ambition merely. The policy of these the treaty, were invited to accede to United States is not a creature of the these propositions. The subject came Government, but an inspiration of the before the United States in the adminispeople, while the policies of foreign tration of President Pierce, when Mr.States are at the choice mainly of the Marcy, the Secretary of State, expressgovernments presiding over them. If ed the willingness of the Government to through error, on whatever side this accept the propositions provided a fifth civil contention shall transcend the na- was added, exempting the private proptional bounds, and involve foreign States, erty of belligerents from seizure on the the energies of all commercial nations, high seas. Thus amended, the proposiincluding our own, will necessarily be tions were laid before the governments turned to war, and a general carnival of England and France. Before any of the adventurous and reckless of all action was had Mr. Buchanan succeeded countries, at the cost of the existing to the Presidency, and discontinued the commerce of the world, must ensue. negotiation. Nothing further was done Beyond that painful scene, upon the seas there lie, but dimly concealed from our vision, scenes of devastation and desolation which will leave no roots remaining, out of which trade with the United States and Great Britain, as it has heretofore flourished, can ever again spring up.

till Mr. Seward, in the month following the inauguration of President Lincoln, reopened the matter, by addressing a circular to the new minister of the United States, sent to the States of Europe, requiring them to bring the subject before the States to which they were accredited, and offer the acceptance by the United States of the propositions, as originally proposed to them.* The amendment of Mr. Marcy would, of

By the side of these representations and explanations, there was an important negotiation in hand between the two governments, in reference to the accept-course, be desirable, but as there was litance or adherence to by America of certain articles of the Treaty of Paris in the year 1836, involving a question of great humanity, relating to the practice of war on the high seas. It was then mutually agreed, between the contracting parties, Great Britain, Austria, France, Russia, Prussia, Sardinia and Turkey 1st, that privateering is abolished; 2d, that the neutral flag cover enemy's goods, except contraband of war; 3d, that neutral goods, with the same exception, are not liable to capture under an enemy's flag; 4th, that blockades, to be binding, must be effective.

Other States, not a party to

* Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams, July 21, 1861.

tle probability of gaining that at present, it might be omitted. Under this direction Mr. Adams at Paris, and Mr. Dayton at London, began negotiations with the respective governments. Lord John Russell, the English minister, at once expressed a desire to entertain the matter, but threw the arrangement upon the legation at Washington, which, not being empowered, sent it back to London. In Paris Mr. Dayton hoped to obtain the Marcy addition, but this M. Thouvenel the minister, refused, when, having been bandied about for two months between London and Washington, between England and France, the propositions, " pure *Circular, April 24, 1861.

THE TREATY OF PARIS.

459

and simple," as originally offered by the disposed persons as more or less directly Treaty of Paris, seemed, at the end of an insult to the nation in its present disJuly, on the point of adjustment. At the tress." He rejected it at once. The last moment Lord John Russell inter- Government at Washington, of course, posed the modest looking provision: "I acquiesced in the decision. "To admit need scarcely add that, on the part of such a new article," wrote Mr. Seward, Great Britain, the engagement will be "would, for the first time in the history of prospective, and will not invalidate any- the United States, be to permit a foreign thing already done."* The whole was power to take cognizance of, and adjust now finally submitted to Mr. Seward, its relations upon assumed internal and who at once saw the significance of the purely domestic differences existing withRussell proviso. Subjecting the latter in our own country. I forbear purposely," to an acute examination, he required he added, "from a review of the past that an explanation should be asked correspondence, to ascertain the relative from its author. Before this request responsibilities of the parties for this reached London, Lord John Russell had failure of negotiation, from which I had answered the question in the draft of a hoped results would flow beneficial, not declaration to be appended to the treaty. only to the two nations, but to the whole It was that, "in affixing his signature to world-beneficial not in the present age the Convention, Earl Russell declares, only, but in future ages. It is my desire by order of her Majesty, that her Majes- that we may withdraw from the subject, ty does not intend thereby to undertake carrying away no feelings of passion, any engagement which shall have any prejudice or jealousy, so that in some bearing, direct or indirect, on the inter- happier time it may be resumed, and the nal differences now prevailing in the important objects of the proposed conUnited States." In other words, the vention may be fully secured. I believe treaty was to be made subject to the that that propitious time is even now not already conceded "belligerent rights" distant; and I will hope that when it - whatever they might be of the comes, Great Britain will not only willSouthern rebellion. The treaty, "pure ingly and unconditionally accept the adand simple," was evidently in conflict hesion of the United States to all the with the view which Great Britain benignant articles of the declaration of thought proper to entertain of the the Congress of Paris, but will even go sovereignty of the United States. There further, and, relinquishing her present were various diplomatic objections to objections, consent, as the United States this mutilated form of a convention, have so constantly invited, that the pribeside the covert blow at the integrity vate property, not contraband, of citizens of the Union. Mr. Adams needed no and subjects of nations in collision, shall consultation with Washington on a qual- be exempted from confiscation equally in ification which he could not fail to re- warfare waged on the land and in warmind Lord Russell "would scarcely fare waged upon the seas, which are the fail to be regarded by many unfavorably common highways of all nations.'

