June 2,1861.
Since I wrote the enclosed I have perused the news brought
by the “America.” It is humiliating for us, who wish to honor England, to see
her lowering herself thus. England has somewhat recovered from her Crimean loss
of prestige, and she ought more carefully to husband her honor now. How
bitterly the cup she is brewing now may one day be pressed to her mouth by the
Irish, that her lips will bleed and her teeth will ache. England's conduct
toward us forms a disgusting contrast to her repeated fawning on Napoleon, —
England petting the South in her godless rebellion, and while even Virginians
come out in favor of reopening the slave-trade I . . . We now want more than
ever a large, sharp, and telling victory. That would change the premises, not
only of Southern, but also of English syllogisms. I believe the cotton
interest, the unpleasant consciousness of having played the second fiddle for a
long time, the silly doctrine of State-sovereignty which seems to be
acknowledged by almost all English papers, the snobbish idea of the
gentlemanliness of the South, and the irritation at our tariff — all combined —
have produced the remarkable state of feeling exhibited in the House of Lords.
I find that the English news produced here only greater earnestness — no doubt
still more so with you. What I fear most is that the next Congress will talk.
There are some very vile fellows in it, e. g. our Wood. If they could
only be made to abstain from all discussion of principle and let every vote be
an act I 1 send a copy of a pamphlet of mine. The Psalm of to-day, read in
church, had this beginning: “Why dost Thou stand so far away, O Lord?”
SOURCE: Thomas Sergeant Perry, Editor, The Life and
Letters of Francis Lieber, p. 319-20
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