The Civil War in America, CHAPTER XVII THE RULE OF LORD PALMERSTON. THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. SUCH UCH temporary success as Napoleon attained in Mexico would not have been possible but for the preoccupation of the 1861-1865 United States. In the autumn of 1860 the States were in the throes of a Presidential Election. That contest was the most momentous in their history, for it resulted in the election of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln had leapt into fame in 1858 as the opponent of Douglas in the Senatorial Election for the State of Illinois. Douglas was successful, but two years later the tables were turned and Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States. In the first speech of his Senatorial campaign Lincoln had said: "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe that this Government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved: I do not expect the house to fall: but I do expect that it will cease to be divided. It will become all the one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and will place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward until it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South." Lincoln was no root and branch Abolitionist, but the election of this Western attorney to the Presidency was taken by the Slave States as a menace to the institution by which they stood. In February, 1861, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas following the lead of South Carolina, formally seceded from the Union, organized a Government known as the "Confederate States of America"; drafted a Constitution and elected, as their first President, Jefferson Davis. It is difficult to deny the constitutional right of the Southern States to withdraw from a Federal Union formed by a 1865] THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA 315 contract between "Sovereign" States. It is not less difficult to deny that, but for the supposed menace to the institution of slavery, this right, would not have been exercised. Least of all can it be doubted that secession was a tactical blunder on the part of the South. Slavery would have been safer inside than outside the Union. But the hot blood of the South was up. On March 4th, 1861, Lincoln entered upon the high office to which he had been elected in November, and at once announced that he had neither the will nor the power to abolish slavery, but that no "secession" could be permitted. The Confederates seized Federal forts and arsenals, the first shot being fired against Fort Sumter at Charleston (April 12th, 1861). Lincoln then called for 75,000 volunteers and declared the seceding States to be under blockade. The great Civil War had begun. The varying fortunes of that war during the next four years (1861-1865) cannot be followed in these pages, except in so far as they react upon England and English policy. The British Government at once (May 8th) recognized the Confederate States as belligerents and issued (May 13th) the usual proclamation of neutrality. The recognition of belligerency was bitterly resented by the partisans of the North, but unreasonably, since it was logically necessitated by the proclamation of a "blockade ". Nevertheless, it was accepted as proof positive that English Opinion in sympathies were with the South. As a fact opinion was divided, England The Government maintained throughout a strict neutrality. Lord Russell, it is true, committed one bad blunder, for which this country afterwards paid dearly, but the official attitude was not merely correct but dignified and calm. Nevertheless, the North had some ground for regarding England as a partisan of the South. Society" in the narrower sense was all for the gentlemen of the cotton States against the commercial Yankees. The more influential organs of public opinion tended in the same direction. Palmerston, Russell, and Gladstone all said or did things which seemed to indicate similar sympathies, and would have done more had they not been restrained by a majority of their Cabinet colleagues. The Duke of Argyll and Lord Stanley, Cobden and Bright were, on the contrary, in favour of the North, and the 1 In July, 1861, Lord John, now 69 years of age, had accepted a Peerage as Earl Russell of Kingston Russell and Viscount Amberley of Amberley and Ardsalla. - The affair of the Trent working classes, despite the terrible sufferings inflicted on many of The war had been in progress about seven months when an Would he seize the opportunity? For a month there was tense anxiety in England and indeed throughout Europe. The friendly offices of France and Russia at this juncture ought never to be forgotten. Both Powers warned the American Government that peace could be preserved only by prompt surrender. Mr. Thurlow Weed, an intimate friend of the Federal Secretary of State and then resident in London as his authorized but unofficial 1 The Prince's draft is reproduced in facsimile by Martin, Life, v. 422. 1865] DEATH OF THE PRINCE CONSORT 817 representative, warned Mr. Seward that feelings in England were deeply stirred, and urged him "to yield to the British demands absolutely and immediately". If Prince Albert built the bridge, the tact of Lord Lyons induced the American Government to use it. On Christmas Day, 1861, President Lincoln agreed to hand over the prisoners to the British Government, and on January 9th, 1862, the good news reached England that Lincoln had disavowed the action of Captain Wilkes and that the immediate crisis was at an end. of the The Queen justly claimed this happy issue as a triumph for The death "her beloved Prince ". But the Prince himself did not live to see Prince it. On December 14th, 1861, he succumbed to an attack of gastric Consort fever complicated by congestion of the lungs. The grief of the whole nation was profound, that of the Queen was indescribable.1 Those who were brought nearest to the Queen knew best what she and the country had lost. And the country came to know it too. At last the Queen's husband was known for what he was; at last his worth was recognized : all narrow jealousies Are silent; and we see him as he moved, of the war The war-cloud between England and the Northern States Progress passed; between North and South there was no cessation of conflict. In England there was a superstition that the shopkeepers of the North could never beat the gentlemen of the South. And for a time it seemed to be justified. As in our own Civil War, the first advantage lay with the aristocratic party. The North could produce, for a while, no General fit to cope with "Stonewall" Jackson and Robert E. Lee. And the South had the advantage of strategical position; if they stood where they were, they won : the North could win only by crushing their resistance and capturing their capital. But though the initial advantages were with the South, the odds were terribly against them. The North had the money, the men, and the machinery of Government. Nevertheless, the dejection in their ranks was great as the second year of 1 Cf. e.g. Martin, v. pp. 440 seq.; Q.V.L. iii. c. xxx. 2 They numbered 22,000,000 against 9,000,000, of whom 3,500,000 were slaves. Attitude of strife wore on without bringing them any nearer their main objective. The Confederate States, meanwhile, were desperately anxious the British to secure from the leading neutral a recognition of their indepenment; the dence. And in the autumn of 1862 they were within measurable Govern armed cruisers distance of getting it from France and England, if not from Russia. Napoleon III. would gladly have conceded it, and Palmerston and Russell had got as far (Sept. 1862) as to be willing to offer mediation. If mediation were refused by the North, the independence of the South was to be recognized. On October 7th, a third member of the Government, Mr. Gladstone, made a memorable speech at Newcastle: "We may have our own opinions about slavery; we may be for or against the South; but there is no doubt that Jefferson Davis and other leaders of the South have made an army; they are making, it appears, a navy; and they have made what is more than either, they have made a nation". The sensation produced by these words was, says Lord Morley, "immediate and profound". They were taken to portend immediate recognition of Southern independence. Mainly, however, through the influence of Lord Granville, the Cabinet decided against an offer of mediation. Nevertheless, the North had cause of offence against them. The South were making desperate efforts to repair the lack of a navy. They continued, by various devices, to acquire a small fleet of armed cruisers, which inflicted immediate damage on the merchant shipping of the North. Several of these cruisers were built in English yards. The most famous and the most destructive of them-the Alabama-was built by the famous firm of Laird at Birkenhead. More than once before she left the docks, Mr. Adams, the American Minister in London, warned Russell as to the real destination of the vessel, and begged him to stop her. Partly owing to his characteristic pedantry, partly to a series of accidents, Russell's intervention came too late, and the Alabama was let loose to prey upon American commerce. Russell's blunder cost this country over £3,000,000 sterling and not a little humiliation. 1 Life of Gladstone, ii. 79. It is fair to say that the words were bitterly repented of. 2 Fitzmaurice, Granville, i. 443-444. 3 Cf. Walpole's Life of Russell, ii. 352-367. |