Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-12-18
Written for tho Cincinnati Pressl
Now and Then; Or, EnaIIsh Ships OF War
versus Yankee Cock boats,


Those of us who are old enough to remem-
ber the occurrences of 1928, can not fail
to recognize a great similarity in the tone of
certain portions of the British press at that
period and the same press at the present
time.
Then, every Yankee "cock boat" as the
writer's of that day thought it smart to dig
nifty our few ships of war, was to be instantly
swallowed up by the mighty leViathans Of
the deep, the war-ships Of Old England.
Well, what of it2 we kept pretty cool, kept
our powder dry, and bided our time. One
after another of those Yankee "cock-bosts"
encountered one of the wooden walls Of Eng
land, and the naughty banner of st. George
and the Dragon dipped in honor of the
stripped bunting. The history Oft he skirmish
we had with England then is familiar to our
people. There is nothing in that history to
cause the descendants of the men of that day
to blush. Let us not be rash. If we are right in
the position taken, DO mere bluster should
induce us to back down, though all the press
of England should cry out for the annihila-
ton of the "few" Yankee ships of war by
iron. clad ships of our trans Atlantic cousins.
We may survive the loss of every one of our
national ships; and England would probably
event, in case of war, not altogether proble-
matical, all things considered. But let us
be calm. Nothing is to be gained by bluster.
We can afford to be digni6ed, at least. If
we have contravened the expressly admitted
law of nations, by taking from vessel under
the flag of a neutral, two notorious rebels,
let US make the dmende honorable, as becomes
of great nation, with dignity. We can
very we'll spare hundreds of such traitors as
Mason and Slidell. But never let us back
down from the hundredlh part of hair,
from single right, at the naughty bidding
of all the powers of earth-though they
should menace us with iron. clad war ships,
or with raising our blockade of the Southern
ports, to obtain few thousand bales of cot.
ton
If proud England desires to verify the
sarcasm of the first Napoleon, when he char
acterized her as "nation of shopkeepers,' u
let her go to war with US to keep her spin
dies running. Will she do it2 Will she, on
a mere punctilio, bury her glories in cotton
| bags, or seek for renown in tanning the
| flames of treason and rebellion with a nation
| 20 useful to her as she is ever pleased to ad.
| nit the Yankee nation to be2 May be So
but l, for one, will not believe it. II be,
hooves her to do a certain amount of violen
rhodomantsne writing-it is her common
nature-her common national aliment, vel
| un0erStO0Q Dy ali Jne WOflQ-a9 common al
it is for Durham short-horn of the most ap
proved breed to below whenever he smell
blood, Let us be calm. Let us wait anC
learn W hat the burden of his grief is befor
we condemn him for airing his dignity by
little commonplace bluster. This is a gam,
THAT we, as people, are 10 mean adopts al
We are great boosters, no doubt. We have
we think q sort of patent right to do am
amount of this harmless folly, and gaping!
wonder that other portions of Christendon
don't see the rationale of so much domesti
virtue in us ..
The times are sufficiently pregnant will
danger to our institutions without courtiDj
an accession, by adhering to aOrong princi
pie, and though l would be the last to yield
when right, would by no means counte
nance a course of tame submission at th
dictation of any power on earth. We cal
well afford to be just, without the sacrifc
of national honor. Therefore, say, let u
be calm, and keep our powder dry, If wors
comes to worse, as the Old people say, W
shall know it soon enough to get ready q
we are not now to meet the double conflict
1t would be useless TO speculate on the prob
able result to ourselves, to England, or tina
portion of our country in rebellion. Ireiter
ate the expression that we await calmly th
development of facts that will very soon pre-
sent the case, in all its workings, TO arbitrs
ment of the nation. When that time arrives
there can be but one opinion.
A SOLDIER OF 1925,