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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames aa required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Lea cartas, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre filmte A dea taux da rMuction diffirants. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul clichA, il est film* A partir de I'angle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite. et de haut «?i baa, an prenant la nombre d'imagea nacesoaire. Las diagrammas suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 I ill h'-'i V / ./? 'd. /n A LETTER TO ilia HONOUEABLE CHARLES SUMNER, I'PO.V HIS SPBBCH DKLIVBHED ON TIIK ALABAMxi CLAIMS CONVENTION, BKITANNICUS. LIVERPOOL, May, 1869. n /^ y tfc r. ..*.£.. 1^ To the Honourable CHARLES SUMNER. Sib, Your speech on the " Alabama Claims Contention" La» eansoJ much anx.ct^ to good men in tins country. Thev fear H.at .t nn,,l,es a .ettlcd policy to keep open a conLve,./ with y..i, a„,l perhaps at some future day to pave the way for a rupture. Ferm.t me, as one who knows America and values i" nend.,lnp to address a few words to you on the line of argumen ou .ve taken on this disputed question. I am eniboldened to do so because the closmg portion of your speech testifies to a desire tor peace and amity with England, and because I cannot think that a man of your vast political experience and earnestness of purpose nlZ, ' '"■"'* ''"* "'^''^ =^'^'^ ''"™-' "-^ t« I will not attempt to go into a nice disquisition on international I w enough has already been written on that score, and the public nmd m both countries has been confused rather than enlightened by the weansome subtleties of lawyers. What I wish to do is to convey to you briefly what is the practical view of the subject taken "ore by upr.ght men who are anxious to act justly, and would v. hngly make any reasonable concession to Am'erica' sooner than ooulL "" '"° '"'*"« "" ■'"■"""^ '^'■'--" tte two I will begin by premising that the vast majority of the people the United btates ; they have not the remotest wish to injure or but they Lave a sort of bewildered feelirg at the reluctance of you iX^rl ,'"'' ™^ '" "'^"' ■•'"'-We sentiments; ll^y a.e baflied m then- attempt to comprehend why it is that Americans p* show such soreness ngninst their old mother country, for they feel that they have not acted so as to deserve this feeling. With respect to what are called the " Alahama depredations" there is little difference of opinion in this country among intelligent men ; they are viewed with regret and reprobation, and I beg to assure you that it never was the general sentiment of this country to view these acts with complacency. All through your civil war there was a largo party Avho condemned the fitting out of Cor- federate cruisers in this country, and had international law been sufficiently clear on the subject most certainly these acts would not have occurred; but, rightly or wrongly, our Government conceived that they were precluded by the provisions of international law from active interference ; the case was far more complicated than people on your side are willing to admit, and our Government with every desire to do right, found it literally impossible to avoid giving offence to your people. With the light now shed upon the subject, it is certain that our Government would bo more prompt in dealing with any future case; but when your civil war broke out there was the greatest obscurity in the public mind about the legal aspect of such questions, and it was only by ^ainful experience that we found out both what was duo to other nations, and what powers our own Government might rightfully exercise over British subjects. It is now very generally admitted, however, that the Americans have a real grievance against us as respects the Alabama and other Confederate cruisers, and the majority of our people would readily consent to pay any fair compensation for actual damage done to your trade, if such damage could be assessed by fair arbitrament. We do not grudge the money ; we wish to remove a grievance and restore amity, and many even of those among us who fail to see that our Government committed any breach of international law are quite ready to pay a bill of damages if such shall be awarded against us. But w^e feel that the question is too complicated to be decided ex, parte, we wish it submitted to a competent tribunal, where all colla- teral considerations may be fliirly and equitably weighed. Such a tribunal was provided by the convention entered into with Revcrdy Johnson, and it has caused as much surprise as grief in this country fi tlmt tho convention negotiated by your special envoy aent over to England should have been so summarily and so contemptuously discarded. ' Our Government made, as we thought, and still think, large con- cmions and we left every fairly debateablo poiut to arbitration. We took our chance of being mulcted in a heavy sum, and we did not expect a kindred and Christian people