peace, but it would do There is a local senti

do, to the doctrine of recognition and neither us nor you any good to say so. ment which it is not graceful or proper to defy, and minorities must sometimes be silent. What is most painful is to be made conscious of insensibility of those around me to the fearful infractions of the Constitution and conceded law which are daily occurring. Professors of elementary law teach their students that the President may suspend the Habeas Corpus Act. Learned and hitherto patriotic men, admitting the acts of the President to be wrong, justify the outrages on the ground of State necessity. This is worse than the other; and this it is which alarms me as a Northern man and one whose lot must be in the North.

Had the objection to your motion not manifested itself so strongly in the quarters mentioned, and had there been any reasonable prospect of its success, the Washington government would never have been sustained by the American people in its attempt to invade Charleston Harbour, and the indignity to the old flag,' as the bombardment of Fort Sumter on April 13 was termed, would have made no more impression on the masses than the similar insult' inflicted upon the transport steamer 'Star of the West' a few weeks previously.* Mr. Lincoln, taking advantage of the circumstance, issued his Proclamation on April 15, calling for 75,000 troops 'to defend Washington and recapture Federal property.'

The 'old flag' was adopted several years after independence, and only used for maritime purposes-the battles of the revolution were fought under the ensigns of the thirteen sovereign States. On all the buildings of the commonwealth, the State colours should have been displayed, on those of the city the municipal flag. A great deal of nonsense has been talked and written about the Stars and Stripes,' which has been productive of mischief. All 'sensation flags' and 'spread-eagleism' ought to be avoided in future. The popular song, The Star-spangled Banner,' had not even a revolutionary origin; it was written by the late Francis S. Key, while confined as a prisoner with a number of other Baltimoreans on board of an English ship off Fort M'Henry, during the last war with Great Britain. The descendants of these gentlemen, each and all, ignore the verses, as well as the flag, now that to such base uses have they come at last.'

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A large number of 'three months' men' volunteered at once for the protection of the capital, which in fact had never been threatened: not a single Southern soldier was at that time north of South Carolina.* The same Proclamation requested the members of Congress to meet in extra session on July 4. The news of the final withdrawal of your motion, at the request of Lord John Russell, on June 7, having been received in the meanwhile, gave the war party confidence that they could carry out their designs without interference from abroad; and the inflammatory speeches and writings of the republican senators, representatives, and newspaper editors

Among the many falsehoods circulated by the Yankees on both sides of the Atlantic is the charge that the Southerners had, through the Secretary of War, Mr. Floyd, been robbing the Northern arsenals. This was disproved in the report of Mr. Stanton, made to the House of Representatives on February 18, 1861. The testimony furnished by his committee established :

:

1. That the Southern States obtained in 1860 less, instead of more, than the quota of arms to which they were entitled by law; and that some of them, North Carolina, Mississippi, and Kentucky, received none whatever, and this simply because they did not ask for them. Mr. Stanton remarked, That there are a good deal of rumours and speculations and misapprehensions as to the state of facts in regard to this matter.'

2. That the Government had on hand in the year 1859 500,000 old muskets, which had been condemned 'as unsuitable for public service,' under the Act of March 3, 1825. They were of such a character that, although offered at public and private sale for $2 each, purchasers could not be obtained at that rate, except for a comparatively small number. On November 30, 1859, Secretary Floyd ordered about one-fifth of the whole number (105,000) to be sent from the Springfield Armoury, where they had accumulated, to five Southern arsenals, 'in proportion to their respective means of proper storage.' This order was carried into effect by the Ordnance Bureau in the usual course of administration. Its date was months before Mr. Lincoln's nomination for the Presidency, and nearly a year before his election.

The Southern States were, in fact, entirely unprepared for the war. They were even too slow in their movements when the conflict began. Fortress Monroe ought to have been seized. And the surrender by Southern naval commanders of the ships of war under their control was an act of doubtful propriety. Those ships belonged to the South as much as to the North, and should have been taken into Confederate ports.

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excited the public mind and started the cry of 'On to Richmond'- Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas having by that time joined the cotton States. Thus the conflict began, and it has since been carried on by the office-holders, contractors, and other 'shoddy' men of the Northern States, the peaceable inhabitants being deprived of all power, even their right to express the voice of dissent.

