If they
undertake to justify their hasty recognition of the rebels as
belligerents, and to vindicate their alleged impartial neutrality, they
take apparently peculiar delight in fortifying themselves with the
declaration that the Union is effectually broken, and can never be
restored. It is necessary to throw the shield of this cherished
anticipation back on the unfriendly acts they have perpetrated against
us, in order fully to justify their conduct to themselves. If the
rebellious States should indeed be compelled to acknowledge the
authority of the Federal Government, and should return again to their
position in the Union, the hostile cruisers which have been fitted out
in England to harass our commerce, would occasion some unpleasant
negotiations, and perhaps some costly responsibilities. To brush these
all aside, and at the same time to get rid of a troublesome rival in
commerce and manufactures, by the final separation of the Union, is, to
them, on all accounts, 'a consummation most devoutly to be wished.' They
may yet have to learn, through the experience of their Southern friends,
that
'The ample proposition, that hope makes
In all designs begun on earth below,
Fails in the promised largeness.'
But perhaps, after all, it is we, ourselves, who are the victims of
delusive hope in reference to the destiny of our noble Union. Possibly
our disinterested friends across the water, calmly looking on from a
distance, may be better able to understand the tendency of events, and
to foresee the issue of the mighty civil contest which rages around us.
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