conflict. Such were the antagonistic influences at work in her own midst,
and the division of parties, that, in judging American affairs she could
not help lending sanction to one or the other side of her own internal
conflicts. England was not, then, a judge, sitting calmly on the bench to
decide without bias; the case brought before her was her own, in
principle, and in interest. In taking sides with the North, the common
people of Great Britain and the laboring class took sides with themselves
in their struggle for reformation; while the wealthy and the privileged
classes found a reason in their own political parties and philosophies
why they should not be too eager for the legitimate government and nation
of the United States.

"All classes who, at home, were seeking the elevation and political
enfranchisement of the common people, were with us. All who studied the
preservation of the state in its present unequal distribution of
political privileges, sided with that section in America that were doing
the same thing.

"We ought not to be surprised nor angry that men should maintain
aristocratic doctrines which they believe in fully as sincerely, and more
consistently, than we, or many amongst us do, in democratic doctrines.

"We of all people ought to understand how a government can be cold or
semi-hostile, while the people are friendly with us. For thirty years the
American Government, in the hands, or under the influence of Southern
statesmen, has been in a threatening attitude to Europe, and actually in
disgraceful conflict with all the weak neighboring Powers. Texas, Mexico,
Central Generics, and Cuba are witnesses. Yet the great body of our people
in the Middle and Northern States are strongly opposed to all such
tendencies."