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diff --git a/4726-0.txt b/4726-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0eb7b2c --- /dev/null +++ b/4726-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2059 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 4726 *** + +JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY. + +A MEMOIR + +By Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. + + +Volume II. + + + +XVI. + +1860-1866. AEt. 46-52. + +RESIDENCE IN ENGLAND.--OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR.--LETTERS TO THE LONDON +"TIMES."--VISIT TO AMERICA.--APPOINTED MINISTER TO AUSTRIA.--LADY +HARCOURT'S LETTER.--MISS MOTLEY'S MEMORANDUM. + +The winter of 1859-60 was passed chiefly at Oatlands Hotel, Walton-on- +Thames. In 1860 Mr. Motley hired the house No. 31 Hertford Street, May +Fair, London. He had just published the first two volumes of his +"History of the Netherlands," and was ready for the further labors of its +continuation, when the threats, followed by the outbreak, of the great +civil contention in his native land brought him back from the struggles +of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to the conflict of the +nineteenth. + +His love of country, which had grown upon him so remarkably of late +years, would not suffer him to be silent at such a moment. All around +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 + that literary work was entirely put aside, and with his countrymen + at home he lived only in the varying fortunes of the day, his + profound faith and enthusiasm sustaining him and lifting him above + the natural influence of a by no means sanguine temperament. Later, + when the tide was turning and success was nearing, he was more able + to work. His social relations during the whole period of his + mission were of the most agreeable character. The society of Vienna + was at that time, and I believe is still, the absolute reverse of + that of England, where all claims to distinction are recognized and + welcomed. There the old feudal traditions were still in full force, + and diplomatic representatives admitted to the court society by + right of official position found it to consist exclusively of an + aristocracy of birth, sixteen quarterings of nobility being + necessary to a right of presentation to the Emperor and Empress. + The society thus constituted was distinguished by great charm and + grace of manner, the exclusion of all outer elements not only + limiting the numbers, but giving the ease of a family party within + the charmed circle. On the other hand, larger interests suffered + under the rigid exclusion of all occupations except the army, + diplomacy, and court place. The intimacy among the different + members of the society was so close that, beyond a courtesy of + manner that never failed, the tendency was to resist the approach of + any stranger as a 'gene'. A single new face was instantly remarked + and commented on in a Vienna saloon to an extent unknown in any + other large capital. This peculiarity, however, worked in favor of + the old resident. Kindliness of feeling increased with familiarity + and grew into something better than acquaintance, and the parting + with most sincere and affectionately disposed friends in the end was + deeply felt on both sides. Those years were passed in a pleasant + house in the Weiden Faubourg, with a large garden at the back, and I + do not think that during this time there was one disagreeable + incident in his relations to his colleagues, while in several cases + the relations, agreeable with all, became those of close friendship. + We lived constantly, of course, in diplomatic and Austrian society, + and during the latter part of the time particularly his house was as + much frequented and the centre of as many dancing and other + receptions as any in the place. His official relations with the + Foreign Office were courteous and agreeable, the successive Foreign + Ministers during his stay being Count Richberg, Count Mensdorff, and + Baron Beust. Austria was so far removed from any real contact with + our own country that, though the interest in our war may have been + languid, they did not pretend to a knowledge which might have + inclined them to controversy, while an instinct that we were acting + as a constituted government against rebellion rather inclined them + to sympathy. I think I may say that as he became known among them + his keen patriotism and high sense of honor and truth were fully + understood and appreciated, and that what he said always commanded a + sympathetic hearing among men with totally different political + ideas, but with chivalrous and loyal instincts to comprehend his + own. I shall never forget his account of the terrible day when the + news of Mr. Lincoln's death came. By some accident a rumor of it + reached him first through a colleague. He went straight to the + Foreign Office for news, hoping against hope, was received by Count + Mensdorff, who merely came forward and laid his arm about his + shoulder