32

ATTITUDE TOWARD FOREIGN POWERS.

[SECT. VII.

that, notwithstanding the present temporary delusion, these states must always continue to be honored members of the Federal Union.

The secessionists acknowledged as belligerents by England.

Before Mr. Adams could reach London, the British government had determined to acknowledge the Confederates as a belligerent power. The French government also took a similar course. Against this Mr. Adams was directed to protest energetically. The ministers of those governments at Washington requested an interview with the Secretary of State, that they might read to him the instructions they had received. This was declined, it being understood that the purport of the paper was to the effect that the British government had arrived at the decision that "this country is divided into two belligerent parties, of which this government represents one, and that Great Britain assumes the attitude of a neutral between them."

Instructions to Mr.

ter to England.

Mr. Seward, in a letter to Mr. Adams (June 19th), says, "This government could not, consistently with a just regard to the sovereignty of the United States, permit itself to debate these novel and extraordinary positions with the government of her Britannic majesty, much less can we consent that that government shall announce to us a decision derogatory to that sovereignty at Adams, the minis- which it has arrived without previously conferring with us upon the question. The United States are still solely and exclusively sovereign within the territories they have lawfully acquired and long possessed, as they have always been. They are at peace with all the world, as, with unimportant exceptions, they have always been. They are living under the obli gations of the law of nations, and of treaties with Great Britain, just the same now as heretofore. They are, of course, the friend of Great Britain, and they insist that Great Britain shall remain their friend now just as she

CHAP. XXXIV.] ATTITUDE TOWARD FOREIGN POWERS.

33

has hitherto been. Great Britain, by virtue of their relations, is a stranger to parties and sections in this country, whether they are loyal to the United States or not, and Great Britain can neither rightfully qualify the sov ereignty of the United States, nor concede, nor recognize any rights, or interests, or power in any party, state, or section in contravention to the unbroken sovereignty of the Federal Union. What is now seen in this country is the occurrence, by no means peculiar, but frequent in all countries, more frequent even in Great Britain than here, of an armed insurrection engaged in attempting to overthrow the regularly constituted and established government. There is, of course, the employment of force by the government to suppress the insurrection, as every other government necessarily employs force in such cases. But these incidents by no means constitute a state of war, impairing sovereignty, creating belligerent sections, and entitling foreign states to intervene or to act as neutrals between them, or in any other way to cast off lawful obligations to the nation thus for the moment disturbed. Any other principle than this would be to resolve gov ernment every where into a thing of accident and caprice, and ultimately all human society into a state of perpetual war."

Instructions to oth

The American ministers at all the foreign courts received instructions of a similar tenor. They er foreign ministers. were emphatically told, "You can not be too decided or explicit in making known to the government that there is not now, nor has there been, nor will there be, the least idea existing in the government of suffering a dissolution of this Union to take place in any way whatever."

Political ideas at

the time of Lin

At the time of the inauguration of Lincoln's accession. coln there were two political ideas strug gling for supremacy in the republic.

34

The New England idea.

THE POLITICAL IDEAS OF THE TIME. [SECT. VII.

The first may be conveniently designated the New England idea. Its embodiment would have been the Union expanding all over the continent—a vast republic inhabited altogether by free men, and resting on individual intelligence.

The second or Southern idea would have been realized by the consolidation of the Slave States unThe Southern idea. der one strong government of a purely military type, and separated from the Free States of the Union. Such a government, accepting negro slavery as its essential basis, would have renewed the African trade. It would have looked forward to territorial expansion round the Mexican and Caribbean Seas, and expected eventually to embrace the West India Islands. In cotton, sugar, coffee, and other tropical products it would have found sources of vast wealth, and in the possession of the mouths of the Mississippi a control over all the interior of the North American continent.

An embodiment of the first of these ideas would therefore have been a republic founded on Reason; an embod iment of the second would have been a military empire founded on Force.

The former had innate strength; it was in harmony with the spirit of the age; it accepted the traditions of the republic founded by Washington. It had therefore a past history, and was identified with Liberty, Justice, Progress.

The second was in opposition to the conclusions of modern civilization. Its success implied Injustice, Oppression, and Violence. Nevertheless, as a political conception, it was not without barbaric splendor.

Simultaneously there also existed with these two ideas a minor but not unimportant influence. Its tion of the Demo- representatives were found in a portion of the Democratic party-that party which long,

Position of a por

cratic party.

CHAP. XXXIV.]

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

35

and often with brilliant success, had swayed the destinies of the republic. The political movements of the civil war can not be understood without a clear appreciation of the position and action of this influence.

The retention of power by the Democratic party had heretofore depended on an alliance between the slave interest of the South and the democracy of the North. That democracy had, however, in the course of time, become affected by the spirit of the age. The contagion was not limited to its lower ranks, for among the great statesmen who guided it there were some whose actions plainly indicated that they could no longer accept the rigid traditions of the past. The South took alarm when she saw what their intentions were in relation to the national territories. Imperious and impetuous, she broke with them. After the meeting of the Convention for the nomination of a President in Charleston (1860), the quarrel could no longer be concealed.

At this moment, therefore, the Democratic party was divided in itself, and hence was intrinsically weak. There were very many persons belonging to it animated by the purest patriotism, who had accepted its maxims as not unsuitable in times of peace, but who repudiated them instantly and utterly when it became apparent that the life of the nation was about to be assailed. Among them the republic found some of its noblest and ablest defenders. Democracies never betray their country. That is done only by privileged classes.

But there was, as has been said, a portion of the party who sought only for a perpetuation of place and power. These were ignobly insensible to the scorn with which the angry South was treating them. They had a secession scheme of their own. If New England, with her troublesome ideas and dangerous influence, could be cut off, a predominance would once more be given to the

36

LINCOLN.

[SECT. VII.

Southern scale of the balance, and they, with their old ally, might enjoy another period of power. They took encouragement from the belief that in revolutions it is factions which always rule.

Surprise has been sometimes expressed at the extraor dinary deception which the South apparently practiced on herself in looking for a divided North, and aid in her warlike proceedings from the Democratic party, which party must have become a nonentity with the success of secession. That expectation, however, rested on a knowl edge of this state of things.

This fragment of the Democratic party was therefore selfish and ignominious in its aim. With protestations of devotion to human liberty, it did not shrink from be ing the accomplice of slavery. It reflected none of the republican grandeur issuing from the first idea, none of the imperial splendor of the second. Ignobly hunting for place, it offered as a price the life of the nation, and was spurned with unutterable contempt by that very South whose favor it sought to conciliate.

With infinite labor and anxiety, Lincoln had at length organized his administration, and settled its domestic and foreign policy.

Lincoln gains the

ple.

One of his Illinois neighbors, who had long known him, says, "This tall, gaunt, melancholy man floatsupport of the peo- ed into our county in 1831 in a frail canoe down the North Fork of the Sangamon River, friendless, penniless, powerless, alone-begging for work in this city-ragged, and struggling for the common necessaries of life. This man, this peculiar man, left us in 1861 the President of the United States, backed by friends, and power, and fame." Notwithstanding his rustic manners and want of social polish, there was something in his demeanor which made even those who were