Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 2

[85] doing it, we have not failed in respect for England. To her, as the land from which our fathers came, we bear a sentiment of love and devotion little short of what is felt by her own immediate children. We feel the inspiration of her history and literature, and are proud to claim them partly as our own. Her power we do not question. It was an American¹ who, on the floor of the Senate of the United States, in allusion to her magnificent empire, has said that “she has dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts;” and that her “morning drum-beat, following the sun and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England.” We venture to ask her to be as just as she is powerful. “Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war;” and may it be reserved to the youthful Queen, who now sits on the English throne, to illustrate her reign by a greater victory than that of the Armada,—the overcoming of a national prejudice and the acknowledgment of a national wrong.

A Citizen of the United States. Paris, April 9.

In the negotiations which finally closed this ancient controversy, questions of title were not argued. The parties, wearied with the hopeless task of attempting to convince each other, at length, in 1842, by the treaty of Washington, established a conventional line,—a line by compromise,—each abating its pretensions, and parting with alleged rights for supposed equivalents. The United States gave up a large territory, for which it compensated the State of Maine by the grant of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars and the payment of the expenses of its civil posse. Mr. Webster, when assailed, four years later, with the charge of having failed, as Secretary of State, in his duty to his country, defended the treaty in the Senate in an able speech; and his name and that of Ashburton, the British representative, are associated on one of the most honorable pages in the history of diplomacy.²

Sumner's article was well received in this country. It was reprinted in full in the Boston Courier,³ where it was commended as ‘a clear and able statement of the American view.’ A correspondent of the ‘Advertiser,’⁴ writing with the signature of ‘Senescens,’ said:—

The article is written by our townsman, Mr. Charles Sumner, whose name makes any particular commendation superfluous. . . . It is a learned,