Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-04-30
DUB CIVIL WAR.
Some Facts Not Generally Known.
Insults Of the English Governments
Not Resented.

Some Facts Not Generally kn0Wm-
Insults OF the English Governments
Not Resented.
From the Pittsburgh Post.
The Chicago Tribune says: ave affirm,
as an historical fact, that every member Of
Mr.. Lincoln's Cabinet, except Montgomery
Blair, was in favor Of surrendering Fort
Sumter in the first instance, and that every
member Of the Cabinet, except Blair and
Welles, was opposed TO the attempt to send
provisions and supplies to Maj. Anderson"
We are grati6ed to find our statement Of
this interesting historical incident sustained
by the Tribune. We have known it for sew
eral years. There are many incidents OF
that day, which If known, would go far to
change the popular estimate of some prom
inent men. The Tribune refers also to
Mr.. Stewards dispatch to Mr.. Adams CHS
now eulogist,) direct ng him to assure onr
secret enemy England that reunion
would be effected peaceably; and to still
another, chasing the rebels and the friends
of emancipation In the same category. Mr..
Adams ignores all these circumstances in
his recent address in Albany.
From the Philadelphia Age.
Mr.. Gideon Welles furnishes to the
GALAXY his recolIections of the capture and
surrender of Mason and Slidell. Mr..
Welles, as Secretary of the Navy, came
nearest to giving an approval of the dash
ing feat of Captain Wilkes, which the gov
eminent afterwards disavowed. Mr.. Welles
thinks it would have been sll right if
Wilkes had seized the vessel as well as the
Confederate passengers. We think the re-
suit would have been the same. There
was no precedent for the seizure of neu-
trail vessel for carrying civil officers Of an
enemy's government. Indeed, the only
precedents for the act Of Captain Wilkes
were somewhat similar acts Of the British
government, which were denounced as law
less outrages by the Americans. We could
not have sustained Captain Wilkes with
out deserving our principles. Mr.. Adams,
in his late Grafton, declares his opin-
ion that the seizure Of Mason
and Slidell was an error. he exhibits, too,
the extraordinary arrogance and perempto-
riness of the British government, which
shut out all discussion, and offered the al
tentative Of instant surrender of the cap
tiyes, or instant war. In the condition Of
our country, the administration thought it
had no alternative but to submit at once to
bLo SuC0Sb ~ ~ OShOA ROAACA u
our history could such tone have been
successfully adopted towards the American
government. Mr.. Welles reveals that Me-.
Lincoln's native sagacity was not misled;
as soon as he heard of the capture of Mason
and Slidell he said they were elephants on
our hands," The House Of Representatives
passed hasty vote of thanks to Captain
Wilkes, but when an attempt was made to
commit it to resolution declaring that Ma
son and Sliden should not be surrendered,
the House, by q very large ma
iority, refused to pass it. We think the
capture of the Confederate ENJOYS must
pass into history as blunder, and the in
slant surrender of them to a peremptory
and offensive demand as the most humili-
| ating incident in our relations with foreign
powers. II the ship had been seized, as
Mr.. Welles says it should have been, We
cannot doubt that il also would have been
surrendered, and the situation would not
have been improved. The true moral is
that the strength of the United States is in
their union. How weak we were in the
eyes of foreign nations during our civil dis
cord was shown by the arrogant course OF
England In this affair, and of France in the
invasion of Mexico. We were helpless to
resent either, while our strength was spent
in civil strife.