with an intense sympathy beyond words." + +Miss Motley, the historian's youngest daughter, has added a note to her +sister's communication:-- + + "During his residence in Vienna the most important negotiations + which he had to carry on with the Austrian Government were those + connected with the Mexican affair. Maximilian at one time applied + to his brother the Emperor for assistance, and he promised to accede + to his demand. Accordingly a large number of volunteers were + equipped and had actually embarked at Trieste, when a dispatch from + Seward arrived, instructing the American Minister to give notice to + the Austrian Government that if the troops sailed for Mexico he was + to leave Vienna at once. My father had to go at once to Count + Mensdorff with these instructions, and in spite of the Foreign + Minister being annoyed that the United States Government had not + sooner intimated that this extreme course would be taken, the + interview was quite amicable and the troops were not allowed to + sail. We were in Vienna during the war in which Denmark fought + alone against Austria and Prussia, and when it was over Bismarck + came to Vienna to settle the terms of peace with the Emperor. He + dined with us twice during his short stay, and was most delightful + and agreeable. When he and my father were together they seemed to + live over the youthful days they had spent together as students, + and many were the anecdotes of their boyish frolics which Bismarck + related." + + + + +XVII. + +1861-1863. AEt. 47-49. + +LETTERS FROM VIENNA. + +Soon after Mr. Motley's arrival in Vienna I received a long letter from +him, most of which relates to personal matters, but which contains a few +sentences of interest to the general reader as showing his zealous +labors, wherever he found himself, in behalf of the great cause then in +bloody debate in his own country: + + November 14, 1861. + + . . . What can I say to you of cis-Atlantic things? I am almost + ashamed to be away from home. You know that I had decided to + remain, and had sent for my family to come to America, when my + present appointment altered my plans. I do what good I can. I + think I made some impression on Lord John Russell, with whom I spent + two days soon after my arrival in England, and I talked very frankly + and as strongly as I could to Palmerston, and I have had long + conversations and correspondences with other leading men in England. + I have also had an hour's [conversation] with Thouvenel in Paris. I + hammered the Northern view into him as soundly as I could. For this + year there will be no foreign interference with us. I don't + anticipate it at any time, unless we bring it on ourselves by bad + management, which I don't expect. Our fate is in our own hands, and + Europe is looking on to see which side is strongest,--when it has + made the discovery it will back it as also the best and the most + moral. Yesterday I had my audience with the Emperor. He received + me with much cordiality, and seemed interested in a long account + which I gave him of our affairs. You may suppose I inculcated the + Northern views. We spoke in his vernacular, and he asked me + afterwards if I was a German. I mention this not from vanity, but + because he asked it with earnestness, and as if it had a political + significance. Of course I undeceived him. His appearance + interested me, and his manner is very pleasing. + +I continued to receive long and interesting letters from him at intervals +during his residence as Minister at Vienna. Relating as they often did +to public matters, about which he had private sources of information, his +anxiety that they should not get into print was perfectly natural. As, +however, I was at liberty to read his letters to others at my discretion, +and as many parts of these letters have an interest as showing how +American affairs looked to one who was behind the scenes in Europe, I may +venture to give some extracts without fear of violating the spirit of his +injunctions, or of giving offence to individuals. The time may come when +his extended correspondence can be printed in full with propriety, but it +must be in a future year and after it has passed into the hands of a +younger generation. Meanwhile these few glimpses at his life and records +of his feelings and opinions will help to make the portrait of the man we +are studying present itself somewhat more clearly. + + LEGATION of THE U. S. A., VIENNA, January 14, 1862. + + MY DEAR HOLMES,--I have two letters of yours, November 29 and + December 17, to express my thanks for. It is quite true that it is + difficult for me to write with the same feeling that inspires you,-- + that everything around the inkstand within a radius of a thousand + miles is full of deepest interest to writer and reader. I don't + even intend to try to amuse you with Vienna matters. What is it to + you that we had a very pleasant dinner-party last week at Prince + Esterhazy's, and another this week at Prince Liechtenstein's, and + that to-morrow I am to put on my cocked