The Portland daily press., 1863-05-05
Letter from an English Clergyman.

interesting extracts rom letter written Dy
Rev. GEORGE PARRY, Swedenborgian Minis
ter at Liverpool, to gentleman of this city.
1t is a calm, well considered view of our con-
test, and coming from the other side of the
Atlantic, is additionally valuable. Every ar
rival from England brings us fresh evidence
that the heart of the people there is with us:
13 WENTWORTH STREET EvERToN,
Liverpool, April 8, 1868.
My DEAR SIR: l ought to have written
you long ago; but the many occupations in
which have found myself engaged have not
left me much time for correspondence, either
with my transatlantic or cis-Atantic friends.
But have, at length, mustered courage to let
you know, at least this much, that though far
ofryou are not forgotten. The kind memo
ries YOU left with us are still fresh, and, until
we see you again, our friendship must keep
alive on the aimeut Of these pleasant rec
objections.
had hoped to be able to congratulate you
ere now, on the restoration of peace to your
torn and bleeding country. But that baptism
of blood and fire through which it is passing,
appears not yet to be finished. The friends of
the North, however, land | subscribe myself
as one) can still hope that the terrible disci-
pine through which your nation is passing
will leave it nobler and purer than before. 1t
is possible. indeed, that this conflict may not
result in the immediate achievement of all the
objects it was intended to attain, but you will
feel with me that tolls of such great magni-
tude would not be permitted to atfiict your
country, but for some good end commensur-
ate in greatness with the trials under which
Won suffer. The end which we propose may
not be the true one; but the best possible re-
suits will be evolved by Him who knows the
end from the beginning.
II has always appeared to me that the North,
in this war, has a just claim upon the sympa-
thy, if not upon the support, of all constitu-
tional governments. You began the war to
maintain in their integrity your country and
your constitution, against the armed attack of
an ambitious aud disappointed minority. In
der your free institutions there was open to
that minority, even in its defeat, all the legti-
mate means OF influencing that public opinion
which ultimately gives character to your gov
eminent and determines its policy. But Ell
ther distrusting the justice OF their cause, or
carried away by wild frenzy which refused
to be controlled by constituted authority, that
minority appealed to the sword as the arbiter
in its contest with the will of the majority
constituiionally expressed. Government would
be impossible in constitutional states. were the
Legitimacy of such an appeal recognized for
moment Where brute power rides over the
will of the people, the case is wholly differ
ent. But with You the existence of perfect
freedom was never questioned; the right of
appeal to public opinion through Legitimate
channels was never denied; the excellence of
your political system was not matter OF doubt
even with the rebels themselves. What then
is the rebellion, if it be not the uprising of
lawless ambition and brute power against the
authority and integrity of the state? | re-
peat then, the Northern States, holding by
constitutional authority, and fighting for the
laws and integrity OF the state, have right
10 the warm sympathy, if not To the support,
OF every constitutional government in Eu-
rope. have said these things here at home,
not, l hope, without some effect. But the
great act of the enamel, alton of the slaves,
performed, so far as his power extended, by
your noble President, has assured to you the
large heart of the people of England. Their
voice will already have crossed the Atlantic.
And If the Times vituperates you, and ii the
classes opposed to you from the accident of
opposition, and the prejudice of education,
snarl and bark at you, heed them not.
They do not utter the opinions of the un-
bought and preiudiced millions of England.
! do not mean that we are all republicans.
On the contrary, we are, your knowledge
of us will have taught you, deeply attached
10 the throne, to our constitution and laws.
And England always acts as one man when
Just cause arises for the defense OF these.
Still L believe that the heart of England is
with you, and would rejoice TO see you pre-
serve your constitution and your country,
with the demon of slavery forever exercised
from your midst. Let me say, however, that
the Northern States cannot, without lasting
dishonor, retrace their steps in the matter of
slave emancipation. Were that in contempla-
ton, or even thought to be possible, all the
sympathy which England feels with you
would, l am sure, quickly evaporate. You
must make no compromise with slavery, that
most monstrous birth of sin. You have most
nobly pronounced its doom. Pursue it to its
death.
have much faith in you people of the
North, your defeats notwithstanding. You
are of the stubborn stock which. led by
Washington, acAieTed independence of the old
country here. You were not soldiers when
this war began, but, as Napoleon called us,
. nation of shopkeepers." But we beat him,
and penned him up, none the less on that ac-
count. Like us, think, you must suffer a
reverse or two before you warm 10 your
work. You, like us, !" the unready," learn the
art Of war from the enemy, and precisely at
that moment when everybody thinks you are
beaten, you turn the tide. l never thought
you would be beaten, but felt confident that
the Northern States, with the backbone of
New England behind them, could neither be
bent nor broken by the power of the South.
MS question. however, mas sometimes occur
red TO me: If you beat the South in the field,
and the people of the Southern States still
remain obdurate, can you occupy those States
SO as to compel permanent submission? And
ii you enter the South a conquered country,
what becomes of the free and united republic
of North and South? 1t may be, hope it
will be, that defeat will bring to the South
better counsels, and that they will learn to
submit TO the inevitable. There can, however,
be no doubt lat least | have none) that it
would be better for the South, and for human
ity at large, that you should conquer and oc-
cupy the rebel States than that the South
should exist as an independent government,
with slavery as its chief corner stone.
You are committed in this war-iirst, to
the maintenance Of the integrity of the Union;
second, to the extinction OF slavery. But the
maintenance of the Union means the destruc
ton of the armed force brought into the field
against you; and the extinction of slavery
means the confiscation af the so-called prop
erty of the very men who are the leaders in
the rebellion. The South fights then for a
separate government, and for property in
human beings. No government unless too
weak to defend itself from disntegration can
honorably concede the former, and the solemn
act of your Chief Magistrate makes it inpos-
sible that you can concede the other. The
motives that prompt the South are such AS
lead men TO extremity; and the position of the
North is one, in which to concede the de-
49, la Il all. 10