him he found ignorance and prejudice. The quarrel was like to be
prejudged in default of a champion of the cause which to him was that of
Liberty and Justice. He wrote two long letters to the London "Times," in
which he attempted to make clear to Englishmen and to Europe the nature
and conditions of our complex system of government, the real cause of the
strife, and the mighty issues at stake. Nothing could have been more
timely, nothing more needed. Mr. William Everett, who was then in
England, bears strong testimony to the effect these letters produced.
Had Mr. Motley done no other service to his country, this alone would
entitle him to honorable remembrance as among the first defenders of the
flag, which at that moment had more to fear from what was going on in the
cabinet councils of Europe than from all the armed hosts that were
gathering against it.

He returned to America in 1861, and soon afterwards was appointed by Mr.
Lincoln Minister to Austria. Mr. Burlingame had been previously
appointed to the office, but having been objected to by the Austrian
Government for political reasons, the place unexpectedly left vacant was
conferred upon Motley, who had no expectation of any diplomatic
appointment when he left Europe. For some interesting particulars
relating to his residence in Vienna I must refer to the communications
addressed to me by his daughter, Lady Harcourt, and her youngest sister,
and the letters I received from him while at the Austrian capital. Lady
Harcourt writes:--

"He held the post for six years, seeing the civil war fought out and
brought to a triumphant conclusion, and enjoying, as I have every
reason to believe, the full confidence and esteem of Mr. Lincoln to
the last hour of the President's life. In the first dark years the
painful interest of the great national drama was so all-absorbing