Worcester daily spy., 1861-12-16


Letter from Me. Gushing.
Hon. Caleb Cushirg has addressed a learned
and elaborate letter to the mayor Of New York,
fully sustaining the act Of Capt Wilkes in the
seizure OF those emissaries of treason,-Mason
and Slidell lie holds that the true aud tena-
hle ground of justification is the fact that they
were diplomatic ministers Of the government
of the insurgent states, and as such commits
stoned and accredited to Great Britain and
France To this point he applies in clear
and impressive manner the doctrine OF the law
of nations as practiced aud understood by the
courts and publicists Of Great Britain, and an
ticipates many Of the causes Of censure and
complaint which have been received from
England since the letter was written. The re
suit to which he arrives is concsely stated in
the closing paragraph, as follows -
"To conclude, then: In my judgment, the
act of Capt. Wilkes was one which any and
every selt-respectng nation must and would
have done, by its own sovereign right and
power, regardless OF consequences 1t was an
act which, it cannot be dOuoted, Great Britain
would have done under the same circum-
stances. AT tie same time, it was an act amp
ly justified by the principles and doctrines OF
international Jurisprudence. We may well
regret that occasion Tor tile act has occurred,
and that the seizure needed to be done from
on board a vessel, and still more a mail-pack-
ct, OF Great Britain, with whom, for all posi-
BILE reasons, we desire TO continue on the foot
ing Of cordial amity But, Messrs Mason ard
Shdell not having been embarked on bOarc OF
the Trent by the British government, that
hoe $40. ,fiaD DIalh
the seizure. The Trent, her officers acting on
their own Responsibility, could have no i'm
munity from the ordinary laws OF war, which
affect the vessels Of a great power equally as
of a small one and Great Britain cannot fail,
| think, to perceive that,-as no offence was
intended to her in the matter, and as the rights
Of belligerency were exercised by Captain
Wilkes in the most moderate form, without
seizure of mails, without bringing in as prize,
without injury to private property her ma,
tional pride and her national honor conspire to
dictate the most amicabIe construction OF this
inevitable act of the sovereignty and belliger-
ent right of the United States
MIR. Gushing, ip another portion of his letter,
makes interesting personal alIusion to himself
and to some OF the incidental questions which
the exigencies of the war have brought into
the front of public debate. He says -
"My voice is that of political proscrpt for
opinions sake. 1t may avail nothing, al this
hour But, if / might presume, at this time
to address my countrynien, l would eXhort
them TO cease from cavlIling with foreign gov
ernments as TO the name to be given to this
portentous thing, which rises terribly before
us, the awful fact Of this great struggle in the
heart of the United States, on the one hand to
disrupt and on the other hand TO uphold, the
integrity Of the Union IL would entreat them
to ascend to the majesty OF the occasion in
the legal and political relations Of the times,
as they have noby manifested their purposes
to do in the military ones 81 would implOre
them to consider that civil war is not the less
WAR, with its rights and its duties on both
sides, with its calamities, but nevertheless,
its triumpbs, its grandeur, its gallantry, and
its glory; Il would pray them to Danish
from their thoughts ali imDrdctcdJie schemes
Of revolutionary social change, under the mis-
applied name of the Union, and to look only
to the sanctity of the constitution; IL would
admonish them that, in such crisis, il is the
paramount duty Of all men to rally around
the president, as the necessary and only pos
sible center Of political order, and the young
commandments as the single existing ceu-
ter OF military order; and would proclaim
to them that the Union is to be rescued from
the perils which menace it, peace and happi-
Ieoo dtt ~ De ISSlOIEu u tLle CDuiitiJ 4, fOt W
any unconstitutional tamperiag Oih the subject
races Of tie iaSugeat states, but by winning bat
tles-battes in The field OF tonor-batties Of
brave men to encounter brave men-great bat
ties, to pale in the brightness Of their fame
that of the greatest and hottest days OF the
New or the Old World. Tia; would be some
thing fit to live for--that would be something
for which it would be filter still 10 die. God
forbid, at all events, that we should tread i'll
that fatal path which other great governments
have trod in modern times, when visited by
civil war and threatened by disruption that
is, to plunge wantonly into conflict with neu-
tral governments on minor and Incidental ques-
tions, as Great Britain and Spain did, in like
circumstances, and SO to consummate the dis.
solution OF the Union. Let us, on the contra
ry, think only to keep ourselves spotless be-
fore the world that thus, come what else may I,
our beloved country shall emerge purified from
the fire of affection, sanctifed by suffering,
with loftier and nobler tl,robs Of national life
than heretofore, and ready to resume, reinvig.
GRATED, the career OF greatness, side by side
with the proudest of the powers Of Europe.