New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-07-05
NEw-YoRK DAILY TRIBUNE, MONDAY. JULY s, 1880

rcnlIy were deceiyed If in their speeches and doc
uments nj home the secessonlsts were that point
Gambia il was not so with their agents abroad
Elite Americans. notables and fashionabes, filled
the ear of English society everywhere with the
assertion that slavery had little to do with the dis
putc, that it was question of mutual incompatl-
bility. Nor did such men come from slave States
alone; perhaps most of them came from free
States; superior men, quite ready to serve those
States legislators, judges, governors or generals
but meanwhile doing all that men could do to pre-
possess tho ear of England in favor of a partition
of their native country. remember having to argue
against one of my most valued friends, beside whom
sat an American Presbyterian divine who had fully
satisfied him that the war was really one between
the principles of protection and free trade. Inc
name Of that friend. did give it, would be to hun
dreds of influential Americans yet living who had
in his warm welcomes, n guarantee that any shared
feeling but that of hostility to America OF Americans
animated him, when lie suggested that the puDhc
BODY in which the discussion took place should
counsel the North to desst from the struggle and
the South to proclaim emancipation, or something
equally feasible.
THE ARGUMENT WHICH HAD MOST WEIGHT.
OF all the arguments used on our side OF the water,
the one which weighed most with the masses OF
well-disposed people was that which. assuming the
the seeded States urged that the object of the war
being unattainable, the suffering caused by it was
inflicted without the prospect of any compromising
good. AS the war proceeded, this argument gained
more and more adherents till the end of the first
two years of fighting belief in the ultimate
triumph of the Union was considered by most
worldly people as absurd. Concurrently with
this the gallant struggle of the Confederates en-
listed on their side the SORT OF sympathy that
readily attaches itself to the weaker party. Now,
before Americans accuse Englishmen who took the
view that the disruption of the Union was hnalSt
being influenced by sclf-intcrest or animoslty, let
them consider who first made that impression IL
was made by Americans. For long time you had
sent among your representative men lew VINO
were not In the interests of the slave-owners.
When the crisis came your men OF fashon,y0ur men
of fortune your men from Congress- your men from
the consular and diplomatic services, were IN person
or by correspondence in position TO MI all our
official classes, and not ours only but those Oh
France with the persuasion that the idea OF pre-
serving the Union was n chmera. so strongly ara
they progresses with this IDEA the minds Oh ?ltll
that some tine after the first reVeTses III me
war il had become Il prevalent theory lnat MI
Seward, to a retreat from the conflict WIN
the South. wOnld provoke one with England.
could naino a peer who from an American source
which he deemed beyond suspicion had positive IN
formation that the real destination OF what was
called the Grand Armada under Admiral Dupont
was not the Southern States, but the BRITISH west
Indies When our flag was violated on the Trent,
all those who had accepted the above view OF MI.
Stewards intentions naturally jumped to the con
cluson that he had chosen that method OF insulting
England. and bringing on a war, MI; Ihuriow
Weed who in company with Bishop Mcllvalne
arrived in London in the midst of that crisis can
tell whether not he was met wherever he turned
by such an impression of the hostile intentions TO-
ward rs OF ths Federal Government. ii yonr press
first proclaimed that we waiting for an oppor-
unty TO fall on you, many of us afterward agreed
to think that you were waiting for one to falI on
us: and shame the men on both sides who helped
| to make such Impressions.
MALIGN INFLUENCES AT WORK
| Beside the influences now mentioned, another
was at work, to which allusion seems TO be hardly
ever made IN this country when the subject OF Eng
lsh sympathies during the war is referred to-.
though to my own knowledge it by no
means escaped the cOgnizance OF American
public men. 1 mean the influence of
the French Government under Napoleon ILL.,
That Government did much to entice En- lish
statesmen into promoting the PARTITION of your coun-
try. Another occult but potent influence was that
of certain financial magnates, who are eithor Amer
leans or Englishmen, Frenchmen or Germans as
suits their turn. who. indeed within one family may
be all of these and Italians to boot and who
! behind and through the Press play upon stocks,
gaining organs by gifts of early intelligence. and
TeapinR on the Exchange the fruit of the news given
to the Press. One other potent influence was that
of correspondence and malign indeed was that IN
| fuence. On this subject shall only say two words
| First, accounts of disasters and mlsmanage-
ment, which il, this country were With
| much abuse denounced as evidence OF
| hostility, were no stronger than had been written
| of our English armies during the Cnmean war
by the same hands and secondly. OF all cOrrespon-
dcnce calculated to excite bad feeling against the
| North, none written by an Engshman equalled
that Of an American of New-York writing IN The
| Standard
| remain immovable: So long rs any hope renamed
| that 9th war and dsunIOn might be averted. the
Influence of the English press and people used
| Them. Throughout
| of the blockade England refused to break 1t and
| throughout all the suferings of the cotton famine
| the working people of England refused by any
| vote or muTmur to commit themselves even for the
| sake OF their own bread to any step that would be
unfnendy to the Union or favorable to
alayery During the time when the majority
| Of politicians believed the Confederate states
| TO have established their independence, England
| always refused to recognize that Independence.
| England after having allowed herself to be en-
ticed by Napoleon III. INTO an intervention IN Mex
leo, sooner discovered the political scope OF MS
! plans than she Withdrew
| MR.. SUMMERS INDICTMENT OF ENGLAND.
Charles Sumner when pillng up his indictment
against England said England cast her sword
into the SCALE" Thank God that is exactly what
! England did not dol Had she so done, Mr.. Sumner
would never have stood In the proud
position from which he lightly used
words so tremendous. Captain Wilkes. at the mo-
ment when the COnfederates were blockading the
! Potomac offered TO England an excellent oppor-
| tunitv of casting her sword into this scale.
| Had she at that moment cast 1T In, the
scale would have been turned; and Mr.. Sumner
| instead of standing happy citizen on free Con-
| tinent Justly proud of bin, would have stood shud-
derinp on continent cursed with a twO-fOld
lncubus-the military system Of the Old World
and the slave system of the New He
would have seen his glorious and beloved Free
Union watching behind standing army numbering
| at least 100000 men. with Slave Con
| federation also watching behind stand
| in a state of chronic war, with now and
then the respite of armed peace, such n peace AZ
| that with France which IL at present weighing
upon Germany And we of England at the same
time instead OF seeing Canada and the West Indies
as they to-day happily are. would have seen Canada
| bristlinc with standing army of at least