There Was Every
Desire, At That Juncture, To Work Cordially With Our Queen And Her
People.
For example, the passing of the Slave Trade Bill, modelled on
English legislation, in, I think, 1863, through both Houses of Congress
at Washington, with hardly a hostile expression.
Apropos of this
Bill, Mr. Charles Sumner told me, in 1865, at his house at Boston, the
following story. "The Bill for putting down the slave trade in
association with England and the other anti-slave trade countries
passed so quickly as to astonish its friends. Charles Sumner, on the
final question being put, 'that the Bill do pass' - as we should put it
at home - immediately ran across to Mr. Seward, opened the door of Mr.
Seward's private office, without knocking, and found Mr. Seward asleep.
He awoke him by calling out, 'Seward, Seward, the Bill is passed: the
Bill is passed.' Seward gradually opened his eyes, stared under his
bushy eyebrows, and said, 'Then what in - - has become of the "great
democratic party?"'"
Again, it was the fault of our own Government at home that the
Reciprocity Treaty, nearly expiring, was not renewed. Our Government
did nothing. It was the "masterly inactivity" of Lord Granville, and
other Whigs, which has done so much harm to the prestige and power of
our Empire. Opportunities are everything - they are the statesman's
chances. In this case the chance was lost. However, I had every reason
to believe that Mr. Seward would have been willing to agree to the use
of United States lines up to St. Paul (which he once predicted would
become the centre, or "hub," of the United States) and through
Minnesota to the boundary of the Hudson's Bay territory, - under a
treaty of international neutralization.
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