The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4, April, 1862: Devoted To Literature And National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4, April, 1862: Devoted To Literature And National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
parties could anything else than gold have been brought to America, true
commerce consisting in the interchange of commodities. For all the
sufferings that have been experienced by Englishmen and Frenchmen, they
have none but themselves and their governments to censure. That peace
has not been preserved is not our fault; and the war that has been blown
into so fierce a flame has been fed from Europe; it has been fanned by
breezes from France and England. When it was first seen that there was
danger of civil war, the governments of those countries, if they had
really had any regard for the true interests of their countries, would
have discouraged the rebels in the most public and pointed manner
imaginable, not because they cared for us, but for the simple reason
that they were bound so to act as should best promote the welfare of
their own peoples. War in America meant suffering to the artisans and
laborers of Europe, who, thus far, have suffered more from the war than
have any portion of the American people, except the residents of
Southern cities. Napoleon III. and Lord Palmerston should have said to
the agents of the Confederacy, and have taken care to publish their
words, 'We can afford you neither aid in deeds nor encouragement in
words. Our relations with both sections of the American nation are such,
that our respective countries must suffer immensely from the course
which you are about to pursue, not because you have been oppressed, or
fear oppression, but because you have been beaten in an election, and
power, for the time, has been taken from your hands. You ask us to act
hostilely against the established government of the United States, that
government having given us no cause of offense,--to become the patrons
of a revolution that has no cause, but the consequences of which may be
boundless. To revolutions we are averse; and one of our governments
exists in virtue of opposition to the party of disorder in Europe. You
ask us to do that which would lessen the means of livelihood to millions
of our people; for, granting that you should succeed, still there would
necessarily be so great a change produced by your action, and by our
intervention in American affairs, that for years America would not be
the good customer to France and England that she has been for a
generation. With the merits of your cause we can have nothing to do, our
true interests pointing to the maintenance of the strictest neutrality
in the contest between you and the federal government; and the dictates
of interest are fortified by the suggestions of principle. Your movement
is essentially disorderly in its character, and it is undertaken
avowedly in the interest of slavery; and not only are we the supporters
of the existing order of things the world over, but we are hostile to
slavery, having abolished it in all parts of our dominions. Our advice
to you is, to submit to the federal government, and to seek for the
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