* Lord John Russell to Mr. Adams. July 81, 1861. Papers on Foreign Affairs, p. 110.

Whilst these discussions and negotia

* Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. Sept. 7, 1861.

will be your pleasing duty to confirm and strengthen these traditional relations of amity and friendship." *

The reception of Mr. Clay on the part of the Emperor was marked by its corThe American minister stated

"looked with profound sympathy upon the great reforms which his Majesty was attempting in his empire, which, without considering the philanthropic view of the movement, by building up a middle class, he would add more to the physical power

by consolidation and extension; and that the success of his enterprise would, in the estimation of the western nations, place him even above that great ruler."

tions were going on with the various become now lethargic and helpless. It powers of Europe, one among them, in particular, separated by her position and the interests of her vast empire from any political or industrial rivalry with the United States, Russia, allied to the new world by her parallel territorial great-diality. ness and ambition of future grandeur, that the people whom he represented stood prepared to sympathize with the difficulties and embarrassments of the Government at Washington. In his first instructions to the new minister, Mr. Clay, Mr. Seward had eloquently dwelt upon the position of the two countries. "Nations," said he, "like individuals, of his country than did Peter the Grea have three prominent wants: first, freedom; secondly, prosperity; thirdly, friends. The United States early secured the two first objects by the exercise of courage and enterprise. But although they have always practiced singular moderation, they nevertheless have been slow in winning friends. Russia presents an exceptional case. That power was an early, and it has always been a constant friend. This relationship between two nations, so remote and so unlike, has excited much surprise, but the explanation is obvious. Russia, like the United States, is an improving and expanding empire. Its track is eastward, while that of the United States is westward. The two nations, therefore, never come into rivalry or conflict. Each carries civilization to the new regions it enters, and each finds itself occasionally resisted by states jealous of its prosperity, or alarmed by its aggrandisement. Russia and the United States may remain good friends until, each having made a circuit. of half the globe in opposite directions, they shall meet and greet each other in the region where civilization first began, and where, after so many ages, it has

To this the Emperor responded through his minister, Prince Gortchacow, when the formalities of the interview were relaxed by a little unceremonious conversation with regard to that recent foe of Russia, Great Britain. "The Emperor," writes Mr. Clay in his report of the reception, "wanted to know if I thought England would interfere. I told him we did not care what she did; that her interference would tend to unite us the more; that we fought the South with reluctance; we were much intermarried, and of a common history; but that the course of England had aroused our sensibilities towards her in no very pleasant manner. The Emperor seemed to like my seeming defiance of old 'John Bull' very much.Ӡ

The "liberal, friendly and magnanimous sentiments" of the Emperor, as they were acknowledged by Mr. Seward,

*Mr. Seward to Mr. Clay. Washington, May 6, 1861 Mr. Clay to Mr. Seward. St. Petersburg, June 21, 1861

DESPATCH OF PRINCE GORTCHACOW.