would so flatly reject the only rational way in which nations averse to war can honourably settle their disputes. But it seems from your speech that it is no longer the "Alabama question," but our recognition of the belligerent rights of the South that constitutes the gravamen of your complaint against l^ngland. You charge us with having immensely prolonged the war and doubled the cost of subduing the South, and on that ground you set down to our debit the larger half of your national debt, and you speak as though no settlement should be made with us unless we assume some §2,000,000,000 of your debt, with a contrite apology besides for our wicked assistance to the rebels ' Such charges and such claims fill us with amazement ! Up till quite lately it was not even understood in this country that our proclamation of neutrality wa.s believed to be a wrong by the American people. No dr^bt Mr. Seward often complained of it in his despatches, but this was thought to be the resulu of some mental obliquity peculiar to himself, and not to reflect the un- biassed opinion of the great American nation. We did not think It possible that your people could bo serious in objecting to our doing what seemed to us to be as ui.avoidable as it was jult to all concerned. 1 state this fact in order to bring out in bold relief the. extraordinary difference oi opinion that prevails on the two sides of the Atlantic, and to inculcate the importance of looking at these subjects from both points of view. I repeat that during the progress of your civil war, and for some years afterwards, it did not even occur to the British public that our Government could have done otherwise than recognise that a state of war existed in your country and that British subjects must be put under the usual neutral obli-' gations. No doubt some of us did think th..t the Queen's nroclama- IH 6 tion might have been issued with greater propriety after the arrival of your ambassador. Some of ns did think that there was undue pre- cipitance about tlio measure, but evcu the warmest friends of the North ft'lt that the btep had to bo taken sooner or later, and never dreamt that your country would make it a grievance against us that wo recognized a state of war at all. Surely you forgot tbo circumstances in which England was placed when your civil war broke out. She had an immense maritime commerce with both sections of your country, more especially with the southern hidf, and it was necessary that our Government should warn shipowners of the risk they ran in trading with blockaded ports. Had it not warned them that a state of war existed and imposed neutral obligations upon them, it would have been involved at once in endless complicated claims against your Government. Further, it fills with astonishment all thinking men here — and I may add throughout Europe — that you should impute to us as a crime that which your Government had already done itself. Presi- dent Lincoln's proclamation of blockade, as all the world knows, was issued before our declaration of neutrality. From tho very first his Govei'nment treated tho insurrection ns civil war; from the very first it conceded belligerent rights to tho South ; and surely we are not criminals for following the example of your own Glovernment. Surely we were not to regard the Confederates as banditti and pirates, when your own Government never dreamt of doing so; and yet this is what you appear to think we should have done. You seem to forget that when this unhappy v/ar broke out it was the general opinion of Europe that tho United States would bo divided into two confodorations, and this was apart from all predilec- tions for either side. It was simply founded on the fact that one half your teriitory, containing one third of the population, seceded from the Union, and European nations doubted either your power or willingness to subjugate that portion by force of arms. Tiiey scarcely thought it was consistent with your form of government to attempt it, for they looked upon your federation as a voluntary ■union of States, and they understood the corner stone of your 'i us as a systom to bo that "„,1 j„,t Ooveram^at. ,1 ,ri™ their power, from thofrooconsratofthoBoTcrncil." r "■.r« irom When thorofo:..,,, tl.ey ,„,v your vast oommonwoalth splitting „„ t tw,, h„ vcs nearly equal A„, they f„,t t.,ey ooula not deny to tl,e Sou h the bell.gerent rights it aetuuliy e.ereiseJ. Antioi^ pat,„g ,n all probability the creation of t,vo separate nations, they des,red to preserve strlet neutrality between them, so aUo leave nejther of them just ground for reerimination afterwards No donbt these view, appear obsolete now, sueeesa has lent ■ts prestige to he elaims of the North , but surely, when you er,t.