The white father.
--If the
North has really backed down, and displayed the white feather before the demand of
England, it is really no great subject of surprise.
A people that never yet consulted honor, pride, honesty, or decency, when a question of interest was concerned, is precisely the people to fall on its knees to
Great Britain in a conjuncture like the present.
It is true that a universal opinion prevailed, founded on the outgivings of such organs of Yankee continent as the
Herald and
Times, that the
British demand would not be listened to. But those sheets are as accommodating as the weather-cock, the slightest breath from the public being sufficient to veer them to opposite points of the compass.
The opinion of the stability of popular opposition to the
British demands was also induced by the known madness and infatuation of the
Puritan mind, and the vast con it cherishes of its power and prowess.
It was not reflected that the interests of the
Yankees lay greatly on the side of peace with
England.
That they did forget this divinity, in commencing their war on the
South, was true; but they commenced it under a delusion.
Their interests demanded the preservation of the
Union.
They saw certain run in dissolution, and they undertook the war in the mistaken conviction that, by making it ‘"short, sharp, and decisive,"’ they could settle the rebellion in a few weeks.
They began the war upon a ‘"calculation"’ of interest, and they did not find out that it was a miscalculation until it became too late.
They still cherish the delusion that, though at great cost of men and money, they can bring back the wealth producing South.
As they commenced the war on us open a miscalculation, so they are continuing it — interest being their inspiring genius in the whole proceeding.
That same interest now requires that they shall concede the demands of
England.
So long as the subject of the ‘"
Trent"’ remained with the public there was no moderation in the rantipole tone of their popular utterances.
Wilkes was a very illustrious hero, and the
British Lion a clawless beast only fit to be kicked and insulted.
They treated the affair, not as a stern, practical reality, but as a subject fit only for a silly furore and rage; suffering themselves to be carried away into such indecent excesses as they went into over Kosauth, the ‘"Japs,"’ Temmy, and the
Atlantic Cable.
The indignant outcry of the
British people and press, however, has startled them from this imbecile folly and phrenzy.
The Cabinet at
Washington had to look the consequences of
Wilkes's act full in the face.
The question was, ‘"Is it our interest to have a war with
England"’ It is clearly not their interest; hence the sudden display all over Yankeedom of the hack-feathers.
The Yankee cock is not the bird to fight when a few grains of corn lie on the outside of the ring.
