The American question in England — Lincoln's message.
the opinion of the London Times.
[From the London Times. Dec. 18.]
The style of the
American President has fallen with the fortunes of the
Republic.
Instead of the jolly, rollicking periods of former days, each of which seemed to suggest at its close a stave of ‘"
Hall Columbia,"’ we have now got a discursive and colloquial essay, ill arranged and worse exp Nor does the matter redeem the style.
It is really wonderful, when we consider the present state of the
American Republic, how any one placed in the position of
Mr. Lincoln could have taken the trouble to produce so strange a medley, so in composite a rhapsody.
There are several subjects on which we earnestly desire information, and on no one is it afforded.
Above all things, we want to know what view the
American Cabinet takes of the affair of the
Trent, what advice it has received from its legal counselors, and with what feeling it approaches the coming controversy.
On this point there is not a word.
Then, we should like to hear a little of the financial measures by which the equilibrium between revenue and expenditure is to be preserved in the face of so vast an outlay.
We should like to know what measures the
President proposes to adopt with regard to the slave population of the
Southern States; whether, with one half of his Cabinet, he is for emancipation, or, with the other half of his Cabinet, for a maintenance of the rights of the slave owner.
On these points our oracle is silent.
It is not easy to see why
Mr. Lincoln should have omitted from his speech all nce of the case of the
Trent.
If he means to give up the persons illegally seized, one would have thought it no unwise precaution to prepare the public mind for such a decl If he means to keep them, we cannot understand why he does not grasp the popularity that is to be had in present war and in ad of showing it to be picked up by obscure members of Congress embarking in a contest whether the transcendent merits of
Com. Wilkes would be best rewarded by by a gold medal.
Possibly the simple solution may be that the
President has as yet arrived at no solution at all and that, perplexed by the divisions of his Cabinet, he has been content to let the matter alone till events shall determine for him that which he is unable or unwilling to determine for himself.
will not have long to wait.
Each successive mail brings us the report of some instance in which the
American nation is step by step, committing itself to a war policy with
England, till, when challenged for its final decision, it will probably find that it has gone too far to have any power of retraction.
The Government has re ceived the
Admiralty, has thanked
Commodore Wilkes, and Congress has now given the seal of its approbation to a proceeding so deeply offensive to
Great Britain.
It is hardly possible to imagine a Government sunk so far below its duties and responsibilities as to allow all this to go on and make no sign either of assent or dissent.
The President is bound to lend his aid in guiding the Legislature to a true decision on a matter so nearly touching the duties and the character of the
Executive.
He ought to set before it the principles involved in the question, and to give it every opportunity in his power of arriving at a conclusion conformable to the real interests of the country.
He has done nothing of all this and has abandoned the vessels of the
State to drift helpless, before the gale of popular clamor. * * * * *
No wonder that
Mr. Lincoln, luxuriating in the Paradise to which the will of an unbridled democracy has introduced him, and looking forward to a desperate struggle with
England, brought about apparently by the same cause, should feel a pious horror of those who venture to think such experience not conclusive, and the existing
Constitution of the United States a little short of perfection!
We have nothing to say for slavery, but if
Mr. Lincoln's description of the
South is indeed true, if she is fighting to emancipate herself from the blind tyranny of a degraded mob, from the elective Judges and elected Governors, he has given his antagonists a better title to
European sympathy than they have hitherto possessed, and throws upon his Government the stigma of fighting to impose upon her other institutions which have already brought it to the verge of ruin.
But the most remarkable part of
Mr. Lincoln's speech is that in which he touches the relations of his Government with foreign countries.
The fact seems, on his own showing, to be, that all foreign countries have hitherto preserved a strict neutrality; that they have resisted all applications from the
South to make common cause with it against the
North; and that they have quietly submitted to a blockade which grievously injures their commerce and manufactures.--These facts would have called forth from the chief of any other Government in the world, Repu anarchical, a gracious and courteous acknowledgment of the respect and forbearance with which a nation, not remarkable for carrying either of these qualities to excess, has been treated by all other nations in its hour of trial.
Nothing can be more ungracious, more contrary to the usual conditions of international courtesy, than the language with which
President Lincoln repays the consideration extended to him: ‘"These nations,"’ he says, ‘"appear as yet not to have seen their way to their objects"’--that is, the restoration of commerce-- ‘"more directly or clearly through the destruction than through the preservation of the
Union."’
