Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-10-25
From ths london Times, October

AID their country. They will discover in
cooler moments and on more sober Thoughts
that our opinions have been shaped by events,
and that If our sympathies have occasionally
wavered there was good reason for the oscil-
lation. IF they wish even now to track the
variations of feeling on this side of the At
lantic, we can help them in doing so, and we
here place before them, without dissimula-
ton or prejudice, an outline Of British
opinion,
At the first intelligence of rupture between
the North and South there was but one feel
ing in this country, and that was a feeling of
regret at the dismemberment of kindred
and friendly State, and at the contemplated
approach of war between two sections of
prosperous and powerful Union. If in any
quarters it was thought that the partition of
a domineering Republic might not be unat-
tended with advantage 10 its neighbors, the
idea was considerably suppressed, and it
was evident from the unanimity of the press
and the tone of Parliamentary debate that
the one preponderatiHg sentiment was one
of good viii to the American people and
sorrow for the troubles coming upon them.
At that time, too, as far as any proposes
sions existed, they were certainly in favor of
the North.
We were so resolutely neutral in the mat
ter, and our neutrality was based on such
obvious principles Of wisdom, that avowals
of psrtiality were rarely made, but there was
undoubtedly nothing in the Southern cause
to attract our sympathies, while there was
much to repel them. The Southerners were
slave owners, and slavery (the very abomi-
nation Of EDglishmen) was conceived to be
the sole cause of the war. The conduct,
again, of the Secessionists offended all our
national ideas of political fair play. The
Southern party had been beaten in an open
constitutional election, with which they did
y,o,o -, g. I ,,,IE
cept that they were left at the bottom of the
poll. 1t might have been even said that it
was their turn to lose, for they had long en-
ioyed almost monopoly of Office and power.
When, therefore, upon the success of their
opponents, they threatened to secede from
the Union, they appeared like men who could
not take beating, and who were willing to
sacrifice the interests of a great nation to
| their own vindictive resentments. More
over, they were in no great favor with us, to
| begin with. We knew full well that when
! the policy of the American Government had
| been rudest and most arrogant that Govern
ment was administered by Southern states
men, and the disgrsceful system of repudia-
ton, if not without examples in the North,
was commonly identified with the principles
of the South. IT. therefore, our overruling
| feeling had not been against war alto
! gether, very large majority Of the public
! would have wished to see the North success
full in the strife.
In q short time, however, certain change
undoubtedly came over the spirit of opin-
ion, and it proceeded in the first place from
the conduct of the Northerners themselves
Their behavior toward us was so unwar-
rantable, their menaces were so insolent, and
their eXactions were so fierce and irrational
that it became impossible to regard them
wiihthe same disposition as before. Because
we would not abruptly stigmatize as rebels
and pirates the very men whom but few
days previously they themselves had been
treating as brethren still, they threatened
us with eternal enmity, and suggested thai
all Americans should at once shake hands, il
only for the purpose Of making war upon
England. They required that we should
hold ten millions of people fighting for indie
pendence as q worthless insurrectionary
rabble, and that we should not even recog
nize as beligerent power Confederation
which was holding the supreme Government
in check with two hundred thousand sol
diers. All this while, too, the South, partly
by the accidental operation of events, and
partly, perhaps, through the policy of its
leaders, was OUTLYING its original discredit
and winning a way to something like favor
The very silence and secresy in which it
proceedings were wrapped, had the effect o
obviating'all occasions of scandal.
Perhaps, if the rulers at Richmond had
been as loud-tongued and demonstratiVe a
the rulers at Washington, they would hav
exposed themselves to the same kind of criti
cism but, as it was, their sayings and doing
escaped potoriety and censure together
When, therefore, the SouthernerS, withou
bluster or bombast, but with a stern anC
quiet determination, took their position il
array against the Northern invaders, anC
when, though the weaker and less preten
tious party, they succeeded in repulsng tb
grand army OF those who would not eve
allow them the title of belligerents, it wa
not in human nature to view such an achieve
ment without certain amount of admira
, ton. The check, indeed, thus administers
to the gasconading spirits of the North wa
calculated to do them good SERVICE and tn
! defeat at Manassas has already proved usefu
But the one great fact which swayed En
glish opinion was the decided and tnultiforn
antagonism between North and South
which time and events combined to disclose
AS the contest proceeded it became perfectl
plain that President Lincoln's election ha
served as the occasion, but not the cause, G
the quarrel. The rupture had originated, nc
in a single political reverse, but in incompat
, Utilities of temper, conflict of interests, d
> versity of institutions, and such other differ
, ences as have always tended to the disruI
3 ton of heterogeneous States or unWield
= Empires.
, The secession had been contemplated an
threatened for some thirty years past
was defended by arguments as good as hsv
been usually advanced for national Insured
tions, and if it was in opposition to the die
tates of political wisdom it was in conformit
with the passions OF human nature. Th
} States of the old American Union woul
t | perhaps have been more prosperous at HON
! | and certainly more formidable abroad,
, they had remained united; but the same ma
, be said of the States of all the Empires whc
! have ever fallen to pieces. Union is strengt
: always and everywhere, and the larger Il
y population that can be retained under the
conditions the greater will be the resul
s But it happens that these considerations al
5 not allowed to prevail against influences of
/ | more immediate kind. The vision of ind
pendence is more attractive than the Visio
of power. The people of the Southern STATE
are only doing what the people of a hundre
other States have done before them. The
= may be short sighted, but they are dete
> mined. They may be mistaken, but thr
! know their own minds They may be wron
but they are ten millions. The FederaliG
6 themselves admit right of insurrectiOn, b
|, they deny that insurrection can be justif
e in. the present instance. ..
That argument, however, can never stan
!; 1t is absurd 70 say that rebellion is a saer
IS popular privilege, but that it can only be e
No ercised with the assent Of those against who
it would be directed. The Emperor of Ri
sa might admit the doctrine as thus state
i If people have right to rebel against go
ie ernments, it must be when they think fifth
Is and not when the governments allow it.
10 So long as the insurrecion OF the Sou