Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Francis Lieber to Senator Charles Sumner, December 28, 1861

New York, December 28, 1861.

A Petition.

After I had sealed the large letter of this date to you, my dear friend, I read the paper of to-day more carefully, and must needs add this fervent petition — of a single man, to be sure — to the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, namely, — that should the Trent affair be settled by sense and reason, he, the said chairman, will move heaven and earth, that it be not done without settling a principle. Let us have that, at least, for all the trouble and all the expense which England doubtless has already incurred in the premises. Let some portion, at least, of that poisonous question, Search and Visit, be settled, — what may be done, and what may not. I know you have thought of all this; but I could not help addressing this petition to you, — and I shall ever pray, &c, &c

SOURCE: Thomas Sergeant Perry, Editor, The Life and Letters of Francis Lieber, p. 325-6

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