hat and laced coat to make a + visit to her Imperial Majesty, the Empress Mother, and that to-night + there is to be the first of the assembly balls, the Vienna Almack's, + at which--I shall be allowed to absent myself altogether? + + It strikes me that there is likely to be left a fair field for us a + few months longer, say till midsummer. The Trent affair I shall not + say much about, except to state that I have always been for giving + up the prisoners. I was awfully afraid, knowing that the demand had + gone forth,-- + + "Send us your prisoners or you'll hear of it," + + that the answer would have come back in the Hotspur vein-- + + 'And if the Devil come and roar for them, + We will not send them." + + The result would have been most disastrous, for in order to secure a + most trifling advantage,--that of keeping Mason and Slidell at Fort + Warren a little longer,--we should have turned our backs on all the + principles maintained by us when neutral, and should have been + obliged to accept a war at an enormous disadvantage. . . . + + But I hardly dared to hope that we should have obtained such a + victory as we have done. To have disavowed the illegal transaction + at once,--before any demand came from England,--to have placed that + disavowal on the broad ground of principle which we have always + cherished, and thus with a clear conscience, and to our entire + honor, to have kept ourselves clear from a war which must have given + the Confederacy the invincible alliance of England,--was exactly + what our enemies in Europe did not suppose us capable of doing. But + we have done it in the handsomest manner, and there is not one + liberal heart in this hemisphere that is not rejoiced, nor one hater + of us and of our institutions that is not gnashing his teeth with + rage. + +The letter of ten close pages from which I have quoted these passages is +full of confidential information, and contains extracts from letters of +leading statesmen. If its date had been 1762, I might feel authorized in +disobeying its injunctions of privacy. I must quote one other sentence, +as it shows his animus at that time towards a distinguished statesman of +whom he was afterwards accused of speaking in very hard terms by an +obscure writer whose intent was to harm him. In speaking of the Trent +affair, Mr. Motley says: "The English premier has been foiled by our much +maligned Secretary of State, of whom, on this occasion at least, one has +the right to say, with Sir Henry Wotton,-- + + 'His armor was his honest thought, + And simple truth his utmost skill.'" + +"He says at the close of this long letter: + + 'I wish I could bore you about something else but American politics. + But there is nothing else worth thinking of in the world. All else + is leather and prunella. We are living over again the days of the + Dutchmen or the seventeenth-century Englishmen.'" + +My next letter, of fourteen closely written pages, was of similar +character to the last. Motley could think of nothing but the great +conflict. He was alive to every report from America, listening too with +passionate fears or hopes, as the case might be, to the whispers not yet +audible to the world which passed from lip to lip of the statesmen who +were watching the course of events from the other side of the Atlantic +with the sweet complacency of the looker-on of Lucretius; too often +rejoicing in the storm that threatened wreck to institutions and an +organization which they felt to be a standing menace to the established +order of things in their older communities. + +A few extracts from this very long letter will be found to have a special +interest from the time at which they were written. + + LEGATION OF U. S. A., VIENNA, February 26, 1862. + + MY DEAR HOLMES,--. . . I take great pleasure in reading your + prophecies, and intend to be just as free in hazarding my own, for, + as you say, our mortal life is but a string of guesses at the + future, and no one but an idiot would be discouraged at finding + himself sometimes far out in his calculations. If I find you + signally right in any of your predictions, be sure that I will + congratulate and applaud. If you make mistakes, you shall never + hear of them again, and I promise to forget them. Let me ask the + same indulgence from you in return. This is what makes letter- + writing a comfort and journalizing dangerous. . . The ides of March + will be upon us before this letter reaches you. We have got to + squash the rebellion soon, or be squashed forever as a nation. I + don't pretend to judge military plans or the capacities of generals. + But, as you suggest, perhaps I can take a more just view of the + whole picture of the eventful struggle at this great distance than + do those absolutely acting and suffering on the scene. Nor can I + resist the desire to prophesy any more than you can do, knowing that + I may prove utterly mistaken. I say, then, that one great danger + comes from the chance of foreign interference. What will prevent + that? + + Our utterly defeating the Confederates