LETTER TO HENRY RICHARD, M. P., ON THE VOTE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
AGREEING TO HIS MOTION FOR AN ADDRESS TO THE QUEEN, PRAYING
COMMUNICATION WITH FOREIGN POWERS WITH A VIEW TO A GENERAL AND
PERMANENT SYSTEM OF INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION, JULY 10, 1873.
UNITED STATES SENATE CHAMBER, WASHINGTON,
July 10, 1873.
MY DEAR SIR,--Few events have given me more pleasure than the vote on
your motion. I thank you for making the motion; and I thank you also
for not yielding to Mr. Gladstone’s request to withdraw it. You were
in the very position of Buxton on his motion against Slavery. He,
too, insisted upon a division; and that vote led to Emancipation. May
you have equal success!
I anticipate much from this vote. It will draw attention on the
Continent, which the facts and figures of your speech will confirm.
I find in your speech grand compensation for the long postponement to
which you have been constrained. It marks an epoch in a great cause.
I know you will not rest. But this speech alone, with the signal
result, will make your Parliamentary life historic. Surely Mr.
Gladstone acted under some imagined exigency of politics. He cannot,
in his soul, differ from you. Honoring him much, I regret that he has
allowed himself to appear on the wrong side. What fame so great as
his, if he would devote the just influence of his lofty position to
securing for nations the inappreciable benefits of a tribunal for the
settlement of their differences!
How absurd to call your motion Utopian, if by this word is meant that
it is not practical. There is no question so supremely practical;
for it concerns not merely one nation, but every nation; and even
its discussion promises to diminish the terrible chances of war. Its
triumph would be the greatest reform of history. And I doubt not that
this day is near.
Accept my thanks and congratulations, and believe me, my dear Sir,
Sincerely yours,