Your German sky lowers with war. Can it be avoided? My letters assure me that Germany at last is a unit, and that it will stand by Schleswig-Holstein. Schleiden, who is very intelligent, is openly for war. He says that the connection of the provinces with Denmark must be cut. This is war. Motley writes from Vienna that in his opinion war is inevitable. Mercier leaves Washington to-day. Inter nos, he will tell the emperor that the Mexican expedition is a mistake, and that he ought to withdraw it; but that the national cause here is hopeless, and that the war will end in separation! This I have from his own lips.To W. E. Gladstone, Jan. 1, 1864:—
I begin the year with my acknowledgments of the kindness of your letter, and with my best wishes. A happy New Year to you and to your family! A happy New Year also to all England; for my heart is always with England. Winter has come, and our soldiers are preparing their huts for winter quarters. But I learn that General Grant will not go into winter quarters; he means to trouble the rebellion without giving it time to rest.1 This is more practicable in the milder climate where he is than in Virginia, which is on the isothermal line of Crimea. But our politics seem to have something of the tranquillity of our neighboring army. Never since I have been in public life has there been so little excitement in Congress. The way seems at last open. Nobody doubts the result. The assurance of the future gives calmness. Some who come direct from General Grant declare that the war can be ended on the 4th July next. For myself, I have never seen when this war would be ended; for I was unable to estimate the courage and force the resistance might derive from foreign nations. But it has been clear to me always that there was but one way in which it could end; and I have felt sure that could foreign nations see it in its true light there could be no difference on the question. The rebellion is simply slavery in arms, making pretensions utterly without precedent in history,—revolting, indecent, impious. If the rebellion could in any way be distinguished from this crime, then it might have a chance of success. But I do not believe, I cannot believe, that in this nineteenth century a just Providence will allow such a crime to flourish, or will continue to it the favor of foreign powers. No reverse of arms, no failure or national misfortune, can shake this firm conviction. There have been gloomy days, and it has been hard to see friends cut off, so many victims to slavery supplied, and [the rebellion] encouraged from Europe; but my confidence has not been disturbed. It has often seemed to me that if we had failed, there must have been at the last moment a shudder in England at the awful responsibility of taking by the hand a bloody power, the co-mate of Dahomey; and that the English heart would have said, “No! In the name of Heaven, no!” Meanwhile our own efforts have relieved England from any such final responsibility. But my heart yearns to see the country