in some great and conclusive + battle; or, + + Our possession of the cotton ports and opening them to European + trade; or, + + A most unequivocal policy of slave emancipation. + + Any one of these three conditions would stave off recognition by + foreign powers, until we had ourselves abandoned the attempt to + reduce the South to obedience. + + The last measure is to my mind the most important. The South has, + by going to war with the United States government, thrust into our + hands against our will the invincible weapon which constitutional + reasons had hitherto forbidden us to employ. At the same time it + has given us the power to remedy a great wrong to four millions of + the human race, in which we had hitherto been obliged to acquiesce. + We are threatened with national annihilation, and defied to use the + only means of national preservation. The question is distinctly + proposed to us, Shall Slavery die, or the great Republic? It is + most astounding to me that there can be two opinions in the free + States as to the answer. + + If we do fall, we deserve our fate. At the beginning of the + contest, constitutional scruples might be respectable. But now we + are fighting to subjugate the South; that is, Slavery. We are + fighting for nothing else that I know of. We are fighting for the + Union. Who wishes to destroy the Union? The slaveholder, nobody + else. Are we to spend twelve hundred millions, and raise six + hundred thousand soldiers, in order to protect slavery? It really + does seem to me too simple for argument. I am anxiously waiting for + the coming Columbus who will set this egg of ours on end by smashing + in the slavery end. We shall be rolling about in every direction + until that is done. I don't know that it is to be done by + proclamation. Rather perhaps by facts. . . . Well, I console + myself with thinking that the people--the American people, at least + --is about as wise collectively as less numerous collections of + individuals, and that the people has really declared emancipation, + and is only puzzling how to carry it into effect. After all, it + seems to be a law of Providence, that progress should be by a spiral + movement; so that when it seems most tortuous, we may perhaps be + going ahead. I am firm in the faith that slavery is now wriggling + itself to death. With slavery in its pristine vigor, I should think + the restored Union neither possible nor desirable. Don't understand + me as not taking into account all the strategical considerations + against premature governmental utterances on this great subject. + But are there any trustworthy friends to the Union among the + slaveholders? Should we lose many Kentuckians and Virginians who + are now with us, if we boldly confiscated the slaves of all rebels? + --and a confiscation of property which has legs and so confiscates + itself, at command, is not only a legal, but would prove a very + practical measure in time of war. In brief, the time is fast + approaching, I think, when 'Thorough' should be written on all our + banners. Slavery will never accept a subordinate position. The + great Republic and Slavery cannot both survive. We have been defied + to mortal combat, and yet we hesitate to strike. These are my poor + thoughts on this great subject. Perhaps you will think them crude. + I was much struck with what you quote from Mr. Conway, that if + emancipation was proclaimed on the Upper Mississippi it would be + known to the negroes of Louisiana in advance of the telegraph. And + if once the blacks had leave to run, how many whites would have to + stay at home to guard their dissolving property? + + You have had enough of my maunderings. But before I conclude them, + may I ask you to give all our kindest regards to Lowell, and to + express our admiration for the Yankee Idyl. I am afraid of using + too extravagant language if I say all I think about it. Was there + ever anything more stinging, more concentrated, more vigorous, more + just? He has condensed into those few pages the essence of a + hundred diplomatic papers and historical disquisitions and Fourth of + July orations. I was dining a day or two since with his friend + Lytton (Bulwer's son, attache here) and Julian Fane (secretary of + the embassy), both great admirers of him,--and especially of the + "Biglow Papers;" they begged me to send them the Mason and Slidell + Idyl, but I wouldn't,--I don't think it is in English nature + (although theirs is very cosmopolitan and liberal) to take such + punishment and come up smiling. I would rather they got it in some + other way, and then told me what they thought voluntarily. + + I have very pleasant relations with all the J. B.'s here. They are + all friendly and well disposed to the North,--I speak of the + embassy, which, with the ambassador and ---dress, numbers eight or + ten souls, some of them very intellectual ones. There are no other + J. B.'s here. I have no fear at present of foreign interference. + We have got three or four months to do our work in,--a fair field + and no