“I have delayed reading the ‘Maritime Rights’ speech till
I could enjoy it in the pamphlet form, corrected. It is an
admirable compend, a perfect _multum in parvo_. It is a
verification of the adage, that ‘Doctors don’t like to take
their own physic,’--our friend Bull being no exception to
the rule. I feel much obliged to you for the treat you have
afforded me.”
Alfred Pell, an intelligent Free-Trader, intimate with England,
and manager of an important insurance office, wrote from New
York:--
“I have a long letter from [Admiral] Dupont. He wrote when
his last advices from the North were of the 22d December,
so that he could not have known what action the Government
had determined upon; yet he says, ‘Few persons in the fleet
approved of the action of Commodore Wilkes, and some of the
most intelligent condemned it _in toto_, yet all allowed
that it showed high moral courage on the part of Wilkes.’ …
You show we do not stoop to conquer, and I am sure that our
friends on the other side will feel like the lady’s maid
spoken of by Swift, who said ‘that nothing annoyed her so
much as being caught in a lie.’”
John E. Lodge, merchant and personal friend, wrote from
Boston:--
“Your speech is more complete even than Mr. Seward’s note;
it is considered here as your very happiest and ablest
effort. The English will open their eyes at some parts of
it.”