On foreign nations the influence of the proclamation and of these new
victories was of great importance. In those days, when there was no
cable, it was not easy for foreign observers to appreciate what was
really going on; they could not see clearly the true state of affairs, as
in the last year of the nineteenth century we have been able, by our new
electric vision, to watch every event at the antipodes and observe its
effect. The Rebel emissaries, sent over to solicit intervention, spared
no pains to impress upon the minds of public and private men and upon the
press their own views of the character of the contest. The prospects of
the Confederacy were always better abroad than at home. The stock
markets of the world gambled upon its chances, and its bonds at one time
were high in favor.
Such ideas as these were seriously held: that the North was fighting for
empire and the South for independence; that the Southern States, instead
of being the grossest oligarchies, essentially despotisms, founded on the
right of one man to appropriate the fruit of other men's toil and to
exclude them from equal rights, were real republics, feebler to be sure
than their Northern rivals, but representing the same idea of freedom,
and that the mighty strength of the nation was being put forth to crush
them; that Jefferson Davis and the Southern leaders had created a nation;
that the republican experiment had failed and the Union had ceased to
exist.
Pages:
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160