MR. PRESIDENT, in concluding these remarks, I desire to say that I
am no volunteer. For several years I have carefully avoided saying
anything on this most irritating question, being anxious that
negotiations should be left undisturbed to secure a settlement which
could be accepted by a deeply injured nation. The submission of the
pending treaty to the judgment of the Senate left me no alternative.
It became my duty to consider it carefully in committee, and to review
the whole subject. If I failed to find what we had a right to expect,
and if the just claims of our country assumed unexpected proportions,
it was not because I would bear hard on England, but because I wish
most sincerely to remove all possibility of strife between our two
countries; and it is evident that this can be done only by first
ascertaining the nature and extent of difference. In this spirit I
have spoken to-day. If the case against England is strong, and if our
claims are unprecedented in magnitude, it is only because the conduct
of this power at a trying period was most unfriendly, and the injurious
consequences of this conduct were on a scale corresponding to the
theatre of action. Life and property were both swallowed up, leaving
behind a deep-seated sense of enormous wrong, as yet unatoned and even
unacknowledged, which is one of the chief factors in the problem now
presented to the statesmen of both countries. The attempt to close this
great international debate without a complete settlement is little
short of puerile.
With the lapse of time and with minuter consideration the case
against England becomes more grave, not only from the questions of
international responsibility which it involves, but from better
comprehension of the damages, which are seen now in their true
proportions. During the war, and for some time thereafter, it was
impossible to state them. The mass of a mountain cannot be measured at
its base; the observer must occupy a certain distance; and this rule
of perspective is justly applicable to damages which are vast beyond
precedent.
A few dates will show the progress of the controversy, and how the
case enlarged. Going as far back as 20th November, 1862, we find our
Minister in London, Mr. Adams, calling for redress from the British
Government on account of the Alabama.[92] This was the mild beginning.
On the 23d October, 1863, in another communication, the same Minister
suggested to the British Government any “fair and equitable form of
conventional arbitrament or reference.”[93] This proposition slumbered
in the British Foreign Office for nearly two years, during which the
Alabama was pursuing her piratical career, when, on the 30th August,
1865, it was awakened by Lord Russell only to be knocked down in these
words:--
“In your letter of the 23d of October, 1863, you were pleased
to say that the Government of the United States is ready to
agree to any form of arbitration.… Her Majesty’s Government
must, therefore, decline either to make reparation and
compensation for the captures made by the Alabama, or to refer
the question to any foreign state.”[94]
Such was our repulse from England, having at least the merit of
frankness, if nothing else. On the 17th October, 1865, our Minister
informed Lord Russell that the United States had finally resolved
to make no effort for arbitration.[95] Again the whole question
slumbered until 27th August, 1866, when Mr. Seward presented a list
of individual claims on account of the pirate Alabama and other Rebel
cruisers.[96] From that time negotiation has continued, with ups and
downs, until at last the pending treaty was signed. Had the early
overtures of our Government been promptly accepted, or had there been
at any time a just recognition of the wrong done, I doubt not that
this great question would have been settled; but the rejection of our
very moderate propositions, and the protracted delay, which afforded
an opportunity to review the case in its different bearings, have
awakened the people to the magnitude of the interests involved. If our
demands are larger now than at our first call, it is not the only time
in history when such a rise has occurred. The story of the Sibyl is
repeated, and England is the Roman king.
Shall these claims be liquidated and cancelled promptly, or allowed to
slumber until called into activity by some future exigency? There are
many among us, who, taking counsel of a sense of national wrong, would
leave them to rest without settlement, so as to furnish a precedent
for retaliation in kind, should England find herself at war. There are
many in England, who, taking counsel of a perverse political bigotry,
have spurned them absolutely; and there are others, who, invoking the
point of honor, assert that England cannot entertain them without
compromising her honor. Thus there is peril from both sides. It is not
difficult to imagine one of our countrymen saying, with Shakespeare’s
Jew, “The villany you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard
but I will better the instruction”; nor is it difficult to imagine an
Englishman firm in his conceit that no apology can be made and nothing
paid. I cannot sympathize with either side. Be the claims more or less,
they are honestly presented, with the conviction that they are just;
and they should be considered candidly, so that they shall no longer
lower, like a cloud ready to burst, upon two nations, which, according
to their inclinations, can do each other such infinite injury or such
infinite good. I know it is sometimes said that war between us must
come sooner or later. I do not believe it. But if it must come, let it
be later, and then I am sure it will never come. Meanwhile good men
must unite to make it impossible.
Again I say, this debate is not of my seeking. It is not tempting;
for it compels criticism of a foreign power with which I would have
more than peace, more even than concord. But it cannot be avoided. The
truth must be told,--not in anger, but in sadness. England has done
to the United States an injury most difficult to measure. Considering
when it was done and in what complicity, it is truly unaccountable. At
a great epoch of history, not less momentous than that of the French
Revolution or that of the Reformation, when Civilization was fighting
a last battle with Slavery, England gave her name, her influence,
her material resources to the wicked cause, and flung a sword into
the scale with Slavery. Here was a portentous mistake. Strange that
the land of Wilberforce, after spending millions for Emancipation,
after proclaiming everywhere the truths of Liberty, and ascending to
glorious primacy in the sublime movement for the Universal Abolition
of Slavery, could do this thing! Like every departure from the rule of
justice and good neighborhood, her conduct was pernicious in proportion
to the scale of operations, affecting individuals, corporations,
communities, and the nation itself. And yet down to this day there is
no acknowledgment of this wrong,--not a single word. Such a generous
expression would be the beginning of a just settlement, and the best
assurance of that harmony between two great and kindred nations which
all must desire.