The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-22 00:00:00

TIMES.—Mr. Ward Beecher starts with the
assumption that the English are as a nation pecu-
liarly ignorant of American affairs, or incapable of
that sympathy which is necessary to appreciate the
defence of a respectable cause. If we will only be
so good as to look at this war from a Federal point
of view, we shall see at once that the Federals are
in the right, and the Confederates in the wrong.
This is either a very amusing truism, or it means
that we are naturally more inclined to the Confede-
rate than the Federal side. As to the matter of
knowledge, there is no country on which we read
so much, talk so much, and feel so much curiosity,
as the United States. Ordinary Englishmen cer-
tainly know as much of them as they do about
Ireland, and much more than they do about France,
whose capital is only ten hours and a half from our
own. As to feelings, England has long been ready
to swallow her own pride when she had to deal with
the United States. She has accepted their natural
cravings in lieu of justification ; she has admitted in
their case alone that they might reasonably ask for
what was not their own, and has yielded to their
shuffling diplomacy when she saw that her cousin's
heart was too much set on the trifle at issue to be
quietly denied. We may not enter easily into the
v precise point of view from which Russia or France
regards the rest of the world, but we have dealt
charitably with the most enormous pretensions on
the part of the United States. We are not
aware that we ourselves advance any claims of a
sort to elevate England above the brotherhood of
nations. The ocean rule of Britannia means nothing
more than that wide presence of our flag described
by Mr. Ward Beecher. The United States have
long been indulging in that gigantesque vein of pre-
tension which was displayed in the careers of some
ancient monarchs and conquerors, and is still found
in the titles of barbarous Kings. The Monroe-doc-
trine, the unqualified right of annexation, and the
continual allusion to the reign which is to spread
from pole to pole, to shatter all existing institutions
and alter the existing notions of right and wrong,
are the stride, the swing, and the bellow of the
giant. It is easier to admire very large things, and
very large people, than to love them, Russia,
or cuutse, being the next largest, the next moat
ambitious, and the next most unwieldy, can both
admire and love the United States; and as General
Tom Thumb found a mats as small as himself, the
Federals are now happy in a tall friend. But iu
spite of our own Lilliputian proportions, we have
done our best to enter into the American view of
their difficulties, both on this and on all former
occasions. We must only remind Mr. Ward Beecher
that when America boasts to take a peculiar view
of human affairs, and to have an incommunicable
estimate of its vocation, it cannot expect absolute
sympathy from any quarter. Transcendental pre-
tensions repel sympathy instead of inviting it. But
what is Mr. Ward Beecher's own view of the
question ? The revolted provinces, he says, in-
heriting great differences, and being in a diffi-
culty, came to a compromise between confedera-
tion and national unity, which they called the
United States. The name expresses a political
hybrid. It was thought a masterpiece of creative
wisdom, and all the earth was invited to admire
the new birth which had emanated from the
brains of a few successful soldiers and self-taught
statesmen. No doubt it was a very grand experi-
ment, but, as with all experiments, the proof was
in the results. If it worked well, there was
nothing to be said against it, snd mankind had
nothing to do but to wait and see how it acted.
The greatest difficulty is that which Mr. Ward
Beecher describes. Some of the States had an
institution which he pronounces contrary to
the fundamental laws of morality, and therefore,
we may presume, to the Divine will. Mr. Ward
Beecher thinks no words too strong for slavery;
it is a "cancer" in the body politic; it is deadly to
those immediately concerned, and an intolerable
nuisance to all about; it is a hell-hound, and the
Devil himself ; you can't touch it without
danger of moral hydrophobia ; its presence is quite
sure eventually to break up any Constitution, to
divide its supporters or opponents into two irrecon-
cilable antagonists, and lead to its extinction with
a strong hand. But this hideous, intolerable, and
suicidal immorality was recognised and tolerated in
the Constitution of the United States, under the
idea, Mr. Ward Beecher explains, that it would re-
main a domestic institution, and would not come out
of doors, like a shameless profligate, and obtrude
itself on the Government and politics of the Union.
