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THE PROPOSAL REJECTED.

155

What M. Drouyn de l'Huys suggests is that this Government shall appoint commissioners, to meet, on neutral ground, commissioners of the insurgents. The suggestion is not an extraordinary one. But when M. Drouyn de l'Huys shall come to review it in the light in which it must necessarily be examined in this country, I think he can hardly fail to perceive that it amounts to nothing else than a proposition that this Government shall enter into diplomatic discussion with the insurgents, upon the question whether the country shall not be delivered over to disunion, to be quickly followed by ever-increas-, ing anarchy. M. Drouyn de l'Huys, I fear, has taken other light than the correspondence of this Government, for his guidance in ascertaining its temper and firmness.

Giving then, in an elaborate, but courteous reply, the reasons why the French proposal was refused, he added:

This Government has not the least thought of relinquishing the trust confided to it by the nation; and if it had any such thought, it would still know that peace proposed at the cost of dissolution would be immediately, unre servedly, and indignantly rejected by the American people.

I must be allowed to say, also, that M. Drouyn de l'Huys errs in his description of the parties to the present conflict. We have here, in the political sense, no North and South, no Northern and Southern States. We have an insurrectionary party, which is located chiefly upon and adjacent to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico; and we have, on the other hand, a loyal people who constitute not only Northern States, but also Eastern, Middle, Western, and Southern States. It is true, indeed, that peace must come at some time, and that conferences must attend, if they are not allowed to precede, the pacification. There is, however, a better form for such conferences than the one which M. Drouyn de l'Huys suggests.

The Congress of the United States furnishes the constitutional forum for debates between the alienated parties. Senators and Representatives from the loyal portion of the people are there already; and seats are vacant and inviting Senators and Representatives of this discontented party, who may be constitutionally sent there from the States involved in the insurrection. Such conferences between the alienated parties may be said to have already begun. Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri States which are claimed by the insurgents are already represented in Congress; and submitting with perfect freedom, and in a proper spirit, their advice upon the course best calculated to bring about a firm, lasting, and honorable peace.

The correspondence was published, and the hearty response it met throughout the loyal States left no doubt that Seward rightly interpreted the popular temper. For a while, plans for foreign intervention seemed to be abandoned.

He wrote in his diplomatic circulars:

February 24.

Some little excitement has followed the publication of the recent corre

156

THE SPANISH-AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

[1863.

spondence with the French Government; but the effect seems to be not unwholesome.

You will give no credit to rumors of alienation between M. Mercier and this Government.

March 2.

It has been impossible to conform the policy of the Government to the views and wishes of European statesmen, who, reasoning from present European interests, regard a peace, however obtained, and at whatever cost, preferable to a prosecution of the war at all; and who see only the difficulties and disappointments of the nation, and take no notice of the contraction and exhaustion of the insurgents.

March 16.

A hopeful view of European opinions, concerning our affairs, is happily coincident with returning confidence at home. Nothing was ever more preposterous than the idea engendered here, and sent abroad to perplex Europe, that an American Secretary of State would employ a Plenipotentiary of the Emperor of France to negotiate with American insurgents.

CHAPTER XX.
1863.

The Spanish-American Republics. Their Friendly Feeling. Their Wars and Revolutiɔns. Consuls and Confederate Cruisers. Improving the Consular Service. English Response to the Proclamation. Better Understanding of the War. Gradual Exhaustion of Southern Resources. Business Activity and Prosperity at the North. "Union Leagues" and "Loyal Leagues." Mr. Evarts in London. Enforcing the Neutrality Laws.

FROM the Rio Grande to Cape Horn, there was now a growing feeling, in the Spanish-American republics, of friendship for the United States. Their elder sister at the North was undergoing trials like their own. They looked with scant favor upon Confederate agents, or cruisers in their ports. They sent Ministers to Washington, with whom Seward's intercourse was frank, cordial, and unrestrained. But. while they could give their sympathies, they were powerless to render aid, or even to keep the peace within their own borders.

To one of the Ministers to a South-American republic Seward wrote, in explanation of his refusal to hastily recognize a new Provisional Government:

The United States observe with regret, an unquiet and revolutionary spirit pervading the Republican States on this continent, involving them continually

1863.]

THE CONSULAR SERVICE.

157

in desolating and exhausting wars; subversive not only of national independence, but even of liberty itself. The United States deem it their duty to all those States, to discourage that spirit so far as it can be done, by standing aloof from all such domestic controversies, until, in each case, the State immediately concerned shall unmistakably prove, that the Government which claims to represent it is fully accepted, and peacefully maintained by the people. To Mr. Culver, he wrote:

It is high time that the demon of civil war should be driven from this continent. Our own experience of the evils it inflicts could not fail to make us sympathize with the like sufferings, when they fall upon neighbors and friends, whose prosperity and welfare are so closely identified with our own. Early in 1861, finding that there was a suspension of diplomatic intercourse between the United States and Peru, Seward had bridged. over the difficulties, and restored friendly relations. A Minister was sent out to Lima; and Mr. Barreda, Peru's representative, was received at Washington. In 1863, Spain and Peru were drifting into hostilities, and Seward made proffer of the good offices of the United States toward reconciling their dispute.

