The Irish standard., 1910-12-31
GREAT BRITAIN I AND
THE CONFEDERACY
An Unpublished Chapter in Diplo-
matte History of Two Coun-
tries Uncovered.
Charles Francis Adams of Boston
Furnishes Some Very I'm
portant Evidence
Touching on. England's Perfidy To-
wards This Nation During
the Civil War. d..

An important and hitherto unpub-
1ished chapter in the diplomatic his
tory of the United States and Great
Britain was uncovered on December
40, by Charles Francis Adams, of Bos-
ton. at the monthly meeting of the
New York Genealogical and Biogra-
phical society in West Fifty-eighth
street. John Bigelow and Joseph H.
Choate made addresses certifying the
importance and authenticity of the
disclosure, made "by the only man liv-
ing who could have told the facts"
as Mr.. Bigelow said.
After Mr.. Adams address Mr..
Choate moved vote of thanks to the
speaker. OF the latter's father he
said that he was a diplomat when a
foreign minister was something more
than postage stamp on a letter from
his Chief" and, in the opinion of Eng
lishmen as we'll as his own country
men, by his force of character and
fortitude he saved the day for the
United States at a most important
crisis of the Civil War. Mr.. Bigelow
s;seconded Mr.. Choate's motion, which
,;slgas pnantmoasly carried.
Mr.. Adams father was United
States minister to England at the
time Of the Civil War, and Mr. Bige-
low was minister to France at the
came period. Louis Napoleon, as Mr.
Bigelow wrote to his government,
was contemplating recognition of the
Confederacy.
In England Mr.. Adams was made
aware of the hostility of government
and people of the Union. In this
crisis Secretary Seward wrote to Mr..
Adams q letter which the speaker
read to the meeting. "You WILL"
wrote Mr.. Seward, "refrain from en-
Pertaining or transmitting to this gov
ernment any proposition looking to
mediation between the North and the
South, and if such proposition be
forced upon you, you will at once pre-
pare to sever your relations with her
Majesty's government
A meeting of the British Cabinet
was fixed for October %, 1862, at
which it was confidently expected that
the first steps would be taken to-
ward recognition of that Confederacy,
!, not ruin to The Union cause. That
Gay came, but the meeting was not
held. The reason why has never be.
fore been disclosed. It was not, as
has been said, Queen Victorias inter.
vention, for the Queen was then
wholly immersed in her domestic at.
fairs. It was a speech made by Mr..
Gladstone at Newcastle on Tyne, in
which he declared that Jefferson
Davis had made a nation" and went
On to express his belief that the in.
dependence of the Confederacy and
the consequent dissolution of the
American union were "as certain as
any event yet future and contingent
can be-"
Attention was called by Mr.. Adams
to this entry in his fathers diary,
written after the reading of the ZAP
parently Wanton, useless, deeply
significant" utterance of Mr.. Glad
stone.
IF he, the Chancellor of the Elk.
chequer, be any exponent at all of the
views of the Cabinet, then is my
term likely to be very short, for the
animus >as respects Mr.. Davis and the
recognition of the rebel course is very
apparent. The meditation
/ on these things sensibly depressed my
spirits. We are now passing through
the; very crisis Of our fate" The
speaker continued.
Z Mr.. Gladstone EXPRESSED himself
In language most emphatic as to "the
heavy responsibility you Americans
Of the North incur in persevering
with this destructive and hopeless
war at the cost of such dangers and
evils to yourselves, to say nothing of
your adversaries, or of an amount OF
misery inflicted upon Europe such as