Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 April 1891 — ANGRY WITH UNCLE SAM [ARTICLE]

ANGRY WITH UNCLE SAM

ITALY’S GOVERNMENT SHOWS ITS GREAT DISPLEASURE. i** This Move Does Not, However, Mean that Hostilities Will Speedily Follow, but Available Naval Forces Are to Be Massed at the North Atlantic Stations— Indications that Baron Fava Is Not in Favor with Premier Budin i. The Government of Italy has committed an exceedingly unfriendly act. Under certain conditions, the recall of an ambassador would be equivalent to a declaration of war. But in the present instance it definitely appears that the Italian legation here is to be continued and left in control of a charge d’affaires. That indicates that Italy is not yet ready to sever diplomatic relations. The withdrawal of Baron Fava, so far as the official declaration goes, is to be interpreted as meaning that “Italy is not satisfied with the progress of adjustments between the two countries touching the New Orleans massacre.” It may mean, also, that the Italian Government is not satisfied with the conduct of Baron Fava in general, as well as in this particular instance, and that advantage has been taken of the present situation to retire him from the post to which he has so long been accredited, and to replace him with an ambassader who holds closer relations to the new Cabinet in Italy. It is not to be forgotten that the Italian Minister has been at Washington a long time, and that his home political affiliations were in a great measure with a cabinet which has recently been displaced. But it is straining diplomatic etiquette to go through the minatory process of withdrawing an ambassador’s passports in order to secure a change in any mission. That is not the modern diplomatic usage Whatever may have been the design of Italy, the action of Baron Fava, under instructions from his government, was a surprise to the administration, as it will undoubtedly be to the civilized world. Italy has ventured upon dangerous ground upon an assumption. There is no official proof that any of the Italians who were killed in the New Orleans jail by the mob were subjects of the King of Italy. That claim is only made as to three. As to the rest, it has been shown that they were registered as citizens of Louisiana, and had voted. If they had registered falsely they had committed a crime against the suffrage of the United States as well as against the lives o* some of its citizens. The question of citizenship is still under investigation. The State Department has not concluded its official inquiry, of which fact the government of Italy has been well advised. Yet, pending this inquiry, and in the absence of official information, the government of Italy appears to have assumed that some of its subjects have been massacred, and that the government of the United States is accountable for it. Accordingly the government of Italy 1 has done that which in like circumstances generally precedes a declaration of war. It has withdrawn its ambassador. The information that Baron Fava had been recalled was at once communicated to the President by the Secretary of State. The President and Secretary Blaine have bqen tn conference. The President directed the Secretary of the Navy to order to the North Atlantic station all ships of the American navy in Eastern waters anywhere between the Gulf of Mexico and the Maine coast. The following is a list of the ships and their present station: Atlanta, Tamp?, Fla.; Baltimore, left Montevideo March 22: Boston, Tampa; Chicago, Tampa; Dolphin, Tampa; Philadelphia, Port-au-Prince, Hayti; Vesuvius, New York; Yorktown, Tampa. These ships are all new ironclads. Of the older vessels in Atlantic waters are these: Concord, New York; Cushing, Washington; Enterprise, Port-au-Prince; Essex, Montevideo; Jamestown, Port Royal; Lancaster, Portsmouth, N. H.; Kearsarge, cruising in West Indies; Minnesota, New York; Monongahela, Portsmouth, N. H : Newark, Philadelphia; Petrel, Santiago de*Cuba: Portsmouth, Barbadoes; Richmond, Newport; Saratoga, Kingston, Jamaica; Tallapoosa, Buenos Ayres; at last accounts it had been condemned and ordered sold; Yantic, Port Royal. The United Stales Government, to satisfy Italy, is called upon to apologize in a formal manner for the New Orleans occurrences and indemnify the relatives of the sufferers, or to promise the exertion of the Federal authority for the punishment of the leaders in the citizens’ movement against the assassins.