„.,se the conduct of our Government in 1861, you „ust place yourself ,n our att.tnde at that time, and survey the horizon as then spread out efore us ; and mayhap it may not be amiss as we orefrcs yoursef w.th a retrospect of Northern opinion at th, date, and, .f I mistake not, yon will find that no small section of your own countrymen then held that they had neither the right nor the ability to coerce the South back into the Union. ^ But England is the only foreign nation that sinned against you in this concession of belligerency ! Yo„r speech takes no aoeount ol f .■ance, who did exactly the same-there is no word of dividing the half cost of the war between France and England ! And el J-ou cannot deny that, in all respects, LVanee is as culpable as on Ives If your view of international obligations is oorreet-nay most all the nations of Christendom arc, for they nearly aU lowed onr example, and it certainly would be somo'consoi:, fo. ns ,f yon put us aU in th. pilloiy together. We could then kcip each other just a litUe in countenance ■ England, howeve-, must bear the shame alone, because she was he pioneer of emancipation, and yet refused to help you in yZ ggloto put down Southern slavery! This accuLtion buZ largely in year speech, .and points some of your bitterest sarcasms against our country. Can you really have forgotten how steaZv your Government refused for years after the war common ed to «.at if the South returned to the vZ^Z l™" :^^ immrm be guftrantopfl ? Nolhingf could bo plainer — seen from onr side the Atlantic — than that your Oovornment engaged in tho war simply to restore the Union, and not to abolish slavery, and it was equally plain that it becamo a convert to emancipation only when it found that no other resource remained by which to subjugate tiie South. Why should you demand of England in 18G1 a perspicacity your own President did not show in 1863 P Why should you accuse her of sympathising with slaver} because she did net u.ako common cause with tho North who was n\\ tho while protesting vehemently that it did not mean to abolish slavery, but only to restore tl . Union ! No doubt, far-sighted men like yourself perceived from the first that the success of the North involved t> « downfall of slavery- no doubt you looked upon the war from th<. first as an anti-slavery one, and a respectable minority of your couiitiymen did tho same; but you cannot blame our people for judging of the question by the public acts and avowals of your GovernraeTit, ,ind these were indisputablj pro-slavery for a long period after the war broke out. '^1 Further, you give our Government no credit for the firmness it displayed in refusing all solicitations to recognise the independence of the South. You omit to take notice that Franco strongly urged us to do so, and that we steadily declined, even at a time when public opinion was almost unanimous in expecting the eventual success of the South ; you forget that, if we had followed the precedents your people had set us, we should undoubtedly have recognized the independence of the South. We should have done as you did in the case of the Hungarian Republic, and as you would undoubtedly have done in the case of a succei= jful insurrection in Ireland. Pray, imagine for a moment what the action of v.ur Qo,er„„'e nt l,av„°d™ Lm e,thor to nckno^ledge ite belligerency or indni«„denee ? la no cer a,n Aat >t would ha.e done both.und h,veg,ven to tl,„ ..rebel" " to tlie ..outh ? Remember I am not Duttino. fT,oo« or .hat the United State, wou.d I Z^l^^:^::;^ he alleged as an excuse ; but as instances of what vonr n * and people vould have done twenty or th t^ ;lr:g!rr'^' can do.ht who knows the hiatory o'the Ame" opTe' and Z readmess at all times to sympathise with rebellions Houst oTr""^' 1 r' ""' ''•^' *° "'^^ "' *^« --^-«- of your House of Representatives a few weeks .inco in favour of no J ^ging the independence of Cuba, though the rllln t^^^^^^^^^ only been m progress for a few months, and with far iZ t of suece than the Southerners had i'n therst';rof Z wax ? Is ,t not almost andecent to censure England so greatlv fo. doing a far milder act than your lower Housa of P ? ^ sought to accomplish. Ho; hapnv Tt w l/ ^"^''''' ^""'J^'* disputes, if the aUion oTth^eT^:. ir^^r^ ^^^^^-^ " wad Bome Power the giftie gie us To 869 ourselves as others see us." Tour charges against England would melt awav ,'f ih • were faithful., held up to the faee of your o™ Z^ "" ■""-" .oS^zrierrriruuifd" r r^ '° ''"^^- organization hostile to trnrit " '"' ^^"'"'''''^ '^ to wrest Canada ^^::^Zlt'lr1f''°'' "° fact, that ™st bodies of .enians Ta^f Zn' d'";:!" ZT, open manner in all yonr great towns for years v^ iZ I T received countenance from manv . ^''"° ''"'V """""'-" ''''™ have oven been recognizrouZof 7p """""'"' '^""' ™^ know of was ever Lll „ ^''^''- *^' ■"=' ""'' I -...omo^/tLtr^irrsf ^-;« ;^ ^-' °^-" ^^^euaiy nation than some of the .