy damages for
our having permitted her to sail from
our ports is a funny attempt to apply to us the
decision against England on the Alabama case
England paid fifteen millions for fitting out
three privateers, and why should not the United
States pay a hundred millions for one? They,
of course, forgot that there is no war; and also
forgot that the Virginius had not captured any
of their ships or otherwise done them harm,
but was only supposed to have bad inten-
ton. For the proposition to send the ship to
Spain, to be thence handed over they honestly
give reason. They are in hope that the sur
render of the vessel in Spanish port would
SO offend the dignity Of the Spanish nation as
to excite the public mind to such pitch that
the present Ministry must surely fall ; and
they further hope and believe that the Re-
public which they hate, might possibly fall
with it; in all Of which the Madrid Ministry
will probably not accommodate the people of
the Casino. 1t may indeed, be accepted as
tolerably certain that the Spanish Ministry
will not only not accommodate the Casino by
damaging themselves in that particular way,
but also that they will not venture war
through which they could not stand ; and it
may be further taken for granted that the
Casino in its turn will not accommodate the
patriots in arms in different parts Of Cuba by
plunging into war that must inevitably finish
the volunteer rule and give the insurgents
possession of the island.


There seems reason to believe, and the
recent course of national preparation is calcu-
lated to enforce the conviction, that the gov
ernment of the United States will not yield q
point Of its demands as they were formally
conceded by Spain but that if the virginius
is not surrendered she will be taken, and if
the captives are not given up they will be
rescued by force of arms, without considera-
ton of the consequences. Should the govern
ment act directly, or should it present the case
to Congress as one involving a necessary ex-
erclse of the war power, it would receive, as
it would be entitled TO receive, the earnest and
unqualified support of all who have at heart
the maintenance of the national dignity.
At the same time we must express the
wish that the administration will not for
get the horrible condition of the hundred