To Mrs. S. B. Shaw.
To-day abhorred, to-morrow adored,
So round and round we run;
And ever the Truth comes uppermost,
And ever is Justice done.
I met Mr. Thompson at the Anti-slavery Office. In talking with him, I told him how wrathy I had been with England. “You should remember, Mrs. Child,” said he, “how your cause was made to appear in the eyes of the world. First, your President's inaugural was largely taken up with assurances that fugitive slaves would be returned to their masters, and that those who attempted to interfere would be punished; secondly, two of your generals volunteered offers to put down insurrections of the slaves, should they try to obtain their freedom; thirdly, slaves who escaped into your lines were sent back and cruelly scourged by the tyrants from whose power they had sought your protection; fourthly, Mr. Seward charged Mr. Adams not to speak of slavery, and, through him, gave assurance that ‘the status of no class of people in America would be changed by the war ;’ fifthly, President Lincoln, after the war had continued more than a year, offered the slave-holders a hundred days to consider whether they would come back with their chattels, or still fight for their independence at the risk of the abolition of slavery. Was there anything in this to excite the enthusiasm of the [182] English people about your war?” I was obliged to confess that there was not, and that I lad myself often apologized for the common people of England in that very way; saying, I felt “sure their hearts would sympathize with any war for freedom and humanity.” “Now that freedom appears to be the dominant idea, the common people of England do sympathize with you most heartily,” replied he. “As for the aristocratic classes, a desire to see the grand experiment of a republic fail underlies all their hostility to the North.” I admitted the truth of all this; but after all, it must be remembered that our haughty step-dame England hastened to recognize the rebels as belligerents before we had given any of the alleged signs of subservience to slavery. Did you see Kingsley's exultation over the idea that the pages he was writing might meet the eyes of that great hero and statesman, ,Jeff. Davis? It was miserable twaddle, to say nothing of its want of principle. It does seem to me remarkable that the literary men of England should so favor a cause avowedly founded on despotism.