-%3*^;^--^ ; . ' 10 doings of your Fenian fellow citizens. Was there ever a more scandalous breach of international law than the Fenian invasion of Canada? Was ever such an outrage perpetrated on European ground without reprisals ? And yet what apology has your Govern- ment ever offered to your peaceful neighbours across the St. Lawrence? Depend upon it when the balance is struck in the great chancery of nations to which you refer the conduct of England, the encouragement your country has given to Fenianism will bulk as largely as the aid that Southern sympathisers in this country may have rendered to the South. But the people of this country are not disposed to quarrel about these Fenian outrages ; they regai'd them as a rough sort of set-off ao-ainst the indefensible doings of the Alabama and her consorts; they are willing to let their side of the controversy slumber if you will do the same with your'a. l-lf There are other " set-offs" which a man of catholic sympathies should not be blind to. Your civil war inflicted cruel sufferings on England as well as America. Its very first effect was to cut off the staff of life from the millions of Lancashire ; the great centres of our cotton industry became silent with enforced idleness ; some half million of the raost industrious operatives in Britain had to be fed with the dole ot publ-'c charity ; and yet never did they raise their voices in complaint that your hard policy had reduced them to pauperism. There were counsellors who told us that your blockade of the Southern ports was but a " paper" one, and that we were entitled to disregard it by the law of nations. They contrasted our powerful navy with the little handful of war vessels you had when hostilities broke out, and they asked why our people should starve when we could so easily force our way into the Southern harbours and bring over the coveted material which was rotting in the South. We withstood these temptations and they were great, but we get no credit for it from you. Perhaps you will say that we did so because we were afraid of the North ; but such was not the case. The enormous power of your section of the country was then undeveloped, and was not suspected in Europe, scarcely even in America. Your war navy was then / feeble and wholly raable to oope with ours. Noth.W seemed eas,e.r from „„,. .ido the Atlantic than to h.™h „,ido yJuZt "long w,th .t a monopoly of their commerco, which sratitudo to England am, hatred of tho North ™,d ha..'e„mbin.?,t htt„ heel tl ::: "'°^"."-°™''- *™p«°-. -dwo did so of credit-no not one! "" ''"" '^'^ "^ °°' ^ "-" n,n, d, as a d.root consoqnenee of y„„r groat convulsion- the »pnuHe» and loom., of Lancashire are starved for ™nt of I' rl v malcnal ; your cotton crops l„„c di.ninished to a half of what tZ were before .he war, and al, onr ciTorts have failed oLppttl enormous vo,d. As a necessary conse.nence Lancashirf s im povcnshed, :ts former wealth has in a groat measure del teT ban.„nptoy,s staring in the face one-half of our manufact'er ' and the undc^aid open^tives are leaving our shores in dospairo; eve. seemg their trado flourishing again, No portion \he Noril cm S a tes has sufforcd half as much as Lancashire has don fiom ,l,c oflecfs of your civil war, and this blow to the groat hdrt of our commerco has vibrated through tho omniro L, ^ prWate su«o,.i„g unequalled since the olrly yearrthir'lLT obhvmus, but ,t does strike Englishmen, who know by hitler .penenco themisory of tho last few years, as a hard and ,^.. pohcy that Americans should make no allowance for the punishm™ your cvd war inflicted upon us, and especially upon that mrT^f our commun tv whose svmn.,H.:„. , ■ ^ " and who in tLir ::^?: ~e"^™"'^!"''''^^'^°^*•'• .".«•Lasebreadatthec„:„fl::::^'■' ""■"'■ '""" " ^■'"™ *° <^ ":-;.:: :™::i:!:i::r^ ------ vJftues arc iguorod-von. nnll """' ^''''''^'^' ^^^ ;^va.:ua,andSg:::™;~~t;:- cletc nee. You dwell Wi th clever irony upon I -'-- SBB 111 ■ 12 the cheers which Mr. Laird evoked in Parliament, but you say nothing about the silent anguish of Lancashire ; you inflame the Americans with the plaudits which some passenger ship bestowed upon the " Alabama," you do not soothe them with the gush of sympathy we sent over the ocean upon the murder of your noble President ! It is poor statesmanship to bandy accusations, else I might parallel the cheers given to Laird with the cheers your Congress gave to Wilkes, and the honours paid to Captain Semmes with the honours paid to the Fenian Head Centre on the floor of Congress, But I have no love to dwell on these things. I reluc- tantly recall them, because I am forced to make a debtor as well as creditor side to your account. That the neutrality of England was not unfair to the North, I will further prove from Southern evidence. Fas est ah lioste doceri. I ask you what temper prevailed in the /So«^/i towards England during your civil strife ; was it not one of angry discontent ? Did not Southern papers constantly abuse England for not giving tbem what they thought to be their rightful dues ? Was it not the prevailing sentiment of the Confederacy that British neutrality was onesided, and that its bias was not Southern but Northern ? Ask Mason and Slidell what iheij thought of the attitude of England, and they will tell you that her obstinate refusal to recognise Southern independence caused the downfall of their cause. They