The Portland daily press., 1869-04-17
'ernss $500 per aanasns, IN. adrance.

| these great accounts, such must be the JudS
ment in any chancery which consults the
simple equity of the case.
This plain statement without one word o
exaggeration or aggravatiop is enough TO ex
hIbit the magnitude OF the national losse:
| whether from the destruction OF our commerce
or the prolongation of the war. They stand
before us mountain high, with base broad
as the nation, and a mass stupendous as the
rebellion itself. 1t will be for wise states
manship to determine how this fearful ac-
cumulation, like Pelion upon Ossa, shall be
removed out OF sight, so that it shall no lon
ger overshadow the two countries.
THE RULE OF DAMAGES.
Perhaps l ought to anticipate an objection
from the other side, to the effect that these
national losses, whether from the destruction
OF our commerce or the prolongation of the
war, are indirect and remote, so as not to be
a just cause OF claim. This is expressed at
the common law by the rule that damages
must be the natural and proximate conse-
quence of an act" 2 Greenleaf, Eu., d. 21O.1
To this excuse the answer is explicit. The
damages suffered by tie United States are
twofold, individual and national, being in
each case direct and proximate, although, in
the one case individuals suffered and in the
other case the nation. 1t is easy to see that
there may be occasions where, overtopping
all individual damages, are damages suffered
py the nation, so that reparatlon to individ-
uals would be insufficient; nor can the claim
OF the nation be questioned simply because
IL IS large, or because the evidence with re-
gard 10 1t is different from that in the case of
an individual. In each case the DAMAGE
must be proved by the best possible evidence.
and this is all that law or reason can REQUIRE
In the ease of the nation the evidence is his
torlc; and that is enough. Impartial history
will record the national losses from British
intervention, and it is only reasonable that
the evidence of these losses should not
be excluded from judgment Because the
case IS without precedent, because no nation
ever before received such injury from
friendly power, this can be no reason why the
case should not be considered on the eyi-
dence.
THE CONCLUSION.
Shall these claims be liquidated and cancel
led promptly, or allowed to slumber until
called into activity by some future exigency?
Ihere are many among us who, taking cOun-
sci or sense of national wrong, would leave
them to rest without settlement, so as to fur
nish precedent for retaliation in kind.
should England find herself at war. There
are many in England who, taking counsel of
a peryerse political bigotry, have spurned
them absolutely; and there are others wIro,
invoking the point OF honor, assert that Eng
land cannot entertain them without compro-
missing her honor. Thus there is peril from
both sides. II is not difficult to imagine one
OF our countrymen saying with Shakspeare's
Jew, "The villany you teach me will exc
cute, and it shall go bard, but / will better
the instruction." nor is it difficult to imagine
an Englishman firm in his conceit, that no
apology can be made and nothing paid 1
cannot sympathize with either side. Be the
claims more or less, they are honestly pre-
sented, with the conviction that they are
just, and they should be considered candidly,
so that they shall 40 longer lower like a
cloud ready 10 burst, upon two nations,
which, according to their inclination, can do
each other such infinite injury or such inf
mite good. know it is sometimes said that
war between us must come sooner or later. l
do not believe it, But if it must come, let it
be later, and then l am sure it will never
come. Meanwhile, good men mustun to
make it impossible.
Again say, this debate is not of nv seek
ing. 1t is not tempting, for it compels criti-
clsm OF foreign power with which 1 would
have more than peace, more even than con-
cord. But it cannot be avoided. The truth
must be told, not in anger but in sadness.
England has done to the United States an
ng when it was done and in what completely,
it is most unaccountable. At great epoch
OF history, not less momentous than that of
the French Revolution or that of the Refor-
nation, when civilization was fighting last
battle with slavery, England gave her name,
her influence, her material resources to the
wicked cause, and flung a sword INTO the
scale with slavery. Here was portentous
mistake. Strange that the land of Wilber-
force, after spending millions for emancipa-
tion, after proclaiming everywhere the truths
of liberty, and ascending to glorious primacy
in the sublime movement for the universal
abolition of slavery, could do this thing?
Like every departure from the rule of justice
and good neighborhood, her conduct was per-
nicious in proportion to the scale of opera
tions, affecting individuals, corporations, COM
muhities, and the nation itself. And yet
down to this day there is no acknowledge
ment OF this wrong; not single word. Such
a generous expression would be the beginning
OF just settlement, and the best assurance OF
that harmony between two great and kindred
nations which all must desire.