favor. There is no question whatever that the Southern + commissioners have been thoroughly snubbed in London and Paris. + There is to be a blockade debate in Parliament next week, but no bad + consequences are to be apprehended. The Duke de Gramont (French + ambassador, and an intimate friend of the Emperor) told my wife last + night that it was entirely false that the Emperor had ever urged the + English government to break the blockade. "Don't believe it,--don't + believe a word of it," he said. He has always held that language to + me. He added that Prince Napoleon had just come out with a strong + speech about us,--you will see it, doubtless, before you get this + letter,--but it has not yet reached us. + + Shall I say anything of Austria,--what can I say that would interest + you? That's the reason why I hate to write. All my thoughts are in + America. Do you care to know about the Archduke Ferdinand + Maximilian, that shall be King hereafter of Mexico (if L. N. has his + way)? He is next brother to the Emperor, but although I have had + the honor of private audiences of many archdukes here, this one is a + resident of Trieste. + + He is about thirty,--has an adventurous disposition,--some + imagination,--a turn for poetry,--has voyaged a good deal about the + world in the Austrian ship-of-war,--for in one respect he much + resembles that unfortunate but anonymous ancestor of his, the King + of Bohemia with the seven castles, who, according to Corporal Trim, + had such a passion for navigation and sea-affairs, "with never a + seaport in all his dominions." But now the present King of Bohemia + has got the sway of Trieste, and is Lord High Admiral and Chief of + the Marine Department. He has been much in Spain, also in South + America; I have read some travels, "Reise Skizzen," of his--printed, + not published. They are not without talent, and he ever and anon + relieves his prose jog-trot by breaking into a canter of poetry. He + adores bull-fights, and rather regrets the Inquisition, and + considers the Duke of Alva everything noble and chivalrous, and the + most abused of men. It would do your heart good to hear his + invocations to that deeply injured shade, and his denunciations of + the ignorant and vulgar protestants who have defamed him. (N.B. + Let me observe that the R. of the D. R. was not published until long + after the "Reise Skizzen" were written.) 'Du armer Alva! weil du + dem Willen deines Herrn unerschiitterlich treu vast, weil die + festbestimmten grundsatze der Regierung,' etc., etc., etc. You + can imagine the rest. Dear me! I wish I could get back to the + sixteenth and seventeenth century. . . . But alas! the events + of the nineteenth are too engrossing. + + If Lowell cares to read this letter, will you allow me to "make it + over to him jointly," as Captain Cuttle says. I wished to write to + him, but I am afraid only you would tolerate my writing so much when + I have nothing to say. If he would ever send me a line I should be + infinitely obliged, and would quickly respond. We read the "Washers + of the Shroud" with fervid admiration. + + Always remember me most sincerely to the Club, one and all. It + touches me nearly when you assure me that I am not forgotten by + them. To-morrow is Saturday and the last of the month.--[See + Appendix A.]--We are going to dine with our Spanish colleague. But + the first bumper of the Don's champagne I shall drain to the health + of my Parker House friends. + +From another long letter dated August 31, 1862, I extract the following +passages:-- + + "I quite agree in all that you said in your last letter. 'The imp + of secession can't reenter its mother's womb.' It is merely + childish to talk of the Union 'as it was.' You might as well bring + back the Saxon Heptarchy. But the great Republic is destined to + live and flourish, I can't doubt. . . . Do you remember that + wonderful scene in Faust in which Mephistopheles draws wine for the + rabble with a gimlet out of the wooden table; and how it changes to + fire as they drink it, and how they all go mad, draw their knives, + grasp each other by the nose, and think they are cutting off bunches + of grapes at every blow, and how foolish they all look when they + awake from the spell and see how the Devil has been mocking them? + It always seems to me a parable of the great Secession. + + "I repeat, I can't doubt as to the ultimate result. But I dare say + we have all been much mistaken in our calculations as to time. + Days, months, years, are nothing in history. Men die, man is + immortal, practically, even on this earth. We are so impatient,-- + and we are always watching for the last scene of the tragedy. Now I + humbly opine that the drop is only about falling on the first act, + or perhaps only the prologue. This act or prologue will be called, + in after days, War for the status quo. "Such enthusiasm, heroism, + and manslaughter as status quo could inspire, has, I trust, been not + entirely in vain, but it has been proved insufficient. + + "I firmly believe that when the