Our Foreign Policy

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OUR FOREIGN POLICY.

There seems to be a disposition on the part of the American people to enquire into the Foreign policy of our Government, and to know how far we can depend upon those in power to maintain the rights of so many of our citizens as find it for their interest to reside abroad.

Since the days of Jefferson¹ this Government has had no established Foreign policy, its Foreign affairs have been controlled entirely by political influence. The justice of a claim of an American citizen against a Foreign power has had no influence at Washington, unless the person who held the claim could control sufficient political capital to enlist the sympathies of the administration in power. It matters not how just the claim may be, or whether the claimant has suffered by the unjust and barbarous acts of the Despots of Europe, or by the damning influences which control the acts of the wretches in power in Central and South America, he has thus far had no redress at the hands of our Government. The boasted independence of the people is at the present time a burlesque upon our Constitution, and the spirit of those who waded through seas of blood during the contest of ’76.

Some of our cotemporaries who profess to have exclusive information relative to the settlement of the claims of our citizens against Foreign powers, are actually deceiving the people who have claims, in long editorials relative to what is being done with New Grenada to compel her to come to terms. We suppose that the Satanic press has access at all times to the records of the State department. We beg to ask how many of the claims against New Grenada will be settled under the Cass Herran convention? We venture to predict that the Senate of the United States will not accept this abortion from New Grenada. Venezuela is said to have offered proposals of a satisfactory character to the administration relative to the claims of our citizens. Has she offered to pay the claims of our citizens who had become loathsome with diseases engendered in the foul atmosphere of her prisons, without being brought to trial, imprisoned for imaginary crimes, and discharged only when the prison contractors refused to continue to furnish provisions in consequence of the members of the Cabinet of Venezuela having appropriated all the funds of the government to their own use? Has she offered any apology to our government relative to the contemplated sale of Guyana to England for the purpose of crushing out the claims of American citizens against the government of Caracas? We are of the opinion that the circumlocution office at Washington can give information upon this subject that would make our Satanic cotemporary a little more modest than he has been of late in his statements relative to the manner in which our Foreign relations are at present conducted. Have our claims against Costa Rica, Ecuador and Nicaragua been settled—or are they in a fair way of settlement? How many of our citizens are lying in the prisons of the despots of Europe and Central and South America at the present time? We beg to ask whether any of our claims against these powers have been paid, or whether our Ministers at either of these Courts have been instructed to make inquiries relative to them? We are of the opinion that when the circumlocution office has completed the report called for by a resolution of Senator Benjamin, relative to the claims of American Citizens upon Foreign Governments, it will be found that ninety-nine out of every hundred of our Foreign claims have never been enquired into.

We are aware of the fact that it is not usual to pay attention to the despatches of our ministers and consuls on this subject. These despatches are entrusted to clerks who never take the trouble to even acknowledge the receipt of them—if ever answered it will be when an appeal is made to a member of Congress to enquire whether the despatches have been received. We do not want the fossil remains of the U.S. Senate at the head of our foreign department. We want men in the Cabinet at Washington, who are in the vigor of manhood, who are ready and willing to grasp at any crisis which may arise and turn it to the profit of our countrymen at home and abroad.

Before we can have a foreign policy which will make us feared and respected, the people must realise that they are the sovereigns. The powers at Washington must be taught that they are the servants of the people, not their dictators. The noble Lord Lansdowne, when the debate arose in the House of Lords in 1788 on the Regency question, said—

The people, my Lords, have rights. Kings and Princes have none. The people want neither charters nor precedents to prove their rights; for they are born with every man in the country, and exist in all countries alike, though in some they may have been lost. I wish therefore in some they may have been lost. I wish therefore that the question of right to exercise the royal authority which has been claimed and asserted, may be decided, in order that those who suffer oppression under governments the most despotic, may be taught their rights as men. They will then learn that though their rights are not like ours, secured by precedents and charters, yet as soon as they assert their rights they must be acknowledged.

It is time that the claimants against foreign governments asserted their rights. When the report on Senator Benjamin’s resolution is sent to the Senate, there will be found such a catalogue of grievances as will astonish the people of this confederacy.

The time is rapidly approaching when the American people will adopt a foreign policy which will be effectual in its character; when claimants who present their claims through our Ministers and Consuls, or in person at the State department, will receive the attention due them; when Americans will no longer be obliged to transact their business abroad under English protection; when it will be positively ascertained that the people want neither charters nor precedents to prove their rights, for they are born with every man in the country—as soon as they assert their rights they must be acknowledged.

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