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Les diagrammes suivants iliustrent la mAthode. 6 A THE RESULTS OF THE AMERIOAK DISRUPTIOIf: THE SUBSTANCE OF A LECTURE DELITEBBD BT REQUEST BEFORE THE MAIDSTONE LITERAEY & MECHANICS' INSTITUTION, IN CONTINUATION OP A POPULAR VIEW OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, AND ENGLAND, THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. BT A. J. B. BERESFORD HOPE, ESQ. THIRD EDITION. LONDON : JAMES EIDGWAY, PICCADILLY. W, MAIDSTONE : WICKHAM, WEEK STREET; C. J. COOKE, MIDDLE ROW. 1862. Price Sixpence. • -. RESULTS OF THE AMERICAN DISRUPTION. ~ ) I OFFERED at the close of last year a popular view of the American Civil War, which I followed hy some observations on the duty and policy of Eng-hxnd towards both North and South, in the course of which I had to investigate the constitutional questions underlying* the break-up of the United States. When I lust spoke the chief achievements of the war had been Bull's Run, Lexing-ton, and Ball's BluiF. I am now ready, after the South, in the words of its President, has sustained " serious disasters," to invite attention to the results of the American disruption, under the alternative contin- gency of the Confederate States making* good their in- dependence, or of the North — soUtudinem faciens paccm appcllans — being so unfortunately successful as to bring the thirty-four States together again into temporary obe- dience to a central power at Washington, in preparation for later and worse disruption and more embittered secession. If a year or two ago I had laid hold of any casual passenger in the street, and had asked him what was his idea of the principles of government embodied in the late United States, the answer I should have got would probably have been something of this sort : ^* Very much like what it is in England — Constitutional Government — only much cheaper outthere,with none of the millinery and gingerbread we have here." This was at that day the A 2 popular iden, but facts have by this time thoroughly belied the notion. ,, ; ; i Though the Americans are called our " cousins," some of them, it is true, of more than one remove ; others actually of English birth —though they talk the same language, and come in the main from the same Anglo- Saxon stock, yet their system of Government is totally different from ours. In clearing away the false notions which exist upon this matter, I wish to ofiend no pre- judices. Invited as I have been to-night to address an assembly) which represents all the opinions of our free countr}^, I should be unworthy of your confidence if I allowed the least shade of home politics to tinge my dis- course. I take for granted there are many of different views amongst those whom I address. There are many, no doubt, who wish to see the suffrage at home extended— there are many, on the other hand, who would leave that suffrage where it is. Some probably are in favour of the ballot— others adhere to the system of open voting. But sure I am that every one here pre- sent— whether favourable to an extension of the suffrage or against it, whether for the ballot or for open voting — holds hi^ own opinions with one and the same desire ~ to strengthen, maintain, and confirm our dear, good, old and tried English Constitution. With this belief, I ask every one here to believe me, whether he be Liberal or Conservative, when I say that the much- vaunted Con- stitution of the United States is a very different thing. The English Constitution —whether it approximates to perfection, or whether it wants correction — is one which pre-eminently allows freedom of thought, freedom ofaqtion - I \ td every citizen. The Constitution of the United States, in attempting" to extend freedom of thought and action beyond those limits which Providence, Nature, and common sense have laid down, has fallen over on the other side, and reduced each individual man to the con- dition of a mere fragment of a great machine — a some- thing whose personal freedom is entirely in abe3'ance, if not rather forfeited in the interest of the political section or party to which he belongs. Late events in America have shewn you how, under this Constitution, the right of habeas corpus is respected— they have shewn you how it is possible, under a theoretical system of demo- cratic libert}'^, for one man to set in motion the most despotic machinery— arrests by telegraph, military occu- pation, military search, suppression of newspapers, im- prisonment without trial, and all the other devices by which free thought and action can be checked in favour of (to quote President Davis's inaugural address) '^ the tyranny of an unbridled majority, the most odious and least responsible form of despotism." A pregnant example of the difference between English and American wa3'S may be found in the two systcj :S of electing representatives. The plan adopted here is essentially that of giving full swing to local^interests — each borough and county has its own member or mem- bers ; each constituenc}^ may, if it pleases, baffle the central party organizations ; and every elector has the opportunity of questioning the candidate during his canvass, or of bullying him upon the hustings to his heart's content. The candidate for a seat in the English House of Commons must come forward on his own 6 merits and face his foes as well as his friends. There is very little of this kind of pei*sonal communication between the candidate and the