slaveholders declared war on the + United States government they began a series of events that, in the + logical chain of history, cannot come to a conclusion until the last + vestige of slavery is gone. Looking at the whole field for a moment + dispassionately, objectively, as the dear Teutonic philosophers say, + and merely as an exhibition of phenomena, I cannot imagine any other + issue. Everything else may happen. This alone must happen. + + "But after all this isn't a war. It is a revolution. It is n't + strategists that are wanted so much as believers. In revolutions + the men who win are those who are in earnest. Jeff and Stonewall + and the other Devil-worshippers are in earnest, but it was not + written in the book of fate that the slaveholders' rebellion should + be vanquished by a pro-slavery general. History is never so + illogical. No, the coming 'man on horseback' on our side must be a + great strategist, with the soul of that insane lion, mad old John + Brown, in his belly. That is your only Promethean recipe:-- + + 'et insani leonis + Vim stomacho apposuisse nostro.' + + "I don't know why Horace runs so in my head this morning. . . . + + "There will be work enough for all; but I feel awfully fidgety just + now about Port Royal and Hilton Head, and about affairs generally + for the next three months. After that iron-clads and the new levies + must make us invincible." + +In another letter, dated November 2, 1862, he expresses himself very +warmly about his disappointment in the attitude of many of his old +English friends with reference to our civil conflict. He had recently +heard the details of the death of "the noble Wilder Dwight." + + "It is unnecessary," he says, "to say how deeply we were moved. I + had the pleasure of knowing him well, and I always appreciated his + energy, his manliness, and his intelligent cheerful heroism. I look + back upon him now as a kind of heroic type of what a young New + Englander ought to be and was. I tell you that one of these days-- + after a generation of mankind has passed away--these youths will + take their places in our history, and be regarded by the young men + and women now unborn with the admiration which the Philip Sidneys + and the Max Piccolominis now inspire. After all, what was your + Chevy Chace to stir blood with like a trumpet? What noble + principle, what deathless interest, was there at stake? Nothing but + a bloody fight between a lot of noble gamekeepers on one side and of + noble poachers on the other. And because they fought well and + hacked each other to pieces like devils, they have been heroes for + centuries." + +The letter was written in a very excited state of feeling, and runs over +with passionate love of country and indignation at the want of sympathy +with the cause of freedom which he had found in quarters where he had not +expected such coldness or hostile tendencies. + +From a letter dated Vienna, September 22, 1863. + + . . . "When you wrote me last you said on general matters this: + 'In a few days we shall get the news of the success or failure of + the attacks on Port Hudson and Vicksburg. If both are successful, + many will say that the whole matter is about settled.' You may + suppose that when I got the great news I shook hands warmly with you + in the spirit across the Atlantic. Day by day for so long we had + been hoping to hear the fall of Vicksburg. At last when that little + concentrated telegram came, announcing Vicksburg and Gettysburg on + the same day and in two lines, I found myself almost alone. . . . + There was nobody in the house to join in my huzzahs but my youngest + infant. And my conduct very much resembled that of the excellent + Philip II. when he heard the fall of Antwerp,--for I went to her + door, screeching through the key-hole 'Vicksburg is ours!' just as + that other 'pere de famille,' more potent, but I trust not more + respectable than I, conveyed the news to his Infanta. (Fide, for + the incident, an American work on the Netherlands, i. p. 263, and + the authorities there cited.) It is contemptible on my part to + speak thus frivolously of events which will stand out in such golden + letters so long as America has a history, but I wanted to illustrate + the yearning for sympathy which I felt. You who were among people + grim and self-contained usually, who, I trust, were falling on each + other's necks in the public streets, shouting, with tears in their + eyes and triumph in their hearts, can picture my isolation. + + "I have never faltered in my faith, and in the darkest hours, when + misfortunes seemed thronging most thickly upon us, I have never felt + the want of anything to lean against; but I own I did feel like + shaking hands with a few hundred people when I heard of our Fourth + of July, 1863, work, and should like to have heard and joined in an + American cheer or two. + + "I have not much to say of matters here to interest you. We have + had an intensely hot, historically hot, and very long and very dry + summer. I never knew before what a drought meant. In