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There was nothing but general conversation, in the course of which it was remarked that Great Britain had never appreciated the wrong, the terrible wrong, done to us, not only in the cases of ships destroyed, but also in driving our commerce from the ocean.
You know that I have never disguised the opinion that the concession of belligerent rights was wrongful; that there can be no ocean belligerency in a power without the capacity of administering justice on the ocean,—in other words, without prize-courts and ports.
Of course, therefore, such a concession to pretenders without this capacity must be at the cost of the power which makes it. As a principle of law and justice I cannot see how this can be doubted.
Denied or questioned, it must ultimately be adopted as essential to the safeguard of the seas.
To what extent it will enter into our settlement I cannot now say. I wish I could write more fully and carefully, and see the future more clearly; but I write as well as I can under pressure and with business going on about me. There are topics in your letter of great interest.
To
R. H. Dana, Jr., January 26:—
The Claims question with England will go over to the next Administration, and will probably become one of the greatest international litigations in history.
To
Whittier, February 26:—
Last evening I received your note, which saddened me. I was sorry to know that you are not well, besides being disappointed in not having you under my roof; the time will come, I trust.
I shall write to Emerson, who likes the experience of life, and hope to have him. I am sorry to know that Stanton has not seen Grant since the election.
He has been too ill to call; and Grant has called only once, when Stanton was too ill to see him. Stanton says that he hears of declarations by Grant in favor of economy, retrenchment, and the collection of the revenue, but nothing about the rights of man to be maintained in all their fulness; but I hope for the best.
Early in 1869 a plan was brought to a head which
Sumner had long had in mind,.—a complete edition of his speeches and writings, revised and annotated by himself.
Literary friends counselled him to undertake it; and he was prompted also by calls for copies of speeches long out of print, from different parts of the country.
S. Austin Allibone wrote, Jan. 9, 1868: ‘I have it much in my heart that there should be a handsome octavo edition (like
Everett's) of your orations, etc. They should have a copious index; and do prepare autobiographical memoranda, with notices of your eminent friends in
Europe and
America.’
The senator had a statesman's ambition to place what he had done in permanent volumes, accessible for all time; and the
American edition of
Burke's works furnished the model.
He