electors in America. Em- phaticall}', there is not that system of local representa- tion which exists here. The whole country, as I ex- plained in my " England, the North and the South/' is cut up into a series of electoral districts, the members for which are periodically reapportioned. Party politics in America have not heen conducted upon that give- and-take principle which prevails at home, but the maxim there is war to the knife, often literallj^, always meta- phorically. A small committee of unscrupulous traders in politics bring forward a candidate, generally one of themselves, all arrangements being made upon a mutual system of plundering the public purse, and of coercing, crushing, and destroying all private feeling. If time permitted, I might illustrate the working of this system b}'^ an abundance of focts ; but I am not over-stretch- ing the case when I say that in the United States a despotism worse than that of France, of Russia, or of Austria, has been set up, — the despotism not of a single sovereign, who may be, and often is, enlightened and benevolent, — ^but the despotism of irresponsible commit- tees, of dark, agents working in secret, and pulling the invisible strings with ubiquitous hands. In my preceding* lectures X expatiated at some length on the value of the ill-named " Federal'' theory of the American constitution, as held by the party now in power at Washington, in comparison with the State- rights or State-sovereignty interpretation of the same, on which the Confederacy relies in justification of its pro- \ ceedingfs. I will not weary 3'ou by journeying^ over the some ground again. It is sufficient to say that, keeping* myself strictly within the four corners of the " Articles of Confederation" of 1781, and of the "Constitution" of 1787, both of them literally and naturally interpreted, I find the unequivocal recognition of State-sovereignty. I do not find, and I defy Mr. Lincoln or Mr. Seward to shew me, that system of folsely-called ^* Federal" Imperialism which the North claims as its warrant for its war of invasion upon the South. I must be here forgiven for one supplemen- tary observation, that the State-sovereignty theory as properly understood is a conservative element — I might add the only really conservative element— in the " States' " constitution under its peculiar circumstances. The States, it must not be forgotten, are many of them of the size of European kingdoms, some of them of large kingdoms. The population is filling up with more or less rapidity in all. When this population in all, or sundry of them, reckons by millions, the mutual balance of interests within each confederacy — supposing that the four or five or six great super-sovereign commonwealths preserve the federal form — will tend to maintain the balance of in- terests which is antagonistic to revolutionary changes in any. Supposing, on the other hand, that the whole- State theory prevails, the sovereign commonwealths, formed out of the ex-Union, will not count bv four or five or six. I lay peculiar stress upon the place which State- sovereignty holds in the American constitution rightly understood, because this accursed civil war (I can afford it no better appellative) which is bringing ruin upon the pro- s perty, destroying the peace of miud, aiid imperilling the lives of 30 millions of English-spenkingf nien^many of them English descended, all of them English connected — is simply the fruit of the North's imperious denial of that patent fact. It is, I say, difficult to restrain oneself within the bounds of moderate language, when one sees that all this havoc has been brought about by the utterly unjustifiable misinterpretation of their own Constitution on the part of those Northern States. Whatever may be said of slavery, whatever may be thought of the rights and wrongs of the original points of difference, I have no hesitation at all in asseverating, after attentively con- sidering the subject, that, morally speaking, the South — all things considered — has since the disruption been nearly as right, and the North as nearly wrong as two national disputants can be. Politics in plenty are mixed up with the subjects in dispute, but war or no-war is a question of humanity, and so holding strong convictions I feel bound to express my detestation of that policy of the North which has favoured the conflict. I shall have something to say about slavery presently ; but I may here remark, that it ought no more to bias Englishmen in their judgment on the merits of the struggle, than the fact of Italy being a Eoman Catholic country should influence the sympathy felt by Protestants for the unification of the Italian kingdom. Who are we that we should over- look constitutional right and wrong in face of a domestic incident appertaining to the injured community ? Why it is not so many years since we — Christian Englishmen — helped Mahometan Turkey, because we considered its dignity and its independence threatened by Christian \ Bussia. We then refused to take account of the religrion of either antng'onist ; and surely all consistency now for- bids us to allow secondary considerations to blind our sound common-sense judg'ment in deciding^ between North and South. ' But let us pass on ; the fact cannot be disguised that the American Union is gone— and gone for ever, in spite of the downfall of Fort Donnelson, in spite of the very dissolution, if such were possible, of the actual Southern Confederacy. We may