Hungary the + suffering is great, and the people are killing the sheep to feed the + pigs with the mutton. Here about Vienna the trees have been almost + stripped of foliage ever since the end of August. There is no glory + in the grass nor verdure in anything. + + "In fact, we have nothing green here but the Archduke Max, who + firmly believes that he is going forth to Mexico to establish an + American empire, and that it is his divine mission to destroy the + dragon of democracy and reestablish the true Church, the Right + Divine, and all sorts of games. Poor young man! . . . + + "Our information from home is to the 12th. Charleston seems to be + in 'articulo mortis,' but how forts nowadays seem to fly in the face + of Scripture. Those founded on a rock, and built of it, fall easily + enough under the rain of Parrotts and Dahlgrens, while the house + built of sand seems to bid defiance to the storm." + +In quoting from these confidential letters I have been restrained from +doing full justice to their writer by the fact that he spoke with such +entire freedom of persons as well as events. But if they could be read +from beginning to end, no one could help feeling that his love for his +own country, and passionate absorption of every thought in the strife +upon which its existence as a nation depended, were his very life during +all this agonizing period. He can think and talk of nothing else, or, +if he turns for a moment to other subjects, he reverts to the one great +central interest of "American politics," of which he says in one of the +letters from which I have quoted, "There is nothing else worth thinking +of in the world." + +But in spite of his public record as the historian of the struggle for +liberty and the champion of its defenders, and while every letter he +wrote betrayed in every word the intensity of his patriotic feeling, he +was not safe against the attacks of malevolence. A train laid by unseen +hands was waiting for the spark to kindle it, and this came at last in +the shape of a letter from an unknown individual,--a letter the existence +of which ought never to have been a matter of official recognition. + + + + +XVIII. + +1866-1867. AEt. 52-43. + +RESIGNATION OF HIS OFFICE.--CAUSES OF HIS RESIGNATION. + +It is a relief to me that just here, where I come to the first of two +painful episodes in this brilliant and fortunate career, I can preface my +statement with the generous words of one who speaks with authority of his +predecessor in office. + +The Hon. John Jay, Ex-Minister to Austria, in the tribute to the memory +of Motley read at a meeting of the New York Historical Society, wrote as +follows:-- + + "In singular contrast to Mr. Motley's brilliant career as an + historian stands the fact recorded in our diplomatic annals that he + was twice forced from the service as one who had forfeited the + confidence of the American government. This society, while he was + living, recognized his fame as a statesman, diplomatist, and + patriot, as belonging to America, and now that death has closed the + career of Seward, Sumner, and Motley, it will be remembered that the + great historian, twice humiliated, by orders from Washington, before + the diplomacy and culture of Europe, appealed from the passions of + the hour to the verdict of history. + + "Having succeeded Mr. Motley at Vienna some two years after his + departure, I had occasion to read most of his dispatches, which + exhibited a mastery of the subjects of which they treated, with much + of the clear perception, the scholarly and philosophic tone and + decided judgment, which, supplemented by his picturesque + description, full of life and color, have given character to his + histories. They are features which might well have served to extend + the remark of Madame de Stael that a great historian is almost a + statesman. I can speak also from my own observation of the + reputation which Motley left in the Austrian capital. + Notwithstanding the decision with which, under the direction of Mr. + Seward, he had addressed the minister of foreign affairs, Count + Mensdorff, afterwards the Prince Diedrickstein, protesting against + the departure of an Austrian force of one thousand volunteers, who + were about to embark for Mexico in aid of the ill-fated Maximilian, + --a protest which at the last moment arrested the project,--Mr. + Motley and his amiable family were always spoken of in terms of + cordial regard and respect by members of the imperial family and + those eminent statesmen, Count de Beust and Count Andrassy. His + death, I am sure, is mourned to-day by the representatives of the + historic names of Austria and Hungary, and by the surviving + diplomats then residing near the Court of Vienna, wherever they may + still be found, headed by their venerable Doyen, the Baron de + Heckeren." + +The story of Mr. Motley's resignation of his office and its acceptance by +the government is this. + +The President of the United States, Andrew Johnson, received a letter +professing to be written from the Hotel