The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-15 00:00:00

TIM StTN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 15, 1861

perous, he said ; but they are not the people, and
Pittsburg has hard times before it if the war goes
on, although Government orders come in freely and
give a semblance of life to manufacturing industry.
The mauvais sujets, to be sure, are cleared out of
the large cities into the ranks of the army, but
there are enough left to give trouble if occasion
arises. Some men praise the war, and expect good
results from it in teaching the people useful lessons.
To others it has been a source of wealth and novel
prosperity. One house at Pittsburg had cleared a
considerable sum by selling 1,500 bales of cotton of
surplus stock at 25c. a pound to manufacturers in
Philadelphia who had run out and could get no
other; another had made a fortune by shoe leather;
a third had done well in iron. But on the whole
trade was suffering, and there was no prospect of
relief. There are remarks more frequently heard in
conversation than seen in the public papers or in
patriotic speeches, and people begin to see that, in
the fight for the Union, what each man was proud
of in his individual State may possibly be endan-
gered as much as personal liberty, freedom of the
press, and trial by jury. •
Whenever the doctrine of State Rights is opposed
to the action and proceedings of the Federal Go-
vernment it is at once set at naught, for it is, in
reality, advanced not for the protection of the State
itself, but for the purposes of Secession and of
Southern Confederation, and, in the name of ;the
Union, the Federal Government tramples under
foot a principle which, right enough in the abstract,
is used, in the presence of a state of things to which
it was never intended to apply, as the means of re-
sisting and destroying the Central Government ap-
pointed for all the States. How far State Rights
can ever be restored must be matter for the future.
In the name of Union the Federal Government is
producing a homogeneous condition in the States,
in which the Governors and Legislatures exer-
cise little more power than the Lord-Lieu-
tenants and grand juries of English counties,
and between which there are boundaries not
much more distinct and broadly marked.
Wherever the internal polity of a State in
which the Federal Government had power was
opposed to it, no hesitation has been felt in dealing
with the State as a subject province, in which
martial law and force of arms were the only
rule. The Supreme Court's decisions are of no
avail when there is no power to enforce
them. Exclusive legislation and supreme jurisdic-
tion within their own limits, claimed by the States,
and said to be guaranteed by the Constitution and
by decisions of the Courts, cannot be admitted by
any Power on earth, when both are used to destroy
it ; but it is felt that the Government, which sends
orders by telegraph all over the country to arrest
insignificant persons in places where the Courts are
open and the Judges are sitting, and which refuses
to let the accused go before a jury, is doing more
than is required for self-preservation. I have got
away so far from Freeport that I can only say it
was the limit of my journey westward, and that on
Wednesday last I returned from it on my way to
Washington.
In passing through Ohio there were indications
among my fellow passengers of discontent and ap-
prehension—an idea that Government was going a
little too far, and that Mr. Seward was somewhat
too much of a Grand Vizier in his style of conducting
business. A propos of Mr. Seward, I may observe
that his acquiescence in certain unknown, anony-
mous accusations in secret memorials against me,
and his hypothetical insinuation that I have per-
verted the hospitality I am said to have received, to
the detriment, and have used it for the misrepre-
sentation of Republican institutions, are neither
candid, nor generous, nor " hospitable ;" nor can
they be well reconciled with a spirit of justice when
it is considered that Mr. Seward declares he never
read the letter complained of, and therefore did not
know what it contained, although he appears to
have accepted as true all the representations, what.
ever they may have been, of those who thought fit to
address memorials to him respecting my communica-
tions to you. Before I left Washington I wrote to Mr.
Seward to ask if any such memorials had been re-
ceived, and stated that I was anxious to reply to them,
but the reply from the State Department was that
Mr. Se ward had not seen any such documents as I
referred to. With the matter itself I must leave you
to deal, merely remarking that I utterly deny I have
abused any "hospitality" whatever. Mr. Seward is
surely the last man in the world, or ought to be,
at all events, who would restrict freedom of speech
on the part of a foreigner, even though he may not
be more intelligent or respectable than the other
foreigners who have entered the ranks of an army
which, according to Mr. Lincoln, contains the mate-
rials for whole Cabinets, Ministers, and Generals
wholesale in its file. If he had read the letter
referred to he would have been utterly astonished
at the exceeding absurdity of any charges based
upon it of enmity to the United States or their
theories of government—though I maybe permitted
to say I don't like the lettres de cachet or arrests by
telegram, and then refusal of trial. Let the mem-
bers of an English club picture such a scene as this :
—A body of men in plain clothes march up the
steps, forbid any one to leave the house, place guards
in the hall, take the keys out of the doors, proceed
to tear up the floors, to disturb the cellars and throw
over the coals—refuse to show any warrant to any
of the members, and merely state that they are look-
ing for concealed arms by authority of the Marshal,
and then leave as they came, without the produc-
tion of warrant, or showing in dress, uniform, or
badge that they are really constables, or employed
by any authority whatever. And yet this is what
took place at the Maryland Club in Baltimore the
day of my arrival—a club of the most respectable
gentlemen in the State—without a word of excuse,
explanation, or apology. It is not perverting hos-
pitality, nor is it hostility to republican institutions,
to condemn such acts as these.