have entertained different views about that Union as a political institution, we may have lauded it as a noble and a magnificent creation, or we may have deemed it a sham and a humbug. Neither view, perhaps, is altogether correct. In one respect it was a very able work of art, elaborated by very astute politicians — Washington, Hamilton, Madison, and others. But it was one of those things, which, to use the familiar phrase rendered classical by Sir James Graham, are '*too clever by half." In their search after theoretic perfection, its framers forgot that it was to be worked by fallible human instruments. The grand, magnificent, liberty-giving, liberty-preserving Constitution which Washington and his compeers fondly imagined, and the result to which the Jefferson Bricks, and Elijah Pograms, described by Mr. Dickens, have reduced that creation, are as perfectly distinct as it is possible for two phases of the same original to be. I shall not repeat the dreary history of the successive deflections by which Federals become Whigs to sink into Bepublicans, or of the strengthening of the lines by which Democrats in the South become a distinctive Southern 10 jaarty, leaving their Northern compeers to fare for them- selves. I have already explained the circumstances of the Buchanan and Fremont contest, and of the rapid consolidation of distinct Southern policy in the inter- vening- years. I have said that the Union is gone for ever. This has been admitted from the mouth of some of the most disting-uished living* American statesmen. One of the ablest is Mr. Everett of Massachusetts, Secretary of State to President Fillmore, and previously Minister in England— u statesman who upon the Trent affair aston- ished strangers by giving the weight of his great name in support of that piratical achievement. In 1860, Mr. Everett was the candidate for the Vice-Presidentship on the ticket of the " Union '' party in connection with Mr. Bell of Tennessee (now a Confederate) for President. In his address he had to consider the probability of the South seceding", and he gave expression to these senti- ments : — "The suggestion that the Union can be maintained by the numerical preponderance of one section excited to coerce the other into submission is, in my judgment, as self-contradictory as it is dangerous. It comes loaded with the death smell from fields wet with brothers' blood.'* A little later, on February 2, 1861, when several of the Southern States had already seceded and their Congress was on the point of meeting at Montgomery, Mr. Everett wrote a letter to the Boston CouricVy in which this passage occurs : — ' ^ *' To expect to hold fifteen States in the Union by force is Ereposterous. The idea of a civil war, accompanied as it would e by servile insurrection, is too monstrous to be entertained for a moment. If our sister States must leave us, in the name of Heaven let them go in peace." , 11 ■ And yet this same Mr. Everett is now going; about haranguing" in favour of this very civil war, and support- ing* Captain Wilkes with the solemn semblance of legal authority. I next appeal to the late Stephen 'Arnold Douglas, leader of the Northern Democrats, and candidate for the Presidentship in 1860, against Lincoln, Bell, and Breck- enridge the Southern candidate, who pronounced that " war is disunion, certain, inevitable, final, and irrepres- sible." The last word recalls, if it was not suggested by Mr. Seward's provocative prophecy of the coming " irre pressible conflict" between the North and the South, of which he was himself destined to blow the flame. Mr. Buchanan, the late President, officially expressed similar opinions ; and, in short, before the mad explosion which succeeded the fall of Fort Sumter, everybody admitted that the old Union was virtually gone upon the retirement of the Cotton States, and that it could not be restored. I have not scrupled to say »»!. un- 27 McGowan*s rhodomontade by an address recently issued to the citizens of Georgia. All are aware that during^ the first year of secession, a provisional Government was established, first at Montg-oinery, and then at Richmond. This Cong-ress was recently dissolved, when the time came about to elect the permanent oise. The address from which I propose to quote was issued by the four members who represented Georgia in the Provisional CongT'ess. Two of them, Howell Cobb and Robert Toombs, are men of mark. The first-named was Secre- tary of the Treasury under Buchanan. Since the seces- sion he has been the President of the Southern Cong-ress. Robert Toombs, thoug-h he never held office at Wash- ington, was a prominent senator, and on the formation of the Montg-omery Government, was appointed the first Secretary of State. These are men occupying* promi- nent and responsible positions, and whose counsels have a great and wide influence among their countrymen. In the address which they put out, after they have admitted that the North has shewn more determination, and greater resources, than was anticipated, and called upon the South to baffle numbers and wealth by activity and spirit, they pronounce these remarkable words : — " The foot of the oppressor is on the soil of Georgia. He comes with lust in his eyes, poverty in his purse, and hell in his heart. He comes a robber and a murderer. How shall you meet him ? With the sword, at the threshold ! With death for him or for yourself! But more than this — let every woman have a torch, every child a firebrand,— let