The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-24 00:00:00

RECOGNITION OF THE SOUTH.

The following extract is from a paper written by
the Hon. W. B. Reed, of Philadelphia, late United
States minister in China, and published in the
Index :--" These I frankly avow to be my wishes
and opinions as to the immediate future. They aim
at once at peace ; and when, without: offence or dis-
respect, the questions are put me whether I would
give up without a struggle the Union and govern-
ment which two years ago existed, and how, if the
power were mine, I would arrange the terms of re-
cognition and separation, I now have no difficulty
in answering. In the first place, I think there has
been a struggle with at most a questionable suc-
cess ; and if the choice be between the continu-
ance of the war, with its attendant suffering
and demoralisation, certain miseries and uncer-
tain results, and a recognition of the South-
ern Confederacy, I am in favour of recognition—
of course making the abolition party responsible
for this dread necessity. The blood of the Union is
on them. If it be a choice between the slow, but
ultimately successful conduct of the war, the sub-
jugation of the Southern states, their tenure as
mere military provinces, involving, of course, a
radical change in the political organisation of the
triumphant North, so as virtually to abrogate state
rights and create a centralised domination with all
the heresies of the day engrafted and peaceable re-
cognition, I still prefer recognition. To continue a
war to the bitter end of mutual ruin for a mere
point of honour, or from temper, is mischievously
absurd. The moment a practical result becomes
impossible, as I think it now is, the war ought to
cease ; and it is the part of true statesmanship to
dis,ern in advance when the moment is coming.
If the inquiry be further pressed as to how I
would arrange the terms of pacification and re-
cognition, and adjust the difficulty of boun-
daries and river rights, my answer is I would begin
by a cessation of hostilities and an armistice for a
fixed period, not too short. It is the idlest of delu-
sions to imagine that in the heat and smoke of
actual conflict we can make our plans for the future,
or even see what that future is likely to be. If arms
were laid down for a time, there would be a repug-
nance to take them up again, which of itself would
be favourable to satisfactory adjustment. This, I
am quite aware, is but postponing the inevitable
decision which sooner or later must be made ; and
I do not hesitate to say that, dodge and defer as we
may, in my opinion the decision—l mean as to
limits, and possibly as to debt—must be made by
the States and their citizens, acting as they did
when seventy years ago they entered into the
Federal compact. There is no other conceivable
mode. Maryland and Kentucky, after all, each_
for herself, will have to determine where her lot
shall be cast, and what her pecuniary liability must
be, whether for a share of the Federal or of the
Confederate debt, or whether to be exempt from
both. What Maryland and Kentucky do Pennsyl-
vania and Ohio have a right to tip. This settled
the question of boundaries, and nothing else will ;
and if the decision involves the abandonment of
Washington, and leaving it a monument of what
was once the capital of a great republic, be it so. I
would rather see it a ruin than what it is now—a
garrison town of an uncertain frontier—a mere bar-
rier fortress—a huge encampment of half-tenanted
houses, deserted by respectable inhabitants, and
given up to the occupation of soldiers and contrac-
tors, and disreputable men and women of all descrip-
tions. These are sad realities, but they must 'be
looked at. Our mistake all along has been a reluc-
tance to look realities in the face,"