=Source.=--_The Duke of Argyll’s Autobiography and Memoirs_, vol. ii.,
pp. 196, 197. (John Murray, 1906.)
SPEECH BY THE DUKE OF ARGYLL AT A BANQUET TO LORD PALMERSTON IN
EDINBURGH, APRIL 1ST, 1863.
As my noble friend at the head of the Government told the meeting
he addressed last night at Glasgow, we may all have our individual
opinions as to the merits of the contest in America.
I, for one, have never concealed my own. As a Government and a people,
we must be what we have already been--absolutely neutral. We must
take no part whatever in that contest; only, let me remind you, the
peace and good will we are all desirous should be maintained between
these two great countries does not depend only--nay, does not depend
principally--upon the conduct of the Government. My noble friend [Lord
Palmerston] has spoken of the miseries of civil war, as well he may;
but no word has ever fallen from his lips which implies that anyone was
entitled to cast censure on the American Government for the contest in
which they are engaged.
Who are we that we should speak of civil war as in no circumstance
possible or permissible? Do we not remember that our own liberties
have been secured through every form and variety of civil war? How
much blood has been shed in the streets of this ancient capital of
Edinburgh! How many gory heads have been nailed up in its streets!
How many victims of civil war crowd our churchyards in every portion
of the country! How many lie upon our mountains with nothing to mark
them but the heath or the cairn! What do we say of these men? Do we
consider their course to have been an evil one? Do we not rather turn
back to those pages of history with the loving chisel of Old Mortality,
to refresh in our minds the recollection of their immortal names?
Yes, gentlemen, if it be true--and it is true--that the blood of the
martyrs has been the seed of the Church, it is equally true that the
blood of the patriots has been the foundation of the liberties of our
country. Let us extend, then, to our brethren in America the liberal
interpretation which we seek to be given to our own former annals. I,
for one, have not learned to be ashamed of that ancient combination of
the Bible and the sword. Let it be enough for us to pray and hope that
the contest whenever it may be brought to an end, shall bring with it
that great blessing to the white race which shall consist in the final
freedom of the black.