Year: 1873

Butchery-NoW for AtOnement!


The full measure of the crime committed by
the Spanish butchers at Santiago de Cuba ap-
pears now to be known. Out of one hundred
and sixty-three persons on board the virginius
at the time of her capture one hundred and
forty-five have been murdered, and of the re-
naming eighteen four or five are to be set at
liberty and the rest condemned to the chain
gang. The additional butchery does not excite
surprise The only wonder is that the cow
ardly wretches did not complete their carnival
Of blood by the massacre OF every soul on
board, SO that not one might be spared to
testify to the facts attending the capture
of the vessel or to the subsequent events.
| The probability is that those who have escaped
death are men who know nothing which the


Spaniards may desire to conceal-fremen and


engineers, who, being below ut the time OF the
| chase and capture, can give no evidence on
these important points The object of the
| butchers has no doubt been to seal in death
the lips of all who could bear witness to the
true character of the outrage, SO that the false
hoods by which they might endeavor to
escape its consequences might pass undetected


Fortunately there will be no need Of other EVIL
dence than our government already possesses to
prove the illegaity Of the capture, and trial
is not needed to establish the guilt of the
murderers, taken with the blood of their VIC
tins on their hands. The American owner
ship of the Virginius, we are told, will be
firmly maintained by our government until it
shall be positively disproved. This being the
case, her chase and capture we're in violation
of treaty obligations and international law.
The character of the vessel or cargo apart
from this is immateriaL The Cubans have
right to buy munitions of war in our market
and to ship them under what guar
dianship they may please to any port
in the world. When within three miles
from the Cuban shore they would
be answerable for any violation of
Spanish law, and subject to seizure there
for; but beyond that limit both passengers
and cargo, if in an American vessel must be
held as sacred as if they were on the soil. of
the United States. The attempt to excuse
the action of the Spaniards by the charge that
the Virginius was engaged in the cause of the
Cubans and all on board were flibusters
is therefore idle, and the argument of the
counsel of the State Department that the
United States cannot, under any circumstances,
defend flibusters is the merest sophistry.
According to her own persistent avowal Spain
is at peace, and hence she cannot exercise any
of those powers or claim any of those rights
h,oh Ia1o xo1o t~o ato{ of


So much for the seizure of the Virginius.
The Tornado was the true pirate in the affair,
and Costello her commander, the true buc-
cancer. When we come to the more heinous
offence the butchery of the prisoners, our
position is equally free from doubt. Even if
ican vessel the lives of the Americans on
board were sacred, unless forfeited
to the law and taken after proper
trial and conviction. 1t was their right,
if charged with capital offence, to be de-
Tended by counsel and to have the presence
and aid of the representative of their country,
the American Consul, at their trial. Their
execution after the mockery of drumhead
court martial was an outrage and an offence
against the national honor for which due
atonement must be made They were not
taken on the soil of Spain in active hostilities
against the government, and hence, besides
being illegally captured, they were illegally
subjected to the extreme punishment of
war in time of professed peace.
There is ample proof that the wholesale
murder of the virsinius' passengers was de-
hberately planned, and was the unauthorized
act of subordinates who knew the character of
the crime they were committing. The Gov
ernor of Santiago de Cuba vowed that the
prisoners should be killed before any outside
interference could save their lives. That out
side interference could only have meant
superior orders which he would not have
dared to openly disobey, and without which
no execution ought to have taken place.
He intercepted and stopped the dispatches
sent by the acting United States Consul at
Santiago de Cuba to Havana, because he
knew they might induce the Captain General
to stop the massacre. He refrained from re-
porting the capture and requesting instruc-
tions until some of the victims had been
butchered. The telegraph wires between
Havana and Santiago de Cuba were suddenly
interrupted, and no reasonable mar can doubt
that this interruption was designedly brought
about in order that the commands of the
home government or the Captain General
should not reach Santiago de Cuba until too
late to save a single life. The last victims
were butchered on the 10th inst. Before that
time messages were received in Havana from
Santiago de Cuba, and hence it is absurd to
suppose that the messages sent from Havana
last slaughter. 1t would seem, therefore, that
the butcher Burriel not only executed his
prisoners without ORDERS but in defiance
of orders. Upon this evidence, although