The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-03-27
THE NATIONAL ERA: WASHINGTON, D. c. MARCH 81, 1856

principles are the same. They have neither
language to separate nor religion to estrange
them. The same blood flows in the veins of
their people. They have common history
common literature common tradition.
They possess the same Bible. They read the
same Shakespeare and the same Milton. Blake
conquered and Cromwell ruled for both. They
have an equal interest in Raleigh, in Vane, and
in Penn. Nay, their present state is as insep-
arabic as their past. They still live by the
light of the same old Saxon laws. They still
drink at the same intellectual fountains, regard
less whether the springs lie on the eastern o.
western shores of the Atlantic. Irving, Bry4
ant, Bancroft, Hawthorne, Longfellow, are Ad-
mired with as warm an affection in England
as are Thackeray, Tennyson, Dickens, Jerrold,
and Macaulay, in America.
"a war between America and England would
be a war of brothers, war of friend against
friend. 1t would be war against the afinities
of race, against the unity of religion, against
the interchanges of trade. 1t would be war
in favor of barbarism, piracy, restriction-a
war against the bounties of Nature, the enter
prises of genius, the advances of civilization.
Such a war would bring sorrow into every An
glo-Saxon home in Europe and America, and
feeling of shame and humiliation into every
Anglo-Saxon heart, in whatever quarter of the
globe it beats. Such war would close the
Gospel for nearly half the Christian world! I"
After abiding to the grounds of controversy,
and insisting that the statesmen of the two
countries "might and must find, in the re-
sources of diplomacy, means of satisfying all
interests, without an insane appeal to the
sword" the writer proceeds:
Z" 1t is said the Washington Cabinet requires
the withdrawal of Mr.. Champion. Surely this
is no extreme or revolutionary request Per-
sonal unpopularity has always been considered
a sufficient reason for requiring the withdrawal
of an ambassador. We could give hundred
instances in which sovereign Powers have ex-
ercised this right. Under such circumstances,
withdrawal does not imply censure. 1t merely
implies that the personal relations OF the ruler
and the minister have become such as to i'm
pede the transaction of public business. We
were wrong in attempting to recruit within the
Union. Mr.. Champion was the instrument OF
the wrong He has thereby rendered himself
an object of suspicion at Washington. His with
drawal, therefore, at the request of the Ameri-
can Cabinet, would be in accordance with usage,
and would be sure pledge of the sincerity of
our acknowledgment of the original error.
Strong nations can afford to be graceful in their
concessions"
The writer concludes as follows-and we
wish writers on this side of the water might
initiate his good sense and manly tone:
In the discussion which will probably arise
in Parliament, and which will certainly be con-
tinued in the press, we trust to see the subject
of these American differences treated with grav.
ity and kindly temper. All men in England,
without exception of party, would deplore, be-
yond all other possible calamities, war with
the United States. We are all proud of her
greatness, her vigilance, her success. Every
event that brings prosperity to her, brings pleas
ure to us. For, is she not our own offspring
the witness of our vitality-the monument of
our arts, our arms, and our liberty?"