_Question_. What is your opinion as to the action of the President
on the Venezuelan matter?
_Answer_. In my judgment, the President acted in haste and without
thought. It may be said that it would have been well enough for
him to have laid the correspondence before Congress and asked for
an appropriation for a commission to ascertain the facts, to the
end that our Government might intelligently act. There was no
propriety in going further than that. To almost declare war before
the facts were known was a blunder--almost a crime. For my part,
I do not think the Monroe doctrine has anything to do with the
case. Mr. Olney reasons badly, and it is only by a perversion of
facts, and an exaggeration of facts, and by calling in question
the motives of England that it is possible to conclude that the
Monroe doctrine has or can have anything to do with the controversy.
The President went out of his way to find a cause of quarrel.
Nobody doubts the courage of the American people, and we for that
reason can afford to be sensible and prudent. Valor and discretion
should go together. Nobody doubts the courage of England.
America and England are the leading nations, and in their keeping,
to a great extent, is the glory of the future. They should be at
peace. Should a difference arise it should be settled without
recourse to war.
Fighting settles nothing but the relative strength. No light is
thrown on the cause of the conflict--on the question or fact that
caused the war.
_Question_. Do you think that there is any danger of war?
_Answer_. If the members of Congress really represent the people,
then there is danger. But I do not believe the people will really
want to fight about a few square miles of malarial territory in
Venezuela--something in which they have no earthly or heavenly
interest. The people do not wish to fight for fight's sake. When
they understand the question they will regard the administration
as almost insane.
The message has already cost us more than the War of 1812 or the
Mexican war, or both. Stocks and bonds have decreased in value
several hundred millions, and the end is not yet. It may be that
it will, on account of the panic, be impossible for the Government
to maintain the gold standard--the reserve. Then gold would command
a premium, the Government would be unable to redeem the greenbacks,
and the result would be financial chaos, and all this the result
of Mr. Cleveland's curiosity about a boundary line between two
countries, in neither of which we have any interest, and this
curiosity has already cost us more than both countries, including
the boundary line, are worth.
The President made a great mistake. So did the House and Senate,
and the poor people have paid a part of the cost.
_Question_. What is your opinion of the Gerry Whipping Post bill?
_Answer_. I see that it has passed the Senate, and yet I think it
is a disgrace to the State. How the Senators can go back to torture,
to the Dark Ages, to the custom of savagery, is beyond belief. I
hope that the House is nearer civilized, and that the infamous bill
will be defeated. If, however, the bill should pass, then I hope
Governor Morton will veto it.
Nothing is more disgusting, more degrading, than the whipping-post.
It degrades the whipped and the whipper. It degrades all who
witness the flogging. What kind of a person will do the whipping?
Men who would apply the lash to the naked backs of criminals would
have to be as low as the criminals, and probably a little lower.
The shadow of the whipping-post does not fall on any civilized
country, and never will. The next thing we know Mr. Gerry will
probably introduce some bill to brand criminals on the forehead or
cut off their ears and slit their noses. This is in the same line,
and is born of the same hellish spirit. There is no reforming
power in torture, in bruising and mangling the flesh.
If the bill becomes a law, I hope it will provide that the lash
shall be applied by Mr. Gerry and his successors in office. Let
these pretended enemies of cruelty enjoy themselves. If the bill
passes, I presume Mr. Gerry could get a supply of knouts from
Russia, as that country has just abolished the whipping-post.
--_The Journal_, New York, December 24, 1895.