And I Fear That That Fight Between The Monitor And
The Merrimac Has Strengthened This Wish By Giving To The Americans
An Unwarranted Confidence In Their Capability Of Defending
Themselves Against Any Injury From British Shipping.
It may be said
by them, and probably would be said by many of them, that this
feeling of
Enmity had not been engendered by any idea of national
injustice on our side; that it might reasonably exist, though no
suspicion of such injustice had arisen in the minds of any. They
would argue that the hatred on their part had been engendered by
scorn on ours - by scorn and ill words heaped upon them in their
distress.
They would say that slander, scorn, and uncharitable judgments
create deeper feuds than do robbery and violence, and produce deeper
enmity and worse rancor. "It is because we have been scorned by
England, that we hate England. We have been told from week to week,
and from day to day, that we were fools, cowards, knaves, and
madmen. We have been treated with disrespect, and that disrespect
we will avenge." It is thus that they speak of England, and there
can be no doubt that the opinion so expressed is very general. It
is not my purpose here to say whether in this respect England has
given cause of offense to the States, or whether either country has
given cause of offense to the other. On both sides have many hard
words been spoken, and on both sides also have good words been
spoken.
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