The Daily Dispatch: November 29, 1861., [Electronic resource]

---

---

Speech of Hon. Wm. L. Yancey in London.
his remarks Enthusiastically Applauded.

[From the London Globe, Nov. 12.] Mr. Dudley Mann, and Wm. L. Yancey, two of the Southern Commissioners, now in England, attended the dinner of the Fishmongers' Company on Saturday. Mr. Yancey, in answer to a complimentary toast, made the following speech, which derives interest from the fact that the Minister from the United States, Mr. Adams, was at the same time speaking in Guildhall.

Mr. Yancey said:

Upon the part of Americans, I sincerely respond to the sentiment just expressed by the Prince Warden, for the restoration of peace in America. Such a wish proclaimed by a company of intelligent Englishmen must kindle a corresponding spirit in the bosom of every enlightened and impartial American. The name American no longer represents a united people. There exists now two American nationalities — the Confederate and the Federal Americans. I — as you may, perhaps, be aware — am a Confederate, or, as the Federal Americans, unmindful of the character of our common forefathers, disdainly terms me a rebel. But the justice and the sense of right of this great Government, promptly coincided in by France and Spain, speedily wiped out that stigma from our brows, and my countrymen are acknowledged here, at least, to be belligerents. (Cheers)

Though indebted to an enlarged and enlightened view of public law, and not to the mere grace or favor of England, for this acknowledgment of our unquestionable rights and bocus standi, I must freely express here tonight that deep sense of thankfulness which I am sure all my countrymen feel for its early public avowal--Bis dat qui cito dat. (Prolonged cheers,) From no other power could it come so gracefully. In this — the old country — the principle of self-government is recognized and practiced, however blended with the prerogatives of the crown and the privileges of the aristocracy. To your institutions Americans are indebted for the chief of those vital principles which have caused them to style the Republic.--

The land of the free,

And the home of the oppressed.

Such invaluable rights as the old English writ of habeas corpus, of a speedy trial by jury, of freedom of speech, and freedom of the press, are the main pillars of American Constitutional Liberty, and I am happy and proud to say are observed at least throughout the Confederate American States as vital and practical rights, even during their stern struggles to preserve their ‘"national life."’-- (Hear, hear, and cheers.) I feel how unbecoming it would be in me to intrude upon such an occasion as the present any merely partisan views of the causes which have broken up the late Federal Union. No matter what they may have been, one thing is clear, and that is that the contest now going on is upon the part of the people of the Confederate States for the right to govern themselves, and resist subjugation by the North. (Hear, hear) They occupy a territory as large as England, France, Spain, and Austria together — they are 10,000,000 in number — they are chiefly producers of important raw materials, and buyers of all kinds of manufactured goods.

Their pursuits, soil, climate, and productions, are totally different from those of the North. They think it their interest to buy where they can buy cheapest, and sell where they can sell dearest. In all this the North differs toto cato from them, and now makes war upon us to enforce the supremacy of their mistaken ideas and selfish interest. (Hear, hear, and cheers) In defence of their liberties and sovereign independence the Confederate States and people are united and resolute. They are invaded by a Power numbering 20,000,000, yet for eight months has the Confederate Government successfully resisted — aye, repelled that invasion along a military frontier of 1,000 miles.

Though cut off by blockade from all foreign trade, their internal resources have been adequate to the equipment and maintenance in the field of an army of over 250,000 troops. Can all this be, and yet these 6,000,000 of whites be divided? The idea is preposterous. So much has been said about our efforts to obtain foreign in convention that I may be allowed to declare emphatically that the Confederate States have neither sought nor desired it. They can maintain their independence intact by their own strength.

As to their recognition by the powers of the world, that of course they desire. They are a people, a nation, exhibiting elements of power which few States of the world possess. But they have no reason to complain, nor do they feel aggrieved because these great powers see fit for a season to deny their formal recognition and reception into the family of nations. However they may differ from them as to the period when their recognition shall take place, they fully understand that such action is purely a question to be determined by those countries each for itself and with reference to its own interests and views of public policy.

Other nations having trading relations with us have quite as much interest to send ministers and consuls to us as we have to send such representatives to them. (Hear, hear) Why, then, shall there not be peace? Simply because the North, in its pride, will not admit that to be a fact — a fait accompli--which old England, followed by the first powers of Europe, has recognised and which the Confederate Government and armies have repeatedly demonstrated to be a stern and bloody fact — the fact that we are a belligerent power.

There can be no basis for negotiations, or for peace proposals or consultations, so long as the Confederates are doomed to be and are treated as rebels (Hear.) But when our adversary shall become sufficiently calm to treat us as a belligerent Power, the morning of peace will dawn in the horizon. When that hour shall arrive, I think I may say the Confederate Government will be inflexible upon one point only — its honor and its independence. For the great interests of peace and humanity it will yield much that is merely material or of secondary importance. (Mr. Yancey sat down amid loud and continued cheering.)