Slavery was to fester and die at home. The poison-
ous plant was to languish and rot in what we at
home call the " chill shade of opposition." Of course
there would be a constant succession of enlightened
Presidents and Cabinets at Washington, and of
course no new Territories or States would give the
upas tree new room to extend its roots and throw
out its pestilential branches. Unfortunately these
hopes have not been fulfilled. The good elements
of the Constitution have not extinguished the evil ;
on the contrary, this hideous congenital disease has
grown with the growth of the Union and strength-
ened with its strength. Nay, more, it has obtained
the mastery; it has usurped the Government ; it
has monopolised office; it has corrupted the seat of
justice; it has spread an underground influence
through the length and breadth of the land ; it has
infected the new territory, and at last left religion
and morality no alternative but to close with the
evil, to amputate the diseased limb, and to exorcise
the foul fiend. But what does all this show, except
that the Constitution was itself an immorality, and
therefore inevitably and deservedly incapable of
lasting long ? Men are driven to form themselves
into " national" combinations for the very reason
that a people who wish to stand before the world
and take a part in its affairs must have full power
to enforce upon themselves their notions of right
and wrong, and of settling for themselves what they
ehall think right and wrong. Society expects con-
sistency in a man, and the world expects consis-
tency in a nation. We do not allow any man, or
any combination of men, to play fast and loose with
any serious question. Whenever the attempt is
made to play two games at once, and grasp at the
advantages open to two opposite courses, there is
sure to come a crisis when it is necessary to decide
between them. The Constitution of the United
States has been lauded to the skies, because it
opened a way to unbounded wealth, a refuge
to all mankind, a path to universal empire,
and the opportunity of a high tone with the
Old-world Governments. Grant that these aims
were worth something, they were worth at least
moral self-command and national sacrifice ; and they
required it. Such aims were not compatible with
the enforced, open, and constitutional toleration of
State laws and usages believed by half the Union
to be as immoral as Mr. Ward Beecher describes
them. Sound policy, whether domestic or in its
foreign aspects, cannot co-exist with more laxity.
The Constitution of the United States is, by Mr.
Ward Beecher's showing, an attempt to divorce the
government of the world from self-government, in
the face of the great maxim that he who would rule
others must first rule himself. But this gentleman
invokes England to assist in carrying out an ex-
periment not only commenced in defiance of her
authority, not only full of menaces to her peace, but
contrary to all those principles of perfect moral and
political unity on which our own Constitution is
framed. We have renounced slavery, and we are
prepared to renounce everything, however profita-
ble, that is once condemned by the public opinion of
the country. That, and that alone, is the ground
ou which we stand with the other nations of the
earth. We do not blow hot and cold, dictating in
one breath, apologising in the next, towering up to
the clouds as a mighty unity one day, and grovell-
ing in the clay as a motley herd the next. Ia so•
ciety we scrutinise closely the qualifications of the
man who gets on stilts and lords it over his neigh-
bours. Mr. Ward Beecher himself knows what we
should say to a man who first overtoped us by a
profitable partnership with vice, and, having firmly
planted himself over our head, implored our assist-
ance to rid him of the evil which, having made his
fortune, now ruined his reputation and spoilt his
repose. The man must do this for himself if he
really wishes to do so, and if he is ready to make
the due amends for his inconsistency. If the United
States cannot settle this question for themselves,
they can no longer claim a national character. The
world will understand and accept a Government
based on slavery; it will also understand and ac-
cept a Government taking a high moral tone, and
opening an asylum to the refugee and the unfortu-
nate. If either State can really govern itself upon
its own principles, and be the unity it seems, then
it will be taken for what it wishes to be. But Mr.
Ward Beecher may rest assured the world will leave
the United States to settle for themselves the ques-
tion whether they are indeed united, or whether
they are only States banded together to bully the
world, but agreeing to disagree on questions of
social morality. It is for the present their own
affair, and least of all nations ours, except in the
inconveniences which we must bear as well as we
can.