January 6,1864.
. . . As to your question concerning the “Alabama,” I have not.
studied all the details. Nevertheless, I have no doubt whatever that it is
one of those cases in which a ponderously stronger power would make the
offender pay for the damages, the fairness and international equity being so
decidedly against England. All her excuses can only rest on little quibbles,
supported by the power which can make good “I won't.” . . .
How can we free ministers from the draft? Every Methodist
class-leader would be free. We should free some hundred thousand men in the
lustiest age. If the Catholic priest resists, because ecclesia non sitit sanguinem, they may fight with the
club, as the Capuchin did who fought with Andrew Hรถfer. . . .
Will the exemption clause, passed by the senate, pass the
house? Will the President sign it? It seems to me the greatest error, and, as
far as I can judge, very unpopular. I was amazed when I found the statement of
its passage through the senate. Would to God we had the pen of a Burke or the
voice of a Paul to impress the people with the truth that the nearer the
end, the greater the army. The effort of the Secessionists next spring will
be immense, and should we be beaten once or twice, it would galvanize again all
the abundant, though latent, Copperhead influences. That unfortunate “in three
months all will be over” has cost us very dearly.
SOURCE: Thomas Sergeant Perry, Editor, The Life and
Letters of Francis Lieber, p. 337-8
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