I write to you from a feeling of anxiety. You will see what is being said here by public men who speak on your question, and most of all, and worst of all, by your old acquaintance and friend Mr. Gladstone. He has made a vile speech at Newcastle, full of insulting pity for the North, and of praise and support for the South. He is unstable as water in some things. He is for union and freedom in Italy, and for disunion and bondage in America. A handful of Italians in prison in Naples, without formal trial, shocked his soul so much that he wrote a pamphlet, and has made many speeches upon it; but he has no word of sympathy or of hope for the four millions of the bondsmen of the South! I have known for months past that he talked of a European remonstrance, or mediation, or recognition, or some mischief of that kind; but I
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open corespondence with Prof. F. W. Newman, he called the struggle of our government to maintain itself ‘a hopeless and destructive enterprise.’1
Mr. Adams, disturbed by the tendency to intervention which Mr. Gladstone's speech at Newcastle had encouraged, and apprehensive that it foreshadowed imminent action of the Cabinet, made it the subject of a conference with Earl Russell.2 The character and effect of the speech were such that our minister, as he wrote, began to consider ‘the condition of his travelling equipage,’ and regarded the close of his mission as likely to be at hand.
Earl Russell intimated to Mr. Adams for himself, and on behalf of Lord Palmerston and other members of the Cabinet, regret that the speech had been made.3 Sir George Cornewall Lewis, another member, undertook to neutralize its effect in a public address of his own;4 and the official organ, the ‘Globe,’ drew a distinction between Mr. Gladstone and the ministry in regard to the sentiments he had expressed.5 These disavowals in high quarters made public men more cautious; and, as Mr. Adams states, there came to be a general opinion that Mr. Gladstone had been ‘very indiscreet.’
Mr. Bright wrote to Sumner, October 10, 1862:—
1 Dec. 1, 1862. Professor Newman's letter, November 28, calls Gladstone ‘the admirer of perjured men.’ Gladstone's rejoinder of December 4 was published in the London ‘Star.’ （New York Tribune, December 12 and 20.) Mr. Gladstone's pro-slavery sympathies and partiality for the Southern rebellion were treated in ‘Letters on the American Rebellion,’ by Samuel A. Goddard, of Birmingham, contributed to English journals at the time, and since published in a volume, pp. 181-193, 252-259, 281-285.
2 Adams to Seward, October 24.
3 Seward to Adams, October 24.
4 October 14, before the Herefordshire Agricultural Society. He died April 13, 1863; and, as Seward wrote to Adams, May 4, on account of his firm, just, and dignified course in regard to our national affairs, his death was mourned as profoundly in this country as in England.
5 The Duchess of Argyll wrote to Sumner, December 6, that Gladstone's Newcastle speech ‘grieved’ the duke and herself.
Cambridge, MA. Press of John Wilson and Son. 1877.
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