Vienna,
December, 1, 1861.
My Dearest Mother:
Your letter of November 5 reached us a few days ago. It is always a great
delight to me to receive a note, however short, from your hand, and this time
it was a nice, long, and very interesting letter. God knows how long we shall
be able to correspond at all, for what I have been dreading more than anything
else since our Civil War began seems now, alas! inevitable. Before this reaches
you the Southerners have obtained an advantage which all their generals and
diplomatists would not have procured for them in twenty years — the alliance of
England and the assistance of her fleets and armies. As a technical point, I
shall ever remain of opinion that a merchant ship like the Trent is no
portion of neutral soil, and that therefore it is no asylum for any individual
against a ship of war exercising its belligerent rights on the high seas. The
jurisdiction of English merchant vessels is municipal and extends only to their
own subjects. It cannot legally protect the enemies of the United States
against the United States government. The law of nations prevails on the ocean,
and the law of war is a part of that code. The law of war allows you to deal
with your enemy where you can find him, and to intercept an ambassador on his
passage to a neutral country, provided you can do it without violating neutral
soil. A ship of war is deemed a portion of its sovereign's soil; a merchantman
is not; so that if the Trent was not a ship of war, and was not within
three miles of a neutral coast, I should say that the arrest of Mason and
Slidell was legal according to public laws and to the decisions of English admiralty,
and according to the uniform practice of the English cruisers throughout the
early part of this century. We know too well how many of our sailors were taken
from our merchant vessels and compelled to serve against nations at peace with
us. But all this signifies nothing.
The English crown lawyers have decided that the arrest was
illegal, and it is certainly not in accordance with the principles which we
formerly sustained, although it is with the English practice. So England has at
last the opportunity which a very large portion of its inhabitants (although
not the whole, nor perhaps even a majority) have been panting for, and they
step into the field with the largest fleet which the world has ever seen as
champions and allies of the Southern Confederacy. If the commander of the Jacinto
acted according to his instructions, I hardly see how we are to extricate
ourselves from this dilemma, and it remains nevertheless true that Mason and
Slidell have done us more damage now than they ever could have done as
diplomatists. I am sorry to have taken up the whole of my letter with this
theme. Our thoughts are of nothing else, and our life is in telegrams. I never
expect another happy hour, and am almost brokenhearted. My whole soul was in
the cause of the United States government against this pro-slavery mutiny, and
I never doubted our ultimate triumph; but if the South has now secured the
alliance of England, a restoration of the Union becomes hopeless.
We are on very good terms with the English ambassador here
and Lady Bloomfield, and they, as well as most of the members of the embassy,
have always expressed themselves in the most frank and sympathetic language in
regard to our government and our cause, and even now that this incident has
occurred, Lord Bloomfield, in discussing the matter with me last night,
expressed the deepest regret, together with the most earnest hope that the
affair might be arranged, although neither he nor I can imagine how such a
result is to be reached. We are, as you may suppose, very unhappy, and have
really nothing to say about our life here. If Vienna were paradise it would be
gloomy under such circumstances. Mary and Lily are both well, and join me in
much love to you and my father and all the family.
I shall write by the next steamer, if only a single page
like this. Perhaps the communications will be stopped before your answer can
arrive.
God bless you. And believe me
Your
ever-affectionate son,
J. L. M.
SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The
Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Library Edition,
Volume 2, p. 218-20
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