the loved homes of your youth be made ashes, and the fields of your heritage be made desolate. Let blackness and ruin mark your departing steps, if depart you must, and let a desert more terrible than Sahara welcome the Vandals. Let every city be levelled by the flame, and every village be lost in ashes. Let your faithful slaves share 128 I i \ I, your fortune and your crust. Trust wife and children to tliC sure refuge and protection of God — preferring even for these loved ones the charnel-house as a home, than loathsome vassal- age to a nation already sunk below the contempt of the civilized world. This may be your terrible choice, and determine at once and without dissent, as honour and patriotism and duty to God require.'' When language of such tremendous and bitter determi- nation is published to the world, by leaders such as Howell Cobb and Robert Tool \bs, what hope or chance is there of " our erring brethren" being brought back into the Union according to the formulii of Dr. McGowan ? This is a war to the knife. If the South be conquered, it will be conquered inch by inch, step by step : — it will never yield to soft words and patriotic speeches, or to grand reviews. There are two alternatives suggested b}'" the Unionists — either the South must go back as " fellow-citizens," or as "subjects." Dealing with the last alternative first, let us suppose that the North has done its best or its worst — that the South is utterly and completely subjugated— that Davis, Beauregard, and all the other Southern leaders are exiles, wandering over the world houseless and penniless, or worse than that, have terminated their existence at the rope's end, — what would happen ? Do you believe that those Southern men and women, speakhig our own tongue, with our own blood running in their veins, would quietly endure the iron yoke? Is it conceivable that they would tamely endure their country to be reduced to the eonditiou of " territories" and ^v/f^ti««^u yy pro-consuls sent out from Washington — by such men as General Butler, who boasted that he would conquer the South by "the light of their smoking and rebellious « T Iren to the I for these jme vassal- he civilized ine at once uty to God T determi- as Howell 1 is there of the Union This is a , it will be never yield id reviews. Fnionists — ens," or as us suppose — that the hat Davis, are exiles, nniless, or ence at the )elieve that wn tongue, uld quietly that they uced to the ich men as onquer the rebellious 180 cities ? " or by Mr. Kaymond with his hopes of hang-in^ and his dreams of drowning"? It is incredible, impos- sible. Burning* hatred on the one side, and the intolerable sense of independence all but achieved and then forfeited, and on the other that cruelty which is ever engendered by fear and suspicion, would maintain the wide South in a condition of chronic conspiracy and of perpetually fer- menting' disaffection, which would more than tax the powers financial, moral, and military of the North to suppress. Hardest of all for the self-righteous, truculent Northerner this troublesome possession would be a per- petual lien on his own good behaviour and peacefulness to the remaining world. He never could, henceforward, however much he might covet the luxury, insult G-reat Britain or France, for there would be ever, for years to come, glimmering on the horizon, the image of a banished Davis, or Johnson, or Lee, or Beauregard, awaiting the day when America had brought upon itself the retri- bution of over-provoked Europe, and ready to cross the Atlantic or may be only the Gulf of Mexico, in the ships of the foe, with the news that the servitude of the South had reached its term. The other alternative —that of the South going back into the Union as so many States inhabited by the equal citizens of an equal Republic— is past contempt, below ridicule. Is it possible that men like Davis and Beaure- o'ord- find Tnonjha and Cobb, who have stood up in arms against the North, who have issued proclamations ad- vising death before submission, could meet Seward, or Butler, or Lincoln, in Congress and society ? We might 30 as well expect but comparisons are useless, for the most extravag-ant would fail to equal the absurdity of this supposition. By a stretch of the imag-ination let us suppose that even this has been accomplished, and that Senators and Congressmen from North and South are once more sitting together in the Capitol of Washing'ton. In what position would be the slavery question ? If all the slaves were emancipated and deported to South America, the Southern States would be ruined-^if they were not emancipated, then Europe and the world would cry shame against the hypocrisy of those who proclaimed a deadly war under a specious pretence of sympathy for the blacks and then abandoned its own pretence. But even slavery would be only one of innumerable and inextricable complications. The Southern members would of course be in a minority in the Legislature. But they would be a minorit}^ powerful in all dispropor- tion to their numbers. There would be a secret unity of purpose and of action among* them sufficient to clog* the wheels of even a more statesmanlike and dio-nified assembly than the Congress of Washington. No one conceivable question, the admission of new States^ foreig'u relations, tariff and revenue, including the taxation needful to pay for their own subjugation, would arise, which would not excite their fiercest passions and set them on their