STATES FROM THE OUTBREAK TO THE

CLOSE OF THE INSURRECTION.

In 1860 the United States had been an inde

Relations of the United States with Great Brit

pendent nation for a period of eighty-four years, in prior to 1860. and acknowledged as such by Great Britain for a period of seventy-seven years.

During this period, while sharing to a remarkable extent in the general prosperity of the Christian Powers, they had so conducted their relations toward those Powers as to merit, and they believed that they had secured, the good-will and esteem of all. Their prosperity was the result of honest thrift; their exceptional increase of population was the fruit of a voluntary immigration to their shores; and the vast extension of their domain was acquired by purchase and not by conquest.

From no people had they better right to expect a just judgment than from the people of Great Britain. In 1783, the War of Separation had been closed by a treaty of peace, which adjusted all the questions then pending between the two Governments. In 1794, new questions having arisen,

Relations of the

United States with Great Brit

ain prior to 1860.

growing out of the efforts of France to make the
ports of the United States a base of hostile opera-
tions against Great Britain, a new treaty was made,

at the instance of the United States, by which all
the difficulties were arranged satisfactorily to Great
Britain, and at the same time so as to preserve
the neutrality and the honor of the United States.
In the same year, also, the first neutrality act was
passed by Congress,' prescribing rules and estab-
lishing the modes of proceeding to enable the
United States to perform their duties as a neutral
toward Great Britain and other belligerents. In
1812, they were forced into war with Great Brit-
ain, by the claim of that Power to impress seamen
on the high seas from vessels of the United States.
After three years the war ceased, and the claim
has never since been practically enforced.
1818, they met British negotiators more than half-
way in arranging disputed points about the North
American Fisheries. In 1827, having added to
their own right of discovery the French and Span-
ish titles to the Pacific coast, they voluntarily
agreed to a joint occupation of a disputed portion
of this territory, rather than resort to the last
arbitrament of nations. In 1838, when a serious
rebellion prevailed in Canada, the Congress of the
United States, at the request of Great Britain,
For an abstract of this act see Vol. IV, pp. 102-103.

In

Relations of the United States

ain prior to 1860.

passed an act authorizing the Government to exercise exceptional powers to maintain the national with Great Britneutrality. In 1842 the Government of the United States met a British Envoy in a spirit of conciliation, and adjusted by agreement the disputed boundary between Maine and the British Possessions. In 1846 they accepted the proposal of Great Britain, made at their own suggestion, to adopt the forty-ninth parallel as a compromise-line between the two Columbias, and to give to Great Britain the whole of Vancouver's Island. In 1850 they waived, by the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, the right of acquisition on the Isthmus, across which for many years the line of communication from one part of their dominions to the other must run.

In 1854, they
British Posses-

conferred upon the people of the
sions in North America the advantages of a free,
full commercial intercourse with the United States
for their products, without securing corresponding
benefits in return. Thus a series of difficult ques-
tions, some of which might have led to war, had
been peaceably arranged by negotiations, and the
increasing intercourse of the two nations was con-
stantly fostered by continuing acts of friendliness
on the part of the Government of the United States.

All the political relations of the United States with England, with the exception of the episode of the war of 1812, had been those of increasing amity and friendship, confirmed by a repeated

tions of the two Governments

1860.

Friendly rela- yielding of extreme rights, rather than imperil the in cordial relations which the United States so much desired to maintain with their nearest neighbors, their best customers, and their blood-relations. They had good right, therefore, to believe, and they did believe, that, by virtue of this friendly political understanding, and in consequence of the gradual and steady assimilation of the commercial interests and the financial policies of the two Governments, there was in Great Britain, in the summer of 1860, sympathy for the Government and affection for the people of the United States. They had equal reason to think that neither the British Government nor people would look with either ignorance or unconcern upon any disaster to them. Above all, they had at that time a right to feel confident, that in any controversy which might grow out of the unhappy existence of African slavery in certain of the Southern States, the British Government would not exercise its sovereign powers, questionably or unquestionably, in favor of the supporters of slavery.

On the 6th day of November, in that year, the jurisdiction of the Government of the United States extended unquestioned over eighteen States from which African slavery was excluded;' over

1 Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, Oregon.

1

fifteen States in which it was established by law ;' and over a vast territory in which, under the then prevailing laws, persons with African blood in their veins could be held as slaves.

This large unsettled or partially settled territory, as it might become peopled, was also liable to be divided into new States, which, as they entered the Union, might, as the law then stood, become "Slave States," thus giving the advocates of slavery an increased strength in the Congress of the nation, and more especially in the Senate, and a more absolute control of the National Government.

Since the date named three new States, entitled to a representation of six Senators in the National Senate, have been admitted into the Union from this territory; and the remainder of the great dominions of the United States is now divided into ten incipient political organizations, known as Territories, which, with one exception, may at some future time become States.3

1 Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas, Florida, Texas.

2 Nevada, Nebraska, Kansas. West Virginia was formed from a portion of the territory of Virginia, and for this reason does not come within the meaning of the text, though it became a State after the date mentioned.

3 New Mexico, Utah, Washington, Dakota, Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, District of Columbia. The territory known as the Indian Territory is without political organization, having neither Governor nor Delegate in Congress. It cannot be considered as coming within the meaning of the text.

The United States in 1860.