Part 49 (1/2)
The backwoods lawyer questioned, too, the right of a naval officer to turn his quarter-deck into a court and decide questions of international law offhand. He raised the point at once whether these men thus captured might not be white elephants on the hands of the Government. Moreover he reminded his Cabinet that we had fought England once for daring to do precisely this thing.
Great Britain promptly drew her sword and made ready for war.
Queen Victoria's Government not only demanded that the return of these pa.s.sengers be made at once with an apology, but did it in a way so offensive that a less balanced man in power would have lost his head and committed the fatal blunder.
The tall, quiet Chief Magistrate was equal to the occasion. Great Britain had ordered her navy on a war footing, dispatched eight thousand troops to Canada to strike by land as well as sea, allowing us but seven days in which to comply with all her demands or hand Lord Lyons his pa.s.sports.
The President immediately dictated a reply which forced her Prime Minister to accept it and achieved for the Nation the establishment of a principle for which we had fought in vain in 1812.
He ordered the prisoners returned and an apology expressed. His apology was a two-edged sword thrust which Great Britain was compelled to take with a groan.
”In 1812,” the President said, ”the United States fought because you claimed the right to stop our vessels on the high seas, search them and take by force British subjects found thereon. Our country in making this surrender, adheres to the ancient principle for which we contended and we are glad to find that Her Majesty's Government in demanding this surrender thereby renounces an error and accepts our position.”
Lord Palmerston made a wry face, but was compelled to accept the surrender, and with it seal his own humiliation as a beaten diplomat.
War with England at this moment would have meant unparalleled disaster.
France had ambitions in Mexico and she was bound in friends.h.i.+p to England. The two great Nations of Europe would have been hurled against our divided country with the immediate recognition of the Confederacy.
The President forced this return of the prisoners and apparent surrender to Great Britain in the face of the blindest and most furious outbursts of popular rage.
Gilbert Winter rose in the Senate and in thunderous oratory voiced the well-nigh unanimous feeling of the millions of the North of all parties and factions:
”I warn the administration against this dastardly and cowardly surrender to a foreign foe! The voice of the people demand that we stand firm on our dignity as a Sovereign Nation. If the President and his Cabinet refuse to listen they will find themselves engulfed in a fire that will consume them like stubble. They will find themselves helpless before a power that will hurl them from their places!”
The President was still under the cloud of public wrath over this affair when the crisis of the problem of emanc.i.p.ation became acute. The gradual growth of the number of his bitter foes in Was.h.i.+ngton he had seen with deep distress. And yet it was inevitable. No man in his position could administer the great office whose power he was wielding without fear or favor and not make enemies. And now both friend and foe were closing in on him with a well-nigh resistless demand for emanc.i.p.ation.
Hour after hour he sat patiently in his office receiving these impa.s.sioned delegations.
Old Edward was standing at the door again smiling and was.h.i.+ng his hands:
”A delegation of editors, presenting Mr. Horace Greeley's 'Prayer of Twenty Millions.'”
The patient eyes were lifted front his desk, and the strong mouth firmly pressed:
”Let them in.”
The President rose in his easy, careless manner:
”I'm glad to see you, gentlemen. You are the leaders of public opinion.
The people rule this country and I am their servant. What is it?”
The Chairman of the Committee stepped forward and gravely handed him an engrossed copy of Greeley's famous editorial, ”The Prayer of Twenty Millions,” demanding the immediate issue of a proclamation of emanc.i.p.ation.
The Chairman bowed and spoke in earnest tones:
”As the representatives of millions of readers we present this 'Prayer'
with our endors.e.m.e.nt and the request that you act. In particular we call your attention to these paragraphs:
”'A great portion of those who brought about your election and all those who desire the unqualified suppression of the rebellion, are sorely disappointed, pained and surprised by the policy you seem to be pursuing with regard to the slaves of rebels. I write to set before you succinctly and unmistakably what we require, what we have a right to expect and of what we complain.