Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1862-01-23

our loyal States. The gentleman from
Ohio is understood, and he is only wasting
his time in beating about the bush, instead
Of slipping off to Dixie.
The Settlement Of the Trent Affair
In the House of Representatives, on the
7th instant, motion having been made to
refer to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
the papers in the Trent affair, which had
been communicated by President Lincoln,
M,. Vallandigham, of Ohio, said /: / avail
myself, sir, of this the earliest opportunity
offered to express my utter and strong con
demnation, as one of the representatives Of
the people, of the act of the Admiuistra'
tiou 10 surrendering up Messrs. Mason and
SIideIl to the British Government Fol-
six weeks, sir, they were held in close Gus
tody 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 q
States, with full knowledge of the man
ner and all the circumstances of their cap.
ture, aud yet in six days after the imperl
ous and peremptory demand of Great Brit.
ain, they were abjectly surrendered upon
the mere rumor even Of the approach of a
hostile feet, and thus for the first time in
our national history have we strutted inso-
leutly in quarrel without right, and then
basely crept out of it without honor; aud
thus for the first time has the American
Eagle been made to COVER before the Brit.
ish Lion.
Sir, vassal or fettered aud terror strick-
en- press or servile and sycophantic politi,
clans in this House or out of it., may ap
plaud the act and fawn and hatter, and lick
the hand which has smitten down our hon.
or into the dust But the people now or
hereafter, will demand terrible reckoning
for this most unmanly surrender. But |
do not trust myself to speak of it COW as
propose some day to speak. I rose only to
put on record my emphatic protest against
it, and to express my deep conviction that
the very war which the other day might
have been avoided by combined wisdom aud
6rmness, is now inevitable
Sir, the surrender may be no fault Of the
Secretary of State, but he has sown, | fear,
the dragons teeth, by this, his fatal dis
patch, and armed war will spring from it, In
the name of God, sir, what does England
want with Mason and Slidell? It was a
surrender of the claim Of the right to seize
them on board her ships, under her flag,
that she demanded, and yet this is the very
thing that Mr.. Seward pertinaciously refu-
ses, aud he only condemns Captain Wilkes
because he did not enforce this asserted
right with greater severity against the Of
Tending neutral ship Why, sir, upon the
principles Of this dispatch, if a merchant
vessel, as at first intended, had been en-
ployed to carry these men out from Fort
Warren to England, she might today have
been arrested on the high seas, aud they
dragged from her deck, provided only she
were forthwith brought back to the port Of
Boston for con6scation.
But more than this. England needs,
do not say wants, war, but she must and
will have it, and this Administration has
acted from the beginning as if it was their
purpose to oblige her iu tito the utmost
Look into your diplomatic correspondence
Look at your stone fleet But etthat pass
Who, l ask, among all the millions of this
country, or even in this House or Senate
or the Administration itself, ia the mids
of the dead calm of stolid security which
seems now to rest over all, has reflected fol
a moment upon the signi6cancy of the e
vents of the passing hours!
4 British man of. war bears to the shores
of Englaud, there to be received 10 tri
umph aud with shouts of exultation as mar
tyrs and heroes, aud with the gustos of the
people of England, and as the proteges ol
their ministers. the very men who, but fo
the rash act of Captain Wilkes and the still
more rash endorsement of the Admlnistra
ton and the country, would six weeks .agt
have been quietly landed from a private
ship in quiet security as rebels and refugees
All Europe echoes now with their names
All Europe will rise up to do them honor
and yet you surrendered them. did you, t
escape the recognition by England of th'
FConfederate States, and your Secretary o
State, with Christian resignation or stoi'
philosophy, calmly rojoices that the effect
uai check upon, and waning proportions O
the insurrection, as we'll as the COM paratlv'
unimportance of the persons concerned
happily enable the Administration, afte
six weeks experiment, to cheerfully iberat'
them, and thus to remove the teteran,i cous
beNi.
Sir, give me leave to say, that the mo
,ncnt they Mason and SIidelD stepped upot
the deck of British man Of war, your prls
oners of State, whoa the other day yol
would have consigned is f,lnn's cells, be
came indeed the envoys and ambassadors o
recognized independent State, and l. pre-
dict here day, in spite of this deep ma
tional humiliation, or rather, perhaps, BE-
cause Of it, and in spite, too, Of the surren
der, without protest, Of the Monroe doc
triue, for forty years the cherished an
proud policy of this Government, in les
than three months you will be at war witt
Great Britain, or else, in the meantime
will have basely submitted to the recogn1
riou of the Confederate States, aud tn
breaking up of the blockade; and if a
war then, with hearts unstruug and hand
jo.,od h, tbis uerv snrrnnder