endlecs task of baffling their hated Northern colleagues and that sectional President who mis^ht for the existing: term be in .office. on the secret work which would be going on day by da}/ and hour by hour in lone plantations, in the depths of forests and swauips, intangible and unquestionable — for [ • iin , for the irdity of ion let us and that 50uth are jhing'ton. ? If all to South [--if they •Id would •oclaimed pathy for k '• umerable members gislature. lispropor- t unity of ; to clo^ dig'nified No one !S^ foreign! taxation luld arise, 3 and set sir hated dent who ly by da> depths of able^ — for 81 the South be it remembered would hypothetically be a sharer in equal freedom— the work of g-radually col- lecting- the material and arranging* the plans for the next secession. Upon every side there is darkness, and doubt, and diflSculty, out of which complete separation is the only means of escape. If the North conquers there will either be an oppres- sive military despotism brooding over the whole land, or utter chaos and confusion, with petty insurrectionary movements bubbling- up here and there and bursting- everywhere. And for what is all this? For nought but to satisfy the greed of the North— to rear a " Federar' (falsely so called) "Empire" on the ruins of State rights— to make out a case of "right divine" for President Lincoln. Coming to the question of divine right, which is now so glib on the tongues of Franklin's countrymen, we are lost in a maze of perplexity. If the secession of the Confederate States is not to be held valid, then what can be said for that of the United States from England ? Yet if this precedent is to be disallowed what is to become of 1688 ? In short, if logic ruled the dispute, it is a question for the South, between the rights of Mr. Davis and those of the ex- Duke of Modena, the eldest representative of James II. But I beg logic's pardon for introducing it into such uncongenial and incongruous company as that of Northern politics. Neither logic, law, consistency, nor principle has anything to do with the proclamation of an American " empire," the assump- tion that the Gulf of Mexico is mare nostrum, and the reduction of the " erring brethren" who live on its shores into " subjects." 8 i ,i Let the South prevail, and what then? Its pro- ceedings hitherto would lead us to hope for the establish- ment of a Constitutional Government south of the Potomac. Although framed in a great hurry, under severe difficulties, its Constitution remedies the most salient defects and supplies the most glaring' deficiencies which the practical working* of the old Constitution had revealed. It has proclaimed free-trade with all the world — it has given guarantees for order and stability in its Govern- ment—and even in the matter of slavery reports have been bruited abroad without contradiction, that it is willing" to make some agreement for the gradual aboli- tion of that unholy institution, which can only be abolished with the free will of the Government under which it exists. If, moreover, the South establishes its independence it must give up all those dreams of aggres- sion which it once entertained, with the view of acquiring* political power, and in which it was cockered up by the speculative ingenuity of its timeserving allies of the North, of that Deuacratic wing* which has gone over to the Republicans, and is now fanning the flames of war. , The moment the South elected to secede it necessarily and indispensably abandoned all its projects of ambition in return for liberty and independence. All schemes of aggression to the North-West, of conquering Mexico, of acquiring Cuba, are now no longer feasible. Whether all the seceders realised this when they left the Union is not the question — the fact remains the same. Eeconsti- tuted Mexico would form a barrier to aggression south, and a central commonwealth v\ ould check extension over the midland continent. ^ n3 The North, I repeat, must and will g^o to pieces, and had better for its own real happiness. If the divisions were those I have anticipated, the old United States would form about five g'reat commonwealths, each of them larg-er than an averag-e first-class European power, each of them with as much facilities for ffrowino* in wealth and population as it is g'ood for any State to have. We need not be deceived by the frantic whoop which the ruffianly "New York Herald," and the more decent spoken but as reall}^ venomous " New York Times," raised at the first breath of the tiding-s of the fall of Fort Donnel- son. It is their stock in trade to proclaim the restoration of the "Empire," for thiit word represents circulation, and circulation represents profi4;. But the " Empire " of the United States a word less suited to a Federal Republic than to leg^ions, dictators in arms, and ag'g'ressive conquest — is past and gone. May it repose quiet and unreg'retted, for this kind of Empire is neither good for the citizens of the State by whom such bastard imperial policy is pursued, nor for the world at large. The creation of independent constitu- tional States, with standing armies no doubt, and Foreign offices, each large enough to enjoy a strong and firm Govermnent, and not large enough to be unwieldy, auspicates prosperity for their citizens, at the price of learning and observing international courtesies, and keep- ing the peace with their neighbours, from their mutual knowledo-e of each other's strength. By the side of these States our