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Chapter 25:
Grant and
Gladstone achieved each his highest elevation at about the same time.
The British Premier went into office in December, 1868, the
American President in March, 1869.
The elections which gave them place occurred within a few weeks of each other.
There was even a further parallel.
Gladstone had grown into the position of a Liberal by successive conversions, while
Grant, from a man without pronounced political preferences, had gradually become a decided Republican.
The new Government in
England looked to the new people in
America as likely to become allies.
Sumner was known personally to the prominent members of the Liberal party, and
Motley from his literary reputation was welcome to the cultivated classes.
There was, it is true, a shade of distrust because of
Sumner's speech delivered only a month before
Motley's appointment; still the reception of the new Minister was more than friendly; there seemed a feeling that now was the time to begin a new era and cultivate a sincerer amity.
I remember in my own conversations with
Forster, Lord Halifax, and other prominent Liberals, a very decided effort on their part to prove that the action of the
British Government during the war had not been so hostile as
Americans supposed.
They especially claimed that the recognition of belligerency had not the significance attached to it on this side of the ocean.
Doubtless their eagerness was partly because they knew the stress
Motley had laid upon the
