The Democratic press. (Eaton, Preble County, Ohio) 1860-1865, 1861-12-19

the Ifel9 affair appear in the Lon
don Tines Of Nov. %.
1t requires a strong effort of self.
restraint to discuss with GOODNESS
the intelligence we publish to-day.
An English mail steamer, sailing
under the British flag, and carry
ing letters and passengers from a
Spanish port to England, has been
stopped on the high seas, and over
hauled. Four of the passengers
have been taken out and carried off
as prisoners, claiming, and vainly
claiming, as they we're being forced
away, the protection of the flag of
Great Britain. These are the naked
facts. We put out of sight the &C
cidents that the four gentlemen
thus kidnapped were accredited
with a diplomatic mission from the
Confederate States of America to
the courts of Europe, and also the
peremptory manner in which the
Federal frigate actedin making her
seizure. Is it, then,
true that every officer of the Amer
lean Navy can stop and overhaul
our ships wherever they may be
found, and can take out of them
any persons whom he may claim
to be citizens of the United States
or oficersof the Confederate Gov.
ernmem<g IF we were to admit
the Federal view of their own
position, it would be plain that no
right exists. They tell us that
they are not at war, but are only
putting down a rebellion. They
say, or said, that they + not
blockading their own ports, but
are simply enforcing a law which
has closed the Southern ports as
ports of entry. x Is But this
assumption of the Federal Govern
ment has been disallowed. The
world generally has refused to see
in this disruption and reconstruc-
ton of the North American re-
public a mere rebellion. We have
recognized both republics as belli-
gerent States. We declare neutral
ity between them as between two
warning powers. We mete out a
precise degree of equal considera-
ton for the ships Of war of each.
Whenever the Southern States
shall have given proof of such sta
bility as may make it sure that
they can sustain their independ-
ence, we shall doubtless recognize
them automatically, as we already
do de tactO.
[From the London Chronicle, Nov. IS
The blood of all England will be
reused by the latest intelligence
from America. The Federal au-
thoritics could scarcely have acted
with more lawless violence had
they been mandarins of China.
-Four American citizens have beer
dragged from the shelter of the
British flag, charged with a purely
political ~otfense. How much far
thcr is the patience of this country
to go? The Trent is a royal mail
steamer. 1t had on board Her
Majesty's agent. 1t took Messrs.
Slidell and Mason, with their sec.
retaries, as passengers. 1t was
fired upon and boarded by a Federal
man-of-war; the British standard
was treated with contempt; and
four persons, under the protection
of our national ensign, were made
prisoners merely because the broad.
side of the San Jacinto threatened
immediate destruction to the Trent
We mistake our countrymen if they
will submit to a succession of these
outrages. The Federal lieutenant
can not plead that he heard no pro-
test. Before he consummated his
buccaneeling enterprise Commap'
der Williams had solemnly in.
voked the law of nations against
it as san illegal act, in violation o!
international law-an act of wan
ton piracy" Had there been al
armament in the steamer, he said
the Americans would not have
dared to perpetrate the cowardly
and insoIent crime-for a crime il
was to challenge i'll blood between
nations and insult a power which
for years past, has treated the
braggarts of the North only toe
leniently.
In point of fact the very passen.
gers would have fought mad they
possessed weapons. But the ar.
rest OF the two Commissioners or
Il British deck must not 60 un.
avenged. And what was the pre-.
tense for the felony committed by
Lieutenant Fairfax? He alleged
that the Commissioners of the
Confederate Government were or
board the royal mail steamer Trent
Granted that they were, and what
then? Suppose an Austrian frig.
ate had captured and ransackee
the vessel which brought Loui,
Kossuth to Southampton. Athril
would have passed through the
Kingdom. Suppose the South vic