This is a broad insinuation that foreign nations are actuated by the meanest and most selfish motives, and
Mr. Lincoln is content, as he cannot deny that we have hither to done right, to express a suspicion that we did so for reasons we can not avow without shame.
it is not wonderful that a notice of foreign relations begun in this spirit should end in the exhortation with which we are already familiar in the circular of
Mr. Seward, to fortify the seacoast, the great lakes and rivers.
After all, says
Mr. Lincoln, ‘"the safety and stability of the
Republic depend, not on foreign nations, but upon ourselves."’ That is perfectly true at this moment, because foreign nations earnestly desire peace and to avoid all occasion of quarrel, but it will cease to be true the moment that America has forced us into a war, for one of the many evils of war is that a nation is deprived by it of the control of its own destinies, and forced to shape its course, not by its own will, but by the decision of war itself.
Opinion of the report of Secretary Welles--the blockade a failure, and the "Stone fleet" a crime against the human kind.
[From the London Times, December 17.]
* * * * * * * * *
We turn, then, to the report of
Mr. Gideon Welies, the
Secretary, to the
Federal Navy, for explanation of these hollow or enigmatical, phrases in which
Mr. Lincoln boasts that the
American Navy, created since the present difficulties began, has performed deeds which have increased the naval renown of the
U. S. No nation has less reason to underrate the renown of the
American Navy than Since that it rests almost capture of three or four English frigates under circumstances of extraordinary disparity, and seeing also that its victories were gained entirely by English sailors who had been seduced from our service by a disparity in the fate of wages, which, if our Admiralty is not absolutely insane, will never again occur, we have the best possible reason for respecting that renown.
Our difficulty is to discover how that renown has been increased by the events of the civil war. That
Mr. Gidson Welles has used a certain industry in the department under his control, we are quite prepared to admit.
He tells us that on the 4th of March last the effective American navy consisted of only forty-two vessels of all classes, carrying 555 guns and about 7,500 men — a very small navy for a power which proposes to defy all the navies of the world and to take liberties with the commercial ships of all nations.--He says that at the date of his report he had increased this small naval force to two hundred and sixty-four vessels and 24,000 seamen.
This is creditable to
Mr. Welles as an official man, but the result is not exceedingly terrible, especially when he proceeds to tell us how this has been accomplished, by hiring all sorts of commercial vessels an, gathering together every floating thing that would carry a gun. These figures represent a naval force which would be very terrible to
Prussia, which might alarm the fleet of
Italy, and which would call for an effort from
Spain, but which
France could easily destroy, and
England cannot but hold exceedingly cheap.
This is not the navy of a first-class Power, it is enough for a people who desire to be at peace, but it is ridiculous for a people who insist upon being quarrelsome.
A little man who holds his own against a big man who is trying to bully him has every bystander's sympathies in his favor, but nothing is more contemptible than a little man who is noisy and offensive only in reliance upon the impunity which he expects on account of his own weakness and the generosity of those whom he insults.
To sustain the pretensions of Federal statesmen to insult all neutral nations,
Mr. Welles's increased navy is still but a contemptible flotilla.
Very different, however, is its forces as proportioned to the enemy with which it is immediately matched.
The
Confederate States have no navy at all. Against them the navy of
Mr. Welles is as a giant against a dwarf Within the last few months the
Federal Government has had 26 ½ ships and 24,000 men, and their enemies only two or three wretched privateers, and some craft fitted for inland navigation.
Yet we believe that the
Sumter is still plundering the
Federal commerce, and we know that the
Harvey Birch was burnt close to our own shores; we see a ‘"sensation heading"’ in the last New York papers that ‘"the
Federals are blockading the channel of
Tybee Island, and
Fort Pulaski,"’ and we have
Mr. Welles's own testimony, that although his navy ‘"continued to capture every rebel vessel which showed itself on the
Potomac,"’ it ceased to do so ‘"when the rebels erected batteries on sundry points of the
Virginia shores, and thereby rendered passage on the river dangerous!"’ We confess that we are compelled to look beyond these facts to discover the reasons for the tone of congratulation which runs through
Mr. Welles's report, and to deserve he increase of renown claimed for the
Federal navy by
Mr. Lincoln.
Mr. Welles himself seems to think some further explanation necessary.
He urges, therefore, the onerous duties of blockading a coast of three thousand miles in length, of the active pursuit of privateers, and of the organization of naval expeditions.
This is all very well, but it is necessary to show that these duties have been accomplished.
The naval expeditions have, in deed, reached their destination, but, as they had no enemy worth the name of an enemy to meet, the renown of the
Federal navy cannot be much raised by what was little more than transport service.
The privateers have, as we said before, not been taken.
