AMERICAN SYMPATHY WITH REBELLION, AND FEELING TOWARD ENGLAND.
[FRON OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.]
New York, May 11, 1869. UNTIL just now I had not seen the Pall Mall Budget of April 27, and was therefore in ignorance of that journal's call upon me for a reply to certain questions, most of which are directly or indirectly met in what I have already written. Let me answer two or three of them specifically. " Why, if it is right for Americana to feel and express sympathy with the Cuban insurgents, was it wrong for Englishmen to feel and express sympathy with the Southern insurgents?" The cases are not at all alike, and do not admit of parallel reasoning. But, it was not wrong for Englishmen to feel or to express sympathy with the Southern insurgents. It was unwise in them, surprising and disheartening to us ; but not wrong toward as, or at least, such a wrong as gives us any ground of national complaint. " When is it lawful for either Americans or Englishmen to sympathize with insurgents anywhere? Is rebellion always sinful, and if not, what is the test by which its innocence is to be recognized ?" It is always lawful for " Americana" or Englishmen to sympathize with whatever cause arouses their sympathy. Sympathy is without the pale of law, which is not a guide of feeling, but a rule of action. Rebellion is not always sinful. It is generally right when it is the resistance of a community to a government in which it has no representation, and which rules in the interest of another community foreign and remote. It is always wrong when its motive is the loss of control of a government in which the rebels had their full share of representation, and of which they were willing to remain a component part, as long as they could retain their control of it. It is always sinful when its motive is the destruction of a great good for the perpetuation of a great evil.
To the implied question which is distributed through the Pall Mall Gazette's article,—Is not what has taken place in the United States in regard to Cuba a valid plea in bar to any complaint of what took place in England in regard to the Southern rebellion ? the reply is, that there has been no proclamation by the United States' Government of neutrality between Spain and her insurgent province, no granting of belligerent rights to Cuban rebels, no hesitation in taking prompt and effective measures to prevent the departure of the first vessel as to which there were serious grounds of complaint or suspicion on the part of the representatives of the Spanish Government. There is not sufficient evidence of the hostile destination of the Quaker City to insure her condemnation in the Courts ; but there is reasonable ground of suspicion that she is preparing to carry men and arms to the aid of the Cuban insurgents ; and she therefore now lies under the guns of a United States' steam cutter, and will not be permitted to leave the port of New York under present circumstances.
Finally, the United States as a nation are to be judged in this matter not by what any number of their citizens say in Washington or elsewhere, but by the wrong their Government does or the right it neglects doing.* But in case of any suffering on the part of Spain, from the wrong-doing or the neglect of the United States' Govern
ment, an expression of sympathy with the enemies of the Spanish Government by citizens of the United States, influential from their position, or their numbers, or both, may be justly taken as an index of the motives which led to that wrong-doing or that neglect.
That there will be any such neglect is, I venture to say, very doubtful, and my venture is not based upon mere general notions, as will appear by the following letter of instructions, which, thinking that the readers of the Spectator might like to see how such things are done in that queer place, " America," I have obtained permission to copy and publish. Its date should be observed :— " Treanuy Department, Washington, May 8, 1869. " Sut,—The Spanish Minister having represented to the Secretary of State that the steamer Quaker City is fitting out at your port to cruise against Spanish commerce under a letter of marque, you are, at the request of the State Department, instructed to prevent the sailing of that vessel in violation of the neutrality laws of April 20, 1818.
"Please exercise special vigilance, and keep this Department fully advised respecting the matter."—Very respectfully, " (lee. S. BouvwELL, Secretary of the Treasury. "Collector of Customs, N.Y. City."
This letter is very short and uninteresting, but the Pall Mall Gazette will observe that it goes straight to the point. It stops the vessel, —stops her at once, without if or but; and it does this on the representation of the Spanish Minister. Collector Grinnell's reply informs the Secretary that ho has done what I have previously recounted, and adds that he " will exercise the utmost vigilance in this and kindred cases." Rather arbitrary proceedings, those, you may say ; and in the sense of taking responsibility they are arbitrary. But the liberty of no citizen is interfered with ; and as to any injury he may receive in his property or business, he has his remedy in the Courts against the Collector, who would certainly be cast in heavy damages if he interfered with the prosecution of any lawful enterprise, and whom the Government would in that case indemnify. That risk and that responsibility the Government takes. For the stopping of this vessel is looked upon as the thing to be done,—not to be talked about, and written about, and done if—and if—and if ; but done at once, and thoroughly, at any risk of liability for damages, rather than there should be a chance of
the suspected ship getting to sea. A YANKEE.
May 12th.—Since the foregoing paragraphs were written, the mails bringing the continents of the London Press on Mr. Sumner's speech have arrived. They are pitched in a tone which surprises us, but which I venture to say will not offend. Most of them are written upon an assumption for which there is not sufficient ground; that of the Pall Mall Gazette, for instance, that " the sort of illfeeling which seems to animate the mind of every American toward England is an element of very serious danger." There is no such feeling ; and the supposition in the next paragraph of the same article that this assumed feeling against England is at a greater height than it was during the war, is as far as possible from the truth. For eight years there has not been here so placid a tone of mind towards England as there is at present, one so disposed toward hearty and permanent relations of friendship. Indeed, judging by the London papers, you would be surprised at knowing how little this Alabama matter is thought of, or talked of, either in public or in private. The feeling about it is simply this,—that we can afford to allow it to remain unsettled ; but that we cannot afford to settle it except upon the condition first granted, that the claims arose in a purposed and an actual disregard of our national
sovereignty. A YANKEE.
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