Saturday, November 29, 2014

John Lothrop Motley to Mary Benjamin Motley, June 18, 1861

June 18th, Tuesday morning, 7 A.M. — I continue my letter for a moment before breakfast. We are going across the Potomac at nine—Tom and I and the two Lees. I dined with Seward entirely enfamille, no one being present but his son and son's wife. . . .

We had, among the first acts of the new anti-slavery administration, agreed to do, what we have been so freely reproached for not doing, when our Government was controlled by an administration of which Jefferson Davis was a member, and we are met on the threshold lby the declaration that his invitation to pirates of all nations is sufficient to convert them into good, honest belligerents.1

Had the English declaration been delayed a few weeks or even days, I do not think it would ever have, been made, and I cannot help thinking that it was a most unfortunate mistake. Nevertheless I am much less anxious about the relations between our two countries than I was. Nobody really wishes a rupture on either side, and I think that the natural love of justice and fair play which characterises England will cause regret at the mistake which has been committed. Moreover, there can hardly be much doubt, despite the misrepresentations of an influential portion of the English press and of some public men, that the English nation will understand the true position of the American Government in this great crisis.

We have circumscribed slavery, and prevented for ever its extension by one square inch on this continent, and at the same time we mean to preserve our great republic one and indivisible. It is impossible that so simple and noble a position as this should fail to awaken the earnest sympathy of nine-tenths of the English nation. To the question whether the task is beyond our strength, I can only repeat that General Scott — than whom a better strategist or a more lofty-minded and honourable man does not exist — believes that he can do it in a year; and so far as I can make out his design, it is by accumulating so much force and by making such imposing demonstrations everywhere, as to convince the rebels that their schemes — already proved to have been false in all their calculations founded on co-operations in the Free States — have become ridiculous. Thus without any very great effusion of blood perhaps, the rebellion may be starved out and broken to pieces. Mr. Seward says that the great cause of the revolt is the utter misapprehension in the Slave States of the Northern character. It has hitherto been impossible to make the sections thoroughly acquainted with each other. Now they will be brought together by the electric shock of war. And they will learn to know each other thus, which is better than not knowing each other at all — and so on. I give you a brief idea of his schemes and hopes.

He read me a long despatch which he is sending to-day to the French and English Governments. He did this of course confidentially, and because, as he was pleased to say, I had been fighting our battles so manfully in England, for he, like every one else, praised warmly my Times' letter. I suppose ultimately this despatch will be published; but I have only room now to say that I think it unobjectionable in every way — dignified, reasonable, and not menacing, although very decided. I said little in reply, and soon afterwards we went to the White House, in order to fall upon Abraham's bosom. I found the President better- and younger-looking than his pictures. He is very dark and swarthy, and gives me the idea of a very honest, confiding, unsophisticated man, whose sincerity of purpose cannot be doubted. I will say more of him in my next, for I am obliged to close suddenly. By the way, let me correct one statement in another part of my letter. Both the President and Seward tell me that, in Scott's opinion, an attack by the rebels on the lines before Washington is not impossible. It would be a desperate and hopeless venture. Maryland has just gone for the Union by a very large majority, electing all members of Congress. Good-bye. God bless you and my darlings!

Ever your affectionate
J. L. M.
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1 Early in the administration of Mr. Lincoln, the Government of the United States proposed to accede to the four articles in regard to maritime warfare adopted at the Congress of Paris in 1856. The British Government, however, wished to state that by the proposed convention for such accession Great Britain did not mean to undertake any engagement bearing upon the Civil War in America. The President decided that such a declaration was inadmissible, as the United States could accede to the Articles only upon a perfectly equal footing with all the other parties. The American Government was aggrieved by the obstruction offered by Great Britain to its accession to the four articles, especially as Great Britain was at the time secretly proposing to the Confederate Government to accept but three of them. The exequatur of the British Consul at Charleston, who had been the intermediary of the negotiations of his Government with the Confederate authorities, was revoked by the President.

SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Volume 1, p. 380-2

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