The blockade has been notoriously a failure that nothing but the extraordinary scrupulousness of the
European powers has allowed it to continue.
Ships have passed and out at all times just as they pleased, and, so far as the harbors are concerned there has never been any difficulty on getting in them or getting out of them.
The Federal Government has emphatically admitted the failure of their naval blockade, of barbarity which is unpa ed of national wa may have actually endeavored to undo what
Columbus had done shut up from all mankind over the ports which the great discoverer opened to the human race, destroy by artificial impediments the gates by which men of all and pass out of some millions of of fertile and productive hands.
This is a crime against all human kind.
If it does not call down universal opposition it is only the enterprise is believed to be impossible as its design is exe able
nearly exhausted the deeds of the
American navy during this eventful year.
One act, however, yet remains unnoticed, and it is just possible that it may form the staple of
Mr. Lincoln's general and very guarded allusion to the great addition of renown so recently acquired.
This is the which has made the
Mayor of
Boston and the
Governor of
Massachusetts eloquent with exultation, and which has excited even the House of Representatives to gratitude.--This act is thus dealt with by
Mr. Gidson Welles; ‘"
Capt. Cons Wilkes, in command of the
San Jacinto, while searching in the
West Indies for the
Sumter, received information that
James M. Mason and
John Slidell, disloyal citizens, and leading conspirators, were, with their unite, to embark from
Havana in the English steamer
Trent, on their way to
Europe to promote the cause of the insurgents Cruising in the
Bahama channel, he intercepted the
Trent on the 8th of November and took from her these dangerous men whom he brought to the
United States.
His vessel having been ordered to refit for service at
Charleston, the prisoners were retained on board and conveyed to
Fort Warren, where they were committed to the custody of
Colonel Dimmick, in command of that Fortress.
The prompt and decisive action of
Captain Wilkes on this occasion merited and received the emphatic approval of the department, and, if a too generous forbearance was exhibited by him in not capturing the vessel which had these rebel enemies on board, it may, in view of the special circumstances, and of its patriotic motives, be excused; but it must by no means be permitted to constitute a precedent here-after for the treatment of any case of similar infraction of neutral obligations by foreign vessels engaged in commerce or the carrying trade."’
There is no disputing the boldness of this act, nor, indeed, the boldness of this threat; but whether it is likely to increase the renown of the
Federal navy future events yet must show.
Mr. Welles will want more than 24,000 men to make good these foolish words.
That he can get more, and will get more, we are well aware; for we do not undermine the power or energy of our rugged kinsmen if they put their heart in a matter; but he will get little ‘"renown"’ for his deportment in such a cause as that he so unnecessarily proclaims, or against the antagonist he so rashly defies.
If either the discretion of
Mr. Welles or the ability of
Mr. Lincoln is to be estimated by their State papers, they are not enemies greatly to be reared either in national or in civil warfare.
England Contemplates a war in any event.
[London (Dec, 13.) Correspondence of the Manchester Guardian.]
The conviction forces itself upon many that the day in not far distant when the
Southern Confederation must be recognized; and that recognition may be expected to bring about a fresh difficulty, in which we must be prepared to maintain our policy.
It is with this view, and as a demonstration of our intention to hold our own way, that the
Government are sending out 10,000 men to
Canada without any reference to the reply of the
American Cabinet.
If
Messrs,
Mason and
Slidell landed at
Liverpool to-morrow not a soldier the less would be sent out.
If we are to have a war with the
North, in connection with this
United States schism, there could be no more favorable time than the present.
It would be a short and decisive war, and would have a vital influence on the preservation of peace and the uninterrupted freedom of commerce for many years to come, without our having to pass through the ordeal of social and mercantile confusion which wars as a general rule entail.
Our military departments are working double time.
The clothing establishment at P was at full work all last night and the preceding one.
It is a very common anticipation among persons of
Canadian experience that a war with this country is likelier to end in our acquisition of
Portland than in the capture of
Montreal by the
Federal armies.
Many case, there are cations of our
Canadian frontier which can scarcely fail to follow upon war. The States frontier, as settled by the
Ashburton Treaty, closely hugs the post-age road — our
Canadian highway from the coast — along a great length.
The
United States have two for ports close upon that road, which would have to be taken at the outbreak of a war, as well as Cape , (which they have been lately strengthening,) within thirty miles or so of
Montreal.
The
London Observer, of the 22d of December, (unmaterial organ,) says that
England wishes for peace, but that she will gain by war, as it will enable her to rectify her American frontiers, open the ports of the
South, and give a lesson to the
United States.
