Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward: Remarks Upon the Memorial Address of Charles Francis Adams on the Late William H. Seward
On the 2d of September the Secretary of State, with some trepidation, informed the Minister that no change of policy in regard to the blockade has been adopt ed - a timid intimation of acquiescence in an insult and injury, to appease British arrogance her ministry believing and as serting that an effective blockade of our extensive coast was impossible, but in no other way could commerce be interdicted. Our Government did not close the ports, but under the hint given by the English dictum to New Granada, it abstained from exercising the national authority, and was passive and submissive. In all this time, while treating the Confederates as bel ligerents, and their organization as a quasi government, the Secretary of State, with strange inconsistency, denounced their cruisers as pirates. Not until the 9th of April, 1865, after Richmond had fallen, and only-three days before the assassination of President Lin Coln, was a proclamation issued, in pursu ance of the act of Congress of the 13th of July, 1861, to close the ports of the South ern States. Until the war had virtually ceased, the law of Congress was not eu forced. The British mandate to New Gra nada was tamely acquiesced in and oh sequiously observed by the United States. Our ports were not closed, but block aded, which eventuated, as was intended, in establishing throughout the war the English ports of Nassau, Bermuda, and Halifax as entrepots for illicit traffic with the rebels and resorts for rebel cruisers, to harass and destroy our commerce. It opened the English ports throughout the world to the Alabama, and rovers of her class, which swept our merchant ships from the ocean for the benefit of England. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
