trate? Pause, I entreat you, and consider for

a moment what reasons you can give that will even satisfy yourselves in calmer moments; what reasons you can give to your fellow-sufferers in the calamity that it will bring upon us. What reasons can you give to the nations of the earth to justify it? They will be the calm and deliberate judges in the case, and what cause or one overt act can you name or point to, on which to rest the plea of justification? What right has the North assailed? What interest of the South has been invaded? What justice has been denied? And what claim founded in justice and right has been withheld? Can either of you to-day name one governmental act of wrong, deliberately and purposely done by the Government of Washington, of which the South has a right to complain? I challenge the

answer."

All the facts above referred to in this paper were patent to the whole world, were ostentatiously put forth by the insurgents, and were openly commented upon by the public press throughout the United States. It is, therefore, not unreasonable to presume that the British Government received from its representatives and agents in the United States full information concerning them as they took place. To suppose the

Inauguration of

Mr. Lincoln.

The British Government informed of his purposes.

contrary would be to ignore the well-known fidelity of those officers.

Mr. Lincoln entered upon the duties of his office on the 4th of March, 1861. He found the little Army of the United States scattered, and disintegrated; the Navy sent to distant quarters of the globe; the Treasury bankrupt; the credit of the United States seriously injured by forced sales of Government securities; the public service demoralized; the various Departments of the Government filled with unfaithful clerks and officers, whose sympathies were with the South, who had been placed in their positions for the purpose of paralyzing his administration. These facts, which were known to the world, must have attracted the attention of the observant Representative of Great Britain at Washington, and must have enabled him to make clear to his Government the reasons why the Cabinet at Washington must pause before asserting its rights by force.

The new Government took an early opportunity to inform the British Government of its purposes. On the 9th of March, four days after the installment of Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Dallas, the Minister of the United States at London, was instructed to communicate to Lord Russell the Inaugural AdSeward to Dallas, Vol. I, page 8.

dress of the President, and to assure him that the

The British Gov. erument informed

President entertained full confidence in the speedy of his purposes. restoration of the harmony and unity of the Government. He was further told that "the United States have had too many assurances and manifestations of the friendship and good-will of Great Britain, to entertain any doubt that these considerations will have their just influence with the British Government, and will prevent that Government from yielding to solicitations to intervene in any unfriendly way in the domestic concerns of our country."

'Mr. Dallas, in complying with his instructions, (April 9, 1861,) pressed upon Lord Russell the importance of England and France abstaining, "at least for a considerable time, from doing what, by encouraging groundless hopes, would widen a breach still thought capable of being closed." Lord Russell replied that the coming of Mr. Adams (Mr. Dallas's successor) "would doubtless be regarded as the appropriate and ing. natural occasion for finally discussing and determining the question."

1

The United States therefore had reasonable ground to believe, not only in view of the great moral interests of which they were the exponents, and of the long-standing friendship between them

Dallas to Seward, Vol. I, page 12.

Lord John Russell promises to

await Mr. Adams's

arrival before act

Surrender of Fort Sumter.

The insurgents to issue letters of marque.

and Great Britain, but also in consequence of the voluntary promise of Lord Russell, that an opportunity would be afforded them to explain their views and purposes through their newly selected and specially trusted representative; and least of all had they cause to anticipate that a government which they supposed to be in sympathy with their policy as to African slavery, would precipitate a decision as to the insurgents, which was so obviously injurious to the United States, as to almost appear to have been designedly so.

The delay upon which the Government of the United States relied to firmly secure the loyalty of the Border States, and their aid in inducing the peaceable return of the Gulf States, was interrupted by the attack upon Fort Sumter, made by order of the Government at Montgomery. This attack ended in the surrender of the garrison on the 13th of April. This was followed on the 15th of April by a 'Proclamation of the President, calling out the militia, and convening an extra session of Congress on the 4th day of the next July.

2

On the 17th of April, Mr. Jefferson Davis gave notice that letters of marque would be granted by the persons who had attempted to establish a

Government at Montgomery, by usurping the authority of the United States.

Proclamation giving notice of blockade.

Objects of that

On the 19th of April, President Lincoln issued a Proclamation, declaring that a blockade of the ports within the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and proclamation. Texas would be established for the purpose of collecting the revenue in the disturbed part of the country, and for the protection of the public peace, and of the lives and properties of quiet and orderly citizens, until Congress should assemble. That body was summoned to assemble on the fourth day of the following July.

The full text of this Proclamation will be found in Vol. I, page 21.

In the course of the discussion between the two Governments growing out of the war, it has been repeatedly asserted that Her Majesty's Government was induced to confer upon the insurgents in the South the status of belligerents, in consequence of the receipt of the news of the President's Proclamation of April 19. The United States are therefore forced to invite the patience of the Board of Arbitrators, while they establish, from conclusive proof, that Her Majesty's Government is mistaken in that respect.

The joint action of France invited

Before any armed collision had taken place, there existed an understanding between Her Majesty's by Great Britain.