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South.1 Brougham spoke of Sumner angrily, and denouncing the attempt to suppress the rebellion, said that our people were ‘stark mad.’
The Grotes regarded our cause with disfavor; so also did Senior, who wrote only to upbraid us for our shortcomings, saying, ‘But as soon as you get rid of them [Southern politicians heretofore charged with being responsible for our brusque treatment of other nations], your language becomes more insulting, your threats become more precise, your tariff becomes more hostile, and at last your conduct becomes more outrageous.’
Henry Reeve was equally intemperate, ranking the Confederates with Washington and Franklin, and promising their recognition if they were not conquered in three months,—an act to be concurred in by all the great powers of Europe, to which, as he wrote, we should have to submit or go to war with all mankind.
Joseph Parkes held from the beginning that acquiescence in secession was better and wiser than civil war; and he justified the attempt of the seceding States to obtain independence.
He was silent from January, 1861, to October, 1863, and then replied to a recent note from Sumner introducing William Whiting, of Boston.
He had heretofore disapproved Sumner's style of dealing with slavery and its supporters, and he was now full of cynicism in his views of our great conflict.2 He had no patience with Sumner's treatment of the course of the English people and government, in his speech in New York, September 10, and could scarcely believe that it came from ‘the Charles Sumner of ancient days, who talked peace and good — will as the Christian feeling and true policy of our two nations of common origin, race, language, interest, and religion.’
Mrs. Parkes, however, as became one of American birth, added a postscript, saying that herself and her daughter were ‘stanch Northerners.’
It was a surprise and grief to Sumner to see English opinion run so strongly against us. As he had expected more from this source than others, his sense of disappointment was greater than theirs; and the England of his youth was never the same England to him again.
Saddest of all was the cold shoulder of
1 The Marchioness of Drogheda, daughter of Sumner's old friend John Stuart Wortley, was an exception, and was outspoken and constant for the cause of the Union. She and her husband came to Boston in 1865, where Sumner met them.
2 A later letter of May 12, 1864, though cordial in assurances of friendship, was of the same tenor.
Cambridge, MA. Press of John Wilson and Son. 1877.
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