will tell you that all Europe only waited for the signal from England to proclaim that the South should be admitted into the family of nations, but England unreasonably and unfairly withheld that signal. To this very day the sentiment of the South is sore against this country, the bitterness is as great, or greater, than is felt in the North ; only the complaint is that wu i. of used to do that which you accuse us of doing. The two sections of your country attack us from opposite poles, and no better proof could be given, that <^he conduct of England was too impartial to satisfy either. I have surely said enough to defend in a great measuio the piiblic action of England against your impeachment. I say, in a great measure, because I allow, in common with most Englishmen, |ii| I V you say ame the Destowed ) gush of iir noble s, else I ers your Semmes floor of I reluc- is well as North, I ite doceri, ad during Did not xig them not the •ality was srn ? Ask England, recognise !e. They I England family of lield that re against L is felt in iiat which ry attack 1, that the sasui ' the say, in a iglishmen, 18 that we were not faultlesa, and for those faults that can fairly be what v.dently constitutes the groundwork of your in-itation against us It ,3 the want of sympathy this country showed for the North m .ts t.me of trouble. You cannot put this into a bUl of damages, but It mehnes you to push to the extremest verge every leJ claim you can establish a. inst us. I admit, in common with most of my countrymen, that the press and pubhc men of England bore hardly on the North during the struggle; we feel now that we took wrong vie^s on some pomts, and did the- patriotism of your people scant justice. We frankly apologise for this error. But we do not feel that our conduct was base or mean-neither was it irrational; the rebds of the South were our flesh and blood as well as the loyal men of the North; they made an amazingly heroic stand for what they honestly deemed to be their rights, and it need not be wondered at if many in our country sympathised with the weaker party, struggling gallantly against tremendous odds Besides, the feeling largely prevailed on this side the Atlantic, that your confederation was a voluntary union of States, and that the prmciples of your Government and the facts of your history alike lorbad a war for the subjugation of recalcitrant members We tho^ht that as your countrymen had invariably, from the days of Washington, sympathised with discontented nationalities, and proclaimed their right to rebel, you would not feel it right to coerce a great section of your own people. Then the question of slavery was in a large measure withdrawn from the controversy, for had not your Government proclaimed that the war was for union, not emancipation, and many people in Eng and thought that a union so restored would rivet slavery more firmly than ever. To these motives must be added another, which, Repubhc, If allowed to grow undivided, would bocLo over- d s ke of Americans as a people, thought it better for the welfare of the worM that a peaceable division of North America should take place. History had taught us this lesson, that no nation can r » vl M safely bo trnsted with teespon.iblo power.. Europe had paid a terfble tribute iu blood for the predominance of France, under Zoton. and wa, it wonderful that the stupendon, growth of your Tonntry hould e.xite apprehension? Neither wae your pohcy t^wJ. England before the war fitted to disarm th,»feehng It w^ften su^ieot of complaint that you treated us -th less than instiee ■ it was feared that you wished to hnm.hate us, and .t was C nlasonably thought that a division of your --^y -^ protect us from an aggressive policy afterwards, nnd prcso ve fo fire ages that "balance of power," which Europe has esteemed the best security for international peace^ These eonsidemtions I venture to offer as a pa hahon-.f no an excuse-fer the unfavourable tone of a large part of the Bra,sh TuUrtowards the North. Hut many of our leading men and many ^f'nr blst papers were yonr staunch friends all through the war ; Lrnotice I lahen of this in the Kerth The ^P^^-^- ' =rdMLte^r.nrt:rry::s^^^^^^^^^ :::;rtionof„.He.^^^^ :^::rC'^t;°npoUpoL.,^a„dsurelythis fact smooths away the obstacles to a mutual raprocliement In conclusion I would say, "Let bye-gones be bye-gones," U .s bu y o- controversies in a friendly arbitration, and wben the us bury cm ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^t; and T'tn" M™ tl :i P — interest in the matter has , lei rt^rim will exhume the controversy, and tell how two ^rintch'rtt-ritions once settled their disputes in harmony with the benign precepts of the religion they professed. BBITANNIOUS. . paid a 3, under 1 of your ;r policy iling. It ess than id it was ,ry would sox'vo for esteemed n — if not le British uid many the war ; es of such it, Messrs. nd a large g classes, i men now cfc smooths jones;" lot I when the rer it ; and matter has )11 how two .u harmony A.NNICUS. I