own loyal colonies of Canada, Prince Edward's Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Red River, and British Columbia, c 84 ould streiia'tli and prosperity, with an ally in the South to protect them from thejealousy and animosity of the North. Whatever he the result of this strug^^le to the once Union; one result of g-rent importance to our- selves will, at all events, I hope and helieve, be produced. It is that Eng-lish eyes will by these events be opened to the folly and madness of supposing that any peace, hnp- piness, and prosperity which are incompatible with the Union Jack, can be found under the Stars and Stripes. Henceforward, without doubt, British emigration will flow where it ouo-ht to do — to British North America. On the publication of each of my two former lectures, I received a letter from an unknown correspondent, dating- first at AVashington and then at New York, and describing' himself as an " Octon'enarian." The writer of course discusses the question from an American point of view, and does so with so much ability, that I have no hesitation in quoting both communications in full. Washington, Dec. 13, 18bl, If very few Americans understand the nature of the American constitution, why should Europeans be expected to do so ? 'I'hey hastily assume its character to be that of monarchies, or aristocratic republics of past times ; they confound citizens with subjects. Let us examine the case. 'Ihirteen independent sovereign States form a covenant or constitution, in view of mutual interest and protection; reserving as many of their sovereign rights as were not absolutely needed for an efficient general Government. The rights conceded for this end were specijically named and granted, all others were retained. In this compact of constitution there was no clause of duration^ nothing said as to any right of withdrawal on the pait of any State. She v/as vcithcr denied nor permitted \his privilege. But she insists that such a right, not being specifical- ly conceded, of necessity remained with the States themselves, still sovereign in all but the delegated powers. Here, then, the case becomes a matter of inference merely, — on the one side, f r m that the compact without a separative provision implies perpe- tuity; on the other, that, hke an ordinary business contract of co-partnership, having no clause of duration, any partner may quit at pleasure; that under such a specific constitution as ours, specified powers only can warrant action, and the right of with- drawal ought to have been expressly conceded by any State to warrant the rest in demanding her continuance in the compact. Again, there is no clause in this compact authorising coercion, or enforcing the continuance of, or a return to the Union, of any seceding member of it. In so important a step, it is contended that only express aulhoritij under the constitution could warrant the other States in coercing one of their rmmber. Such was the view taken by Mr. Buchanan, the late President, and also by many eminent statesmen, and is probably the correct principle. Thus, then, we reduce to a douht the right of secession. But the Administration next bring forward a clause of the constitu- tion providing for the punishment of treason and rebellion; but who are traitors and rebels? !Not sovereign States, if the right of withdrawal remains with them. "No," says the Govern- ment, "we do not assert this, but we claim to punish its citizens as traitors. We say that in some cases, though the majorities are against us, the minorities are our friends." Very well, but then, a State being sovereign within her own bounds, the Go- vernment cannot take cognizance of its majorities or minorities — that is its own matter. The State shields her citizens with her own undisputed sovereignty, like «ny other country ; hence it is with the sovereign State tliat the Government must deal; a ma- jority of her citizens, in State legality, pass an act of Secession, it becomes a State act, and the assailant cannot go behind it. Yet, as before observed, the compact gives no power to the latter to coerce any State, and State sovereignty protects its citizcA^s. " What a strange Government \" Europeans say, and they are right ; but so it is, and so it was intended to be, a compact of concessions, compromises, and balances, working only upon mutual interest. Yet the Administration ignores the fact, but act upon obsolete monarchical principles. Here, then, upon a doubtful right of withdrawal (a case, in fact, for compromise or ])eaceful separation), the Administration institutes a brutal civil war, worthy of the darkest ages, when one word might have prevented ; for there can be no doubt that the South intended AAVr 14t/bC4V/AV VI*. l/tlV/ X1\/1.