There has been no hearty
will to do justice, no word other than of discouragement. Even the
amicable assurances which customarily pass between the statesmen of two
nations seem to have been dropped. We believe that any American would
rather bear the manly and outspoken denunciations of the Earl of Derby,
consistent and honest in his hostility, than the sly, covert
insinuations to which the Foreign Secretary gives utterance, at the very
time he is advocating a favorable course toward us.
The ministry have constantly been met with the fact that our Government
has assumed throughout that the Union was to be preserved, and both the
act and the possibility of secession forever crushed. They cannot have
failed to observe, that, while the inevitable fortune of war has at
times brought momentary depression to our arms, the field of the
Rebellion has steadily contracted,--that those great conflicts which
have seemed drawn games have contributed in every instance to the
general end,--that repulse has been invariably followed by overbalancing
success. They must have been aware that the contrast between the feeling
of the North and that of the South has tended to foreshadow the issue.
Pages:
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347