Delaware State journal and statesman., 1863-10-16
DELAWARE STATE JOURNAL FRIDAY

10 those against whom il is urged, and which
aims 10 establish future relations of the closest
alliance. Senator Summers chief reproach il
lhis-that we have acted unworthily Of our-
selves; unfaithfuly to our deepest convictions
anu bert memories. We can surely afford to be
as severe IN our self-jndgment as be is in his
sharpest accusations.
The civil war had no sooner begun than wa
recognized the Coniederates as belliqcrents. In
That we were entirely baneless, as IL nation, of
intent to irJure or aifront tho Federal cause
Ihe Warmest friends Of the Union acquiesced in
II almost as n matter of course. We DO not re-
member that single voice, among the many
which have protested against recognition Of
southern independence, protested against the
recognition of the South as an armed Power.
THOSE to whom II was distasteful, assented to
~ as 'ehding rather to soothe than to aggrayate
the strife
1t was commonly remarked among US, when
we found it resented in the loyal States, that we
hau done no more than the Federal Government
itself. The officers Of the Union recognized the
oincers OF the Conlederacy by their military
ll'les' arranged with them for the exchange of
prisoners, aud acted generally in recognition of
equality between the bellgerents, The Queens
proclamation OF neutrality seemed the equitable
and friendly supplement to that act
MIR. Sumner recalls fact which We would
excuse. The recognition was hurried even to
the verge Of bad faith. 1t bears date so early
as May, 1861, only two months after President
Lincoln was inaugurate1 and few weeks after
the iall OF Fort Sumter. Immediately that the
rebellion broke out, and before the National
Government had put forth its strength in a
single act of repression, we acknowledge the
equality Of the new Government with the old, of
an lnelplenl insurrection with a majestic and
friendly Power
In the Cabinet it was deiberated upon and
decided with full consciousness of what il i'm
plled. 1t was purposely premature. 1t was in
tentonally offensive to the one party, and pleas
ing to the other. Mr. Adams came-bearug n
name that was in itself credential to all free
English hearts-tO find, to his bitter surprise,
that the Government that he represented, the
Union OF his proud allegiance, was placed upon
level with the mushroom republic that had
suddenly grown up on q slave plantation
Is it any marvel that loyal Americans have
remembered with bitterness an incident SO morti-
Tying! Is it not rather proof of substantial
good will and almost invncible amity that the
intercourse Of the two Governments has been
uninterrupted and even friendly?
But the recognition of belligerentism has
nevertheless proved fruitful of evil The COM
malders of the Nashville, the Alabama, and the
rest of that yulture brood, would have been, in
the eye OF international law, the pirate captains
that they are in fact Their burning of ships at
sea would be simple felony and arson 1t has
been alleged as the justification Of these acts
that the Confederate cruiser has no port into
which TO take his captures-no prize court to
pronounce. That is precisely the reason why
he should upod them bs reckoned as an ocean
belligerent.
There runs through the whole of Mr.. Summers
gigantic GRAFTON an idea on which we eau now
only touch. From the first sentence to the last,
slavery is present to his mind 1t colors all his
reasoning. Ii inspires him to the prodigious
eloquence. Not merely as the Senator from
Massachusetts,, the honored chiefiain of the
political Abolitonists, but as chairman of the
Committee on Foreign Relations, he sees every
where the pretense of the slave power Against
i he iuyOkes, in periods OF classic beauty and of
'eryd strength, all the moral forces of the coun-
ry. To England he makes n passionate and
pathetic nppeal-moro for her own sake than
hat of the slave-more for the SAX of future
han of present efects-that she Withdraw all
avor and succor from rebel slave.owners.