«/AA -kit Vfl.A*> \*w»JA* v/C* */w« jj^ v> - - ^ — , -. — «.»,- --J own construction of the constitution, and the provisions of the Declaration of Independence, that " all just government is only by consent of the governed" — a principle that the present Ad- ministration directly violates at the outset, and thus nullifies ' 1 30 the theory of their fathers, whom it terms the patriots of the revolution ! But the real history of this atrocious war is far ditferent, and may be stated thus : In the first place, the ' spoils/ or the vast expenditure of millions, affording stupendous plunder to Government officials. Secondly, the permanency of the protective system, so effectually secured by a vast national debt that it cannot be changed by the free-trade policy of any succeeding administration. Lastly, the war was instituted to keep hold of the slave chain. It is manifest that the vast wealth and prosperity of the North for many years has largely arisen from slave labour. Looms have multiplied immeasurably — it take a thousand ships to carry the cotton alone. For hats, shoes, clothing, &c. ; in fact for every article of necessity or luxury, the South has depended upon the North. Hence it is easy to perceive that did the seceding States establish their independence, a proper treaty might throw all these advantages into the hands of some large foreign power. Here, then, may be seen the trinity of motives urging the North into this war ; here may be seen also why it is the interest of the South to resist it, to buy where they can buy cheapest, and sell where they can sell dearest ; free-trade, in fact, the favourite theory of Great Britain, the emergence from the darkness of ages. Which side can she sympathise with ? You say, perhaps, not with slavery; but the North is fighting for its continuance. Nor, were it otherwise, could so stupendous a subject as emancipation be arranged under the heated passions of civil war. Can any European have even a faint conception of the difficul- ties at any time ? Can it be done at all to any effective purpose without the co-operation of the slaveholders themselves ? All the world is deeply interested in the products of slave labour. We must extend the circle of consideration fiir beyond the con- cerns of master and slave. Perhaps the human mind is in- capable of grasping the whole subject. At all events, it is a peace, not a war measure, and the first step is manifestly for the North to shake off the reproach of slavery by assenting to a peaceable separation. Left to itself, the South may, under the pressure of favourable treaties from Europe, consent to organize some feasible scheme of emancipation. Meantime this atrocious war is proceeding. Great Britain can stop it. The great interests of humanity and civilization demand it. Her honour grossly insiiltpd and hidlierl for vpnrs hv a »)Owerful Union, will she submit to have tarnished by half a country f If so, her prestige is gone all the world over. Moreover, what is her duty ? is it not to save her starving operatives ? What is her interest ? is it not to open, and, if forced to do so, to close -J' 37 Northern ports, getting on her own terms the whole protleice of the South and the carrying trade of the world. Honour, duty, interest, humanity, are not these sufficient motives ? Alas ! then are we without human hope of a speedy termination of this infamous contest. A milUon of Americans, now crushed and silenced by Republican tyranny, would welcome any cause of peace. Anxious eyes are cast over the Atlantic to the land of real law and liberty. Shall it be in vain ? asks an OCTOGENARIAN. A. J, B, Bercsford Hopct Esq, London, 18 m- New York, Feb. 3, 18G2. Mr. Beresford Hope, As truly stated in the Morning Post of Jan. 17, has very pro- perly characterised the attempted destruction of the Southern ports by sinking ships loaded with stone, and some of the Eng- lish papers very pertinently view this step as an abandonment of all hope of recovering the seceded States ; the idea being to leave their ports useless to themselves as well as any foreign powers they might form treaties with. And yet, the universal system of public plunder and swindling, for which the war was commenced and is continued, has quite as much influence in this abominable undertaking as the desire to inflict injury. The Quakers have had a large share of the whaling trade in their hands, and most of these old condemned ships belonged to them. Their principles being naturally averse to war, it became no bad policy to buy all their old vessels at a double or treble price, and thus at least secure their neutrality if nothing more. The daily exposure of fraud and swindling on the Government, astounding as they appear, are yet perhaps trifling compared to the undiscovered. In short, the whole war was got up by the dominant party, simply for the purpose of filling the pockets of its. friends, and from its inauguration into office it has been guilty of a series of inconsistencies and violations of rights and liberty, only to be paralleled in an arbitrary Government. Mr. Seward and his coadjutors taking advantage of the abolition excitement, made it the hobby horse to ride into power. His banner was, "No union with slave-holders," and that "the 0/%r>n4-!4-.i4-i/->v-> ttmn r, 1nn<- liir«fV» "Holl '^ HnrrlKr IQ llP WnrTT* 111 ^^\JkM.*3l,i.^f\XV±K/^X f*l«0 l« A\^t«C^\AO f f Avm* ^^^^*m — .— .^•»*-^ -.« ..^ . . .*. ^ his seat, than he reverses these very principles and institutes civil war to preserve Slavery and the Constitution. Does the abolition party murmur ? Mr. Seward points to his half million of troops ! Next he passes an abominable antiquated protective 38 ill; Tariff. Then he suppresses the right of habeas corpus, then all freedom of speech and the press. Having already violated the rights of the States by coercion, which the Constitution nowhere authorises. Then comes the absurd * Trent* affair, in relation to which there can be no manner of doubt that all American cruizers were ordered to search all vessels, for the Commis- sioners, and Mr. Seward's denial is not worth a straw. 