16


FOREIGN RELATIONS.


   The article, while attributing the decision of the Government on this
point not to the Attorney-General, butb to the House of Representatives,
and exhibiting, perhaps, in one or two other particulars, the carelessness
and inexactness of statement to which you adverted in your No. 282, as
marking a letter I had sent you from the columns of the same journal,
exhibits a spirit of appreciation of the moderation and justice shown by
us toward a sister republic in this matter, which I think deserving of
notice, despite a few inaccuracies of form and an apparent ignorance of
the terms of the protocol.
   I append a translation of some brief extracts, which will show       the
spirit of the article on this point, as well as the appeal to Mr. Castelar,
at the close, to'extend to the Spanish prisoners in Cuba the rights of
belligerents.
        I have, &c.,
                                                              JOHN JAY.


                                   [Inclosure. ]
                  LEADING EDITORIAL ON "VIRGINIUS QUESTION."
                       [Translated from the "1New Free Press."]
        *  The matter was no more examined.in the-newspaper columns, or in
stormy
assemblies convoked for the occasion, but in thd Hall of Representatives,
not by wildly
excited masses, but by considerate politicians. Public opinion had first
called for
war, afterward for unconditional satisfaction. Now, satisfaction had been
given, the
passions had subsided, and the Congress weighed the matter slowly and considerately,
and lo! what was most unexpected occurred. The Congress acknowledged that
the
Virginius had wrongfully carried the American flag, and it possessed the
courage and
honesty, not only openly to confess it, but officially to communicate to
the Spanish
government the supprising'result of their consultations. This conduct deserves
unre-
served approval. As we were obliged to find, in the former phases of the
"-Virginius
question," the procedure of the United Statesharsh and unjust, we must
now pay our
tribute to the self-knowledge, the sincere explanation of the Congress. Nothing
is
more difficult than the confession of being in the wrong. Even an individual
with
difficulty makes up his mind so far to overcome vanity and self-love; nations
and
states, as a rule, prefer sacrificing their goods and lives to saying to
an injuired neigh-
bor, we were in the wrong. Such a step as that of the American Congress could
not
at all be imagined in a monarchical state. Here the foreign policy does not
rest
with the legislative body; this is subject neither to their direction nor
supervision. **
  This is seemingly an abandonment of a success attained, but, in truth,
a vic-
tory worth as much as any gained in the open field, and not less honorable.
  Would it not be more humane, and, perhaps, more wise, to grant to the Cuban
insur-
gents the same rights as have been granted long ago to the Carlists in the
mother
country ? Cowards, who are afraid of bullets, are far from combating in the
ranks
of the Cuban insurgents; executions do not cause any fear, but only unquenchable
thirst for revenge, which is very often reeked in a dreadful manner on the
Span-
ish soldiers. If Castelar resolved to utter the great words, "captured
Cubans are
to be spared like captured Carlists," his name would perhaps shine more
purely
and brilliantly than hitherto in the history of his native country, and the
Virginius
question would find a conclusion conciliatory and worthy of his country.



                                    No. 9.
                           Mr. Jay to Mr. Fish.
No. 684.]                              AMERICAN LEGATION,
              Vienna, December 26, 1873.     (Received January 15,1874.)
  SIR: In my No. 683, acknowledging your confidential circular in
regard to the affair of the Virginius, I appended an extract from some