The war was now leading to an enormous governmental expenditure, a great volume of paper money, and increased activity in every branch of trade. The increase of foreign importations, and the higher tariff of duties, made it necessary to create new officers, and adopt new safeguards for the collection of the revenues. The system of triplicate invoices had been inaugurated, and many new consular oflicers were appointed. Besides their ordinary duties, these Consuls were required to be on the alert in regard to Confederate vessels. The Secretary enjoined especial vigilance and prompt reports, in regard to rebel cruisers and blockade-runners. Some very useful information was thus obtained, at Havana, Nassau, Halifax, Liverpool, and other points, and communicated to the Navy and Treasury Departments. Another improvement in the consular service was that of making the system self-sustaining. Instead of being a drain upon the Treasury, the Consuls now returned, in the fees collected by them, an amount sufficient to meet all the expenditures for consular service, and even, in part, to defray those of the diplomatic officers. From London, Mr. Adams wrote:

The issue of the President's proclamation has had a decided effect, in concentrating the friendly party here, whilst it has, to a corresponding extent, provoked the anger of the abettors of the rebellion. The lines are becoming more and more clearly drawn.

Now popular demonstrations of sympathy with the Union began to manifest themselves in England. The Emancipation Society led off

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BETTER UNDERSTANDING IN ENGLAND.

[1863.

with a tender of congratulations and good wishes. A few weeks later, came public meetings at Chesterfield, at Cross Hills, at Salford, at Cobham, Ersham, and Weybridge, at Manchester, Edinburgh, Paisley, Birmingham, at Leeds, at Galashiels, at Bath, Bromley, South London, at Bradford, at Middleton, at Aberdane, at York, and at Exeter Hall. Before long, Mr. Adams was every week receiving resolutions and proceedings, to be transmitted with his dispatches to Washington.

He wrote:

There can be no doubt that these manifestations are the genuine expressions of the feelings of the religious, and of the working classes of Great Britain. The political effect of them is not unimportant. Spurgeon, at an assemblage of many thousand people, awoke a heartfelt response by saying: "God bless and strengthen the North! Give victory to their arms, and a speedy end to fearful strife."

Seward transmitted suitable replies, in the President's behalf, to these various communications. He said:

The British nation is coming to understand better the true nature of the question. When our unhappy domestic disturbances began, the position assumed by European States seemed to be that this Government must either suppress the insurrection instantly, or must altogether forego the attempt at self-preservation. Time has brought wholesome instructions to all parties, and it is now beginning to be understood that the real question is, whether a needless, causeless, and ruinous revolution, injurious to all human society, has been effected. When the public mind on both continents comes to consider, it perceives that revolution has been going backward, and the Union going forward, from the very beginning of the civil war.

As to the military situation, he wrote:

March 25.

It is undeniable that the revolutionary paper has depreciated to the standard of five or six dollars for one; that the revolutionary agents are reduced to the necessity of impressing their supplies; and that want and destitution have begun among the people. While these changes have occurred there, the loyal regions are exhibiting an equal change. The Government paper has improved at the rate of forty per cent, and is now being so rapidly absorbed, by the permanent funds, as to leave us no apprehensions of a failure of money, for all needful military and naval operations. The appeals of political parties, in the elections of last autumn, awakened all the doubts, fears, and disloyal passions that were existing in the country; and the display was so great as, for a time, to alarm patriotic men here, while it encouraged the enemies of the country abroad. There is a manifest reaction. It is apparent that the war is devastating and exhausting the insurrectionary regions; while it has not yet affected the resources, or impaired the prosperity of the country.

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"UNION" AND "LOYAL LEAGUES."

159

"Loyal Leagues," and "Union Leagues," were organizing now in the Northern cities. To one in Brooklyn, Seward wrote:

Write out the bond in a bold, broad, unmistakable hand. Let whomsoever will, be they old or young, of either sex, of whatever nation, religion, or race, sign it.

Let each subscriber take a certificate of membership, preserve it with care, and bequeath it, at his death, to whomsoever he loves best. The diploma will grow in value, as years roll away.

To the one in New York, he said:

I pray that my name may be enrolled in that league. I would prefer that distinction to any honors my fellow-citizens could bestow upon me. If the country lives, as I trust it will, let me be remembered among those who labored to save it. If Providence could disappoint the dearest hopes of mankind, let. not my name be found among those who proved unfaithful.

In another letter, he wrote:

When Governor Wright of Indiana told me that he was going to Philadelphia to attend a Union League, and asked what he should say to the League for me: "Tell them," I said, "to put my name down on their roll." He replied: "But there are two Union Leagues there; the one thinks this, and is gotten up under such and such auspices; the other thinks that, and is organized by so-and-so. In which of the two will you be enrolled?" "In both of them," was my reply. "We are now at the crisis of a revolutionary contest which involves nothing less than the question whether this nation shall suddenly perish through imbecility, after a successful and glorious existence of eighty years, or whether it shall survive a thousand years, diffusing light, liberty, and happiness throughout the world."

Charles A. Dana, for so many years associated with Mr. Greeley on the Tribune, had been called by Secretary Stanton to aid him in the War Department. This year he had been appointed Assistant Secretary of War, and was now rendering patriotic service both at the department and in the saddle, with the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the West.

Of the military situation, Seward wrote:

April 7.

The weather has been such as to preclude all operations in Virginia. Movements at Charleston, if not begun, are imminent. Private armed vessels are offering themselves to coöperate with the Navy in maintaining sieges and blockades.

April 10.

It is thought expedient that the most direct and energetic measures should be adopted to arrest, by judicial proceedings, the clearance and departure of the hostile vessels built, equipped, and manned in the ports of Great Britain. This Government has heard with surprise and regret that a loan has been