'I'his stupid Secretary believed that he might safely bully P]ngland, in the confidence of having France on his side, and lost no time in backing out when he found his mistake. There was no chance or accident in the matter, the whole was a deliberate plan against England. To crown the folly of the administration, the war it wages, successful or unsuccessful, equally destroys the Constitution it is fighting to maintain. A compact of Go- vernment founded by sovereign States on the free consent of the governed for mutual interest, ceases the moment any of those States become conquered provinces, held as Austria holds Hungary or Russia holds Poland. And as to Slavery, when we consider that successful emancipation can only be by a calm well considered plan, with the cordial co-operation of slave- holders themselves, it is plain to be seen that a state of war or any rash measures can only produce infinite mischief and horror. Can Great Britain view these Northern proceedings with in- difference ? But even if she does not despise them, can she be regardless of her own interest? If she opens the Southern ports, she obtains millions of cotton, tobacco, sugar, rice, naval stores, &c. at her own prices ; and in return, at a nominal tariff, she supplies not only the South, but by smuggling the North, also with immense quantities of her manufactures. She feeds her starving operatives at home also. If from taking these steps war ensues, she closes every Northern port by a blockade, and has the whole carrying trade to herself at the expense of her rival. She takes the whole products of Cuba, Brazil, ^c. heretofore shared by the United States. Last but not least, she subserves the great cause of humanity all over the world. The way is open however, without war. Let the great Powers of Europe ask as a favour to be allowed to mediate or arbitrate, tiiat will soothe the public mind, it need not know that private diplomacy adds a " must" to the request. The easy way in which Mr. Seward twisted the whole ram- pant North out of its bravado on the " Trent" question, is a tolerable warrant that iie can manage a mediation. Moreover, the Government is aground for want of funds. It hesitates be- tween two horns of a dilemma. Unlimited issue of paper money and internal taxation, sure to produce unpopularity the moment 39 < IS a the tax-gatherer goes his rounds. Not less stupid was Mr. Chase than Mr. Seward, because he valued the wealth of the country at thousands of millions, he concluded that it was float- ing capital ready to seek any good investment ; he was mistaken. Ours is jixed wealth, hivestid capital, and out of 300 millions issued, not over GO seems to have been actually taken. The public enthusiasm as to the war has faded materially; indeed, were it not for the Government press (we have no oiher) it would die away entirely. Be assured that a mediation by European powers would not be objected to, both the Government and the people are in their hearts desirous to terminate the war as it stands. I am a descendant from the pilgrims who, in 1G30, landed at Plymouth, there can be no better American, but with millions of others 1 look with horror on this unnatural war. Our voices cannot be heard here, but you have them with you in any effort to sepa- rate these combatants. Yours, AN OCTOGENARIAN. The allusion to Mr. Seward contained in the second letter, refers to the fact to which I adverted in my se- cond lecture, that some two or three years ago he put his name to Helper's book, in which compensation to slave-owners was denounced as ridiculous and damnable ', while previous to this outbreak the Abolitionists were in the habit of talking- of the American Constitution as " a covenant with the devil," "a league with hell." To sum up, what is the conclusion to which we arrive ? The British colonies ought to be cur first interest. What then is best for them? I answer, the break-up, as speedily and as mercifully for themselves as possible, of the United States. In the agricultural South we shall find an ally for Canada. Never shall we find that in the ag"gressive, scheming-, blustering* North. In the inte- rests of humanity for what should we pray ? We behold the Furies, of Hatred and Discord and Civil War, low- 40 eriiio- mid darina' around the death-bed of the American Union. What prevents us as English men and as Chris- tians from uttenng- the hope that some more benign in- fluence may ere long disperse those fiends, and call in the angel of peace to cheer the last dying moments of the hopelessly diseased and mtich enduring sufferer. :P P.S. 31arch 20. To-day's Times contains President Lincoln's "propo- sitions'—in which he has the foresight to observe, if it " does not meet with the approval of Congress and the country it is at an end"— "substantially to end the rebellion," by buying up the slaves of those States which will listen to him out of the Federal revenues. The same paper informs us that Congress's Committee of Ways and Means has reported a bill, in which it is proposed to tax, inter alia^ lard, oil, gas, soap, salt, leather, meat, flour, paper, locomotives of every conceivable description, gold and silver watches, telegraphic messages, incomes, salaries and legacies, &c. &c. Is deep or shallow the more appropriate epithet with which to desio-nate the suo-o-estion 1 Is the President jocose or enthusiastic ? At least Mr. Lincoln has suc- ceeded in setting the New York papers by the ears. THE END. ti' 11 can ris- in- the the opo- if it Ithe i the .^hich same sand » tax, flour, g'old laries t with sident 8 sue-