Opinion in Europe glish press, which was supposed, for obvious on American affairs. reasons, to be well informed on the state of American affairs. The German settlers in America exerted what perhaps may be spoken of as a correcting influence in their native country, but they were not able to neutralize the power of the English press.

The appreciation of European opinion on affairs conIt was influenced by nected with the Civil War turns, therefore, English journalism essentially on a study of the views which were taken in England. The material for such a study is very ample. It is to be found in the journalism of the country, in the Parliamentary proceedings, and in the acts of the government. In truth, nothing more for this purpose is needed than may be found in the Times newspaper, that powerful journal which not only reflects, but in no inconsiderable degree forms the public opinion of En gland..

On this occasion I shall follow the course I have taken (vol. i., chap. xxvi.) in representing the opinions of the South, simply collecting and arranging together such statements as seem to have an important bearing on the subject, preserving, whenever possible, the language, and always the spirit, of the sources from which they are de rived.

Perhaps it may not be inappropriate to make the pref. and English histori- atory remark that from the outset there excal recollections. isted in England a disposition to bear in remembrance the colonial war. It was said, The Southern States have as much right to assert their independence of the Union as the Colonies had to assert their independ ence of England. The reasons that justified the latter justify the former. The cases are precisely alike. America is suffering no more than she caused England to suf fer. She should be the last of nations to complain.

The cases would have been more nearly alike if a suc

CHAP. LX.] COLONIAL AND CONFEDERATE MOVEMENTS.

Parallel between the Colonial and

ments.

505

cession of American princes had for many

Confederate move years sat upon the English throne; if all the great offices of state, all the places of profit and power, had been largely engrossed by Americans; if Parliament had been entirely occupied in legislating for American interests, or, more truly, for one interest, and that one interest revolting to the conscience of the free Englishman; if there had been a slave-pen in the vicinity of Guildhall, and the cry of the slave-auctioneer echoing from the walls of Westminster Abbey; if the citizens of London had seen the agony of wives parted forever from their husbands, and children, even those at the breast, separated from their parents. The cases would have been more nearly alike if, when under the Constitution of England it became unavoidable that an English prince must displace those who had so long held the reins of government, the cabinet ministers of the retiring dynasty had engaged in the most atrocious treason; if the army had been sent to remote territories for the purpose of being entrapped, the navy scattered on fictitious errands in distant seas, so that not more than two or three ships were to be found upon the coast; if large sums of money had been purloined from the treasury for the purposes of the conspiracy; if every musket that could be secured had been stealthily sent across the At lantic; if the great arsenal at Woolwich had been seized and robbed of its thousands of cannon; if officers of the army and navy had been seduced to resign their commissions, and judges had refused to act; if the House of Lords had become the focus of a conspiracy against the government, and members of the House of Commons had retained their seats for no other purpose than to obstruct legislation; if the new sovereign had gone to his coronation in peril of being assassinated; if the malcontents had openly declared that they would either rule or ruin

the nation, then there would have been an analogy be tween the causes of the War of the American Revolution and those of the American Civil War.

newspapers.

Considered merely as a matter of policy, the ministry Influence of English of Lord Palmerston regarded it as not unde sirable to promote a partition of the American Union. With very great skill the journalism of England manufactured public opinion, and brought the middle classes into accord with the privileged. The traditions of old dissensions furnished a starting-point, and the dexterous presentation of American revenue legisla tion accomplished the rest.

The manner in which an extensively circulated and powerful newspaper can imperceptibly direct public opinion, and thereby accomplish its ends, offers one of the most interesting subjects of psychological study. Very striking examples of the kind are occasionally observed in America.

The successive opinions they present.

Let us notice the successive phases of opinion exhibited by such a foreign journal in 1861. It begins with a generous sympathy for a friendly nation in trouble, and insensibly leads its unsuspecting reader to very different sentiments at last. It says:

in the wrong.

"The Southern States have sinned more than the NorthThe Southern States ern. They have exhibited a passionate effrontery, not content with the sufferance of slavery, but determined on its extension. They refuse to have any man for President unless he regards a black servant and a black portmanteau as chattels of the same category and description. The right, with all its advantages, belongs to the states of the North. The North is for freedom, the South for the tar-brush and pine-fagot. Free and democratic communities have applied them

CHAP. LX.]

THE SOUTH ALTOGETHER WRONG.

507

selves to the honorable office of breeding slaves to be consumed on the free and democratic plantations of the South; thus replacing the African trade by an internal one of equal atrocity. The South has become enamored of her shame.

"If the Slave States be joined by the Border States, they will constitute the real United States; the North will be a rump. She would have only a coast of a few hundred miles, from the British frontier to the Delaware; all the sea-line and the great rivers will belong to the South. Virginia pushes a spur of territory to within a hundred miles of Lake Erie, and splits the Free States of the Atlantic from those of the West. It is very well to speculate on Not likely that they the return of an erring sister, but it is the nature of cracks to widen. In this country there is only one wish-that the Union may survive this terrible trial."

will return.

declaration de

scribed.

Of the declaration by South Carolina of the causes which led to her secession, it is said that "it The South Carolina looks as if it had been long written, and carried about, like the redoubtable cane of the ever-to-be-regretted Brooks, ready to be put into requisition on the first convenient opportunity. It is not so lively and spirit-stirring a composition as a little more literary skill might have made it, but we can not tell how much a man is allowed to know of the history of the world in that fortunate country without being exposed to the vengeance of the halter and the tar-barrel. Nothing can be more frivolous than the grounds of this manifesto; its statements are utter falsehoods. Without law, without justice, without delay, South Carolina is treading the path that leads to the downfall of nations and to the misery of families. The hollowness of her cause is seen beneath all the pomp of her labored denunciations. Charleston, without trade, is an animal under an exhaust

ed receiver. Trade is her very breath. She had better look before she takes the dark leap; she may light on something worse than the present, or-on nothing at all. It is easy to decide any day in the affirmative the question whether to cut one's throat or not, but when once one has come to that decision and acted on it, it is not so easy to review the arguments leading to a contrary view of the case.

"Time, the Avenger, is doing justice between the American people and ourselves. With what willingness would they not see their sonorous Fourth of July rhetoric covered by the waters of oblivion! They have fallen to pieces, but we have shown no joy at secession; we have given no encouragement to the South; we have turned away from the bait of free trade, and have strengthened them by our sympathy and advice. The secession of South Carolina is to them what the secession of LancaSecession is nothing shire would be to us-it is treason, and but treason. should be put down. But the North is full of sophists, rhetoricians, logicians, and lawyers; it has not a man of action. Mr. Seward can tell us what will not save the Union, but not what will. He looks upon secession as ideal and impossible. While he is dreaming, the Confederacy is strengthening. The Union seems to be destined to fall without a struggle, without a lament, without an epitaph. Each individual state finds numberless citizens ready to lay down their lives for its preservation; but for the Union, the mighty firmament in which those stars are set, and which, though dark itself, lends them their peculiar lustre, nothing is done. The Imbecility of the President says he can do nothing. His countrymen boast of the smallness of his salary, but, according to our estimate, he is the most overpaid of mortals. With provoking inconsistency, he will neither fight nor run away. But perhaps his policy has

President.