Russia sent a
flourishing general message, saying that she wished the North might
win, and ending with some good general advice proposing peace.
It
was such a message as strong nations send to those which are
weaker. Had England ventured on such counsel, the diplomatic paper
would probably have been returned to her. It is, I think, manifest
that an absolute and disinterested neutrality has been the only
course which could preserve England from deserved rebuke - a
neutrality on which her commercial necessity for importing cotton
or exporting her own manufactures should have no effect. That our
government would preserve such a neutrality I have always insisted;
and I believe it has been done with a pure and strict disregard to
any selfish views on the part of Great Britain. So far I think
England may feel that she has done well in this matter. But I must
confess that I have not been so proud of the tone of all our people
at home as I have been of the decisions of our statesmen. It seems
to me that some of us never tire in abusing the Americans, and
calling them names for having allowed themselves to be driven into
this civil war. We tell them that they are fools and idiots; we
speak of their doings as though there had been some plain course by
which the war might have been avoided; and we throw it in their
teeth that they have no capability for war.
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