461

were presently shown in the earnest cause of this diversity, Providence seems words of sympathy and counsel which to urge them to draw closer the trahe caused to be addressed to the Pres- ditional bond which is the basis and ident of the United States and to the the very condition of their political exAmerican people, through his Ministers istence. In any event, the sacrifices at St. Petersburg and Washington. which they might impose upon themThis document, which will always be selves to maintain it are beyond comregarded as one of the most interesting parison with those which dissolution State papers which this crisis brought would bring after it. United, they perfect forth, addressed by Prince Gortchacow themselves; isolated, they are paralyzed. to Mr. De Stockl, was dated July 10, The struggle which unhappily has just 1861, and read as follows:-"Sir: From arisen can neither be indefinitely prothe beginning of the conflict which di- longed, nor lead to the total destruction vides the United States of America, you of one of the parties. Sooner or later it have been desired to make known to the will be necessary to come to some setFederal Government the deep interest tlement, whatsoever it may be, which with which our august master was ob- may cause the divergent interests now serving the development of a crisis which actually in conflict to coexist. The puts in question the prosperity and even American nation would then give a the existence of the Union. The Em- proof of high political wisdom in seeking peror profoundly regrets to see that the in common such a settlement before hope of a peaceful solution is not real- a useless effusion of blood, a barren ized, and that American citizens, already squandering of strength and of public in arms against each other, are ready to riches, and acts of violence and reciprolet loose upon their country the most cal reprisals shall have come to deepen formidable of the scourges of political an abyss between the two parties to the society-a civil war. For the more than Confederation, to end definitively in their eighty years that it has existed, the mutual exhaustion, and in the ruin, perAmerican Union owes its independence, haps irreparable, of their commercial its towering rise, and its progress to the and political power. concord of its members, consecrated, under the auspices of its illustrious founder, by institutions which have been able to reconcile union with liberty. This union has been fruitful. It has exhibited to the world the spectacle of a prosperity without example in the annals of history. It would be deplorable that, after so conclusive an experience, the United States should be hurried into a breach of the solemn compact which, up to this time, has made their power. In spite of the diversity of their constitutions and of their interests, and perhaps, even, be

"Our august master cannot resign himself to admit such deplorable anticipations. His Imperial Majesty still places his confidence in that practical good sense of the citizens of the Union who appreciate so judiciously their true interests. His Majesty is happy to believe that the members of the Federal Government, and the influential men of the two parties, will seize all occasions and will unite all their efforts to calm the effervescence of the passions. There are no interests so divergent that it may not be possible to reconcile them by

laboring to that end with zeal and perseverance, in a spirit of justice and moderation. If, within the limits of your friendly relations, your language and your councils may contribute to this result, you will respond, sir, to the intentions of his Majesty the Emperor in devoting to this the personal influence which you may have been able to acquire during your long residence at Washington, and the consideration which belongs to your character, as the representative of a sovereign animated by the most friendly sentiments towards the American Union. This Union is not simply, in our eyes, an element essential to the universal political equilibrium. It constitutes, besides, a nation to which our august master, and all Russia, have pledged the most friendly interest; for the two countries, placed at the extremities of the two worlds, both in the ascending period of their development, appear called to a natural community of

interests and of sympathies, of which they have already given mutual proofs to each other. I do not wish here to approach any of the questions which divide the United States. We are not called upon to express ourselves in this contest. The preceding considerations have no other object than to attest the lively solicitude of the Emperor in presence of the dangers which menace the American Union, and the sincere wishes which his Majesty entertains for the maintenance of that great work, so laboriously raised, which appeared so rich in its future. It is in this sense, sir, that I desire you to express yourself, as well to the members of the general Government as to influential persons whom you may meet, giving them the assurance that, in every event, the American nation may count upon the most cordial sympathy on the part of our august master during the important crisis which it is passing through at present."

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT AT RICHMOND.

After congratulating the members on the accession of the new States, "our loved and honored brethren of North Carolina and Tennessee," and Arkansas and Vir

THE Confederate Congress met in its first session at Richmond, in the hall of the Virginia House of Delegates on the 20th of July, the day preceding the battle of Bull Run. About seventy mem-ginia which had consummated the action bers were present. The Message delivered by President Davis on the occasion of the opening was brief, and was chiefly occupied with an angry criticism of the recent Message of President Lincoln on the opening of the national Congress, with various harsh comments on the conduct of the war by the United States.

uniting them to "our Confederation of free and equally sovereign States," and announcing the removal of the archives to the new seat of government, President Davis proceeded: "Immediately after your adjournment, the aggressive movements of the enemy required prompt, energetic action. The accumulation of