Let us examine into this question of recognition, for there seems to be much misunderstanding in reference to the political status of the thirteen sovereign communities, now known as the Confederate States of America; to demand 'recognition' for them is, in truth, only to ask for the fulfillment of treaties already existing. The Yankee assertion, that secession is rebellion, can be proved to be entirely untrue. France, on February 6, 1778, acknowledged the independence of the thirteen American colonies, as so many independent States; this was even before the Articles of Confederation' were adopted; the United Netherlands followed her example on October 8, 1782; and Sweden, on April 3, 1783; Great Britain withheld her consent to the separation until September 3, 1783, provisional articles' having been signed on November 30, 1782; and Spain, Prussia, and the other powers subsequently recognised the States. Under the treaty of Peace, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, were admitted as members (using the plural) of the family of nations; Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, were included, they then being portions of those States. Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, and Florida, afterwards by a clause in the Federal Constitution, became free, sovereign, and independent States,' possessed of all the

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W. H. GREGORY, ESQ., M.P.

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rights of the original States; and Texas, by a resolution presented to the Senate by the Hon. R. J. Walker [see Appendix], in 1837 rose to the dignity of an independent power. France, Holland, and Belgium, likewise acknowledged the independence of Texas in 1839 and Great Britain in 1840. It was not until 1845 that Texas entered the Federal Union.

According to the spirit and letter of the Constitution, and the practice under it, the erection of territories into States is equivalent to a recognition of their independence, and joining the Union signifies nothing more than intrusting their foreign affairs, as a matter of convenience and economy, to the central head. Upon the admission of a new State, the representatives of the Federal agency' at foreign courts become also the ministers for that young power; and, without protest, are received as such. Here, then, are thirteen sovereign States practically recognised by all the leading governments of the world.

John Adams, of Massachusetts, was the first 'commissioner' sent to Europe to represent the thirteen original

One of the arguments used by the Federalists against the acquisition of the Louisiana territory was that the limits of the Confederation would be too large, and that the States in the South-west, by the force of circumstances, might at some future time separate themselves from those on the Atlantic, after having thinned the latter of a portion of their population. Mr. Jefferson replied to these objections in a letter addressed to Mr. Breckenridge dated August 12, 1803, from which the following is an extract :

...

Besides, if it should become the great interest of those nations to separate from this, if their happiness should depend upon it so strongly as to induce them to go through that convulsion, why should the Atlantic States dread it? But, especially, why should we, their present inhabitants, take side in such a question? . . . The future inhabitants of the Atlantic and Mississippi States will be our sons. We leave them in distinct but bordering establishments. We think we see their happiness in their union, and we wish it. Events may prove it otherwise; and if they see their interest in separation, why should we take side with our Atlantic rather than our Mississippi descendants? It is the elder and the younger son differing. God bless them both, and keep them in union, if it be for their good, but separate them if it be better!'

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States; he was appointed to France in December 1777, and afterwards made Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain in 1779, but remained on the continent until after the declaration of Peace. In the meanwhile, Franklin had succeeded him at Paris. Both of these statesmen received their authority from the Congress of Delegates' from the respective States, the Articles of Confederation' not having been entered into until March 2, 1781, and that foreign agency' was dissolved on March 3, 1789. Mr. Adams returned home in 1788, the Government of England having omitted to send a corresponding representative to the States, who, in retaliation for this discourtesy, refused to receive her consuls. Peace had then been established for five years. On April 30, 1789, a new foreign agency under the Constitution was formed by eleven States, there having been in reality no union whatever for the space of fifty-eight days; but no notice was given to any of the governments with which the States had treaties of these changes: such notice, indeed, was not necessary, the individual commonwealths, as has ever been the case, having retained their sovereignty.

There was no representative from the American States in England from the time of Mr. Adams' departure until the arrival in London of Mr. Gouverneur Morris, of New Jersey. Washington, as President of eleven States, requested Mr. Morris, who was in Europe on private business, to wait upon the Duke of Leeds, then Secretary for Foreign Affairs. The following letter was his authority for so doing. It bears a marked contrast to the bombastic, untruthful, and lengthy despatches of Mr. Seward :

New York: October 13, 1789. SIR, It being important to both countries that the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States should be