The Camden confederate. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1861-1865, 1862-01-17


LANDINeHAM, of Ohio, in the House of Rep
representatives. Of the Rump Congress of the
United States, with reference to the surrender
of MASON and SL1DELL, made on the 7th inst ::
In the House of Representatives on the 7th
inst, motion having been made to refer to
the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the papers
in the Trent affair." which had been commune
Gated by President Lincoln, Mr.. Vanllandic-
ham, of Ohio, said: l avail myself Sir, of the
earliest opportunity offered to express my utter
and strong condemnation, as one of the repre-
scntatives of the people, of the act of the ad-
ministraton in surrendering up Messrs. Mason
and Slidell to the British Government. For
SIX weeks, Sir, they were held in close custody
as traitors of the United States, by order of
the Secretary of State, and with the approval
and applause of the press, of the public men,
OF the Navy Department. of this House, and
of the people of the United States, with a
full knowledge of the manner and all the cir
cumstanccs of their capture, and vet in six davs
after the imperious and pcrcmptorv demand of
Great Britain, they were abccty surrendered
upon the mere rumor even of the approach of
hostile fleet, and thus for the first time in our
national history have VIC strutted insolcntlv in
a quarrel without right, and then basclv crcpt
out of it without honor, and thus for the first
time has the American Eagle been made to
cover before the British Lion.
Sir, vassal and terrorstrckcn press of ser
vile and sycophant politicians in this House or
out of it, may applaud the act and fawn and
tiatter, and lick the hand which has smittcn
lis down in the dust. But the people now or
hereafter will demand a terrible reckoning for
this most unmany surrender. But ] do not
trust myself to speak of it now as | propose
some day to speak rose ouly to put on re-
cord my emphatic protest against it, and to cx-
press my deep conviction that the very war
which the other day might have been avoided
by combined wisdom and frmness, is now in
cvitable
Sir, the surrender may be no fault of the
Secretary of State, but he has sown, fear, the
dragons teeth, by this, his fatal despatch, and
armed war will spring from it. In the name
of God, Sir, what does England want with Ma
son and Slidcll? 1t was a surrender Of the
claim of the right to seize them on board her
ships, under her flag, that she demanded, and
this is the very thing that Mr.. Seward pcrtna-
ciously refuses, and he only condemns Captain
Wilkes because he did not enforce this assert
cd right with greater severity against the Of
Tending neutral ship. Why, Sir, upon the
principles of this despatch, if a merchant YES
sci, as at first intended, had been employed to
carry these men ont from Fort Warren to En-
gland, she might to-day have been arrested on
the high seas'and they dragged from her deck,
provided only she were forthwith brought back
to the port of Boston for confscation.
But more than this, England needs, do not
say wants, a war; but she must and will have
it, and this administration has acted from the
beginning as if it was her purpose to oblice
her ILL it to the utmost Look into your diDlo
matte correspondence. Look at your stone
fleet. But let that pass. Who, ask, among
all the millions of this country, or even in this
House or Senate, or the Administration itself
in the midst Of the dead calm of .stolid securi-
ty which seems now to rest over all, has rctlcc-
ted for moment upon the significancy of the
passing hours +?
a British man of war bears to the shores of