Meurice, Paris, dated October 23, +1866, and signed "George W. M'Crackin, of New York." This letter was +filled with accusations directed against various public agents, +ministers, and consuls, representing the United States in different +countries. Its language was coarse, its assertions were improbable, its +spirit that of the lowest of party scribblers. It was bitter against New +England, especially so against Massachusetts, and it singled out Motley +for the most particular abuse. I think it is still questioned whether +there was any such person as the one named,--at any rate, it bore the +characteristic marks of those vulgar anonymous communications which +rarely receive any attention unless they are important enough to have the +police set on the track of the writer to find his rathole, if possible. +A paragraph in the "Daily Advertiser" of June 7, 1869, quotes from a +Western paper a story to the effect that one William R. M'Crackin, who +had recently died at ----- confessed to having written the M' Crackin +letter. Motley, he said, had snubbed him and refused to lend him money. +"He appears to have been a Bohemian of the lowest order." Between such +authorship and the anonymous there does not seem to be much to choose. +But the dying confession sounds in my ears as decidedly apocryphal. As +for the letter, I had rather characterize it than reproduce it. It is an +offence to decency and a disgrace to the national record on which it is +found. This letter of "George W. M'Crackin" passed into the hands of +Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State. Most gentlemen, I think, would have +destroyed it on the spot, as it was not fit for the waste-basket. Some, +more cautious, might have smothered it among the piles of their private +communications. If any notice was taken of it, one would say that a +private note to each of the gentlemen attacked might have warned him that +there were malicious eavesdroppers about, ready to catch up any careless +expression he might let fall and make a scandalous report of it to his +detriment. + +The secretary, acquiescing without resistance in a suggestion of the +President, saw fit to address a formal note to several of the gentlemen +mentioned in the M'Crackin letter, repeating some of its offensive +expressions, and requesting those officials to deny or confirm the report +that they had uttered them. + +A gentleman who is asked whether he has spoken in a "malignant" or +"offensive" manner, whether he has "railed violently and shamefully" +against the President of the United States, or against anybody else, +might well wonder who would address such a question to the humblest +citizen not supposed to be wanting in a common measure of self-respect. +A gentleman holding an important official station in a foreign country, +receiving a letter containing such questions, signed by the prime +minister of his government, if he did not think himself imposed upon by a +forgery, might well consider himself outraged. It was a letter of this +kind which was sent by the Secretary of State to the Minister +Plenipotentiary to the Empire of Austria. Not quite all the vulgar +insolence of the M'Crackin letter was repeated. Mr. Seward did not ask +Mr. Motley to deny or confirm the assertion of the letter that he was a +"thorough flunky" and "un-American functionary." But he did insult him +with various questions suggested by the anonymous letter,--questions that +must have been felt as an indignity by the most thick-skinned of battered +politicians. + +Mr. Motley was very sensitive, very high-spirited, very impulsive, very +patriotic, and singularly truthful. The letter of Mr. Seward to such a +man was like a buffet on the cheek of an unarmed officer. It stung like +the thrust of a stiletto. It roused a resentment that could not find any +words to give it expression. He could not wait to turn the insult over +in his mind, to weigh the exact amount of affront in each question, to +take counsel, to sleep over it, and reply to it with diplomatic measure +and suavity. One hour had scarcely elapsed before his answer was +written. As to his feelings as an American, he appeals to his record. +This might have shown that if he erred it was on the side of enthusiasm +and extravagant expressions of reverence for the American people during +the heroic years just passed. He denounces the accusations as pitiful +fabrications and vile calumny. He blushes that such charges could have +been uttered; he is deeply wounded that Mr. Seward could have listened to +such falsehood. He does not hesitate to say what his opinions are with +reference to home questions, and especially to that of reconstruction. + + "These opinions," he says, "in the privacy of my own household, and + to occasional American visitors, I have not concealed. The great + question now presenting itself for solution demands the + conscientious scrutiny of every American who loves his country and + believes in the human progress of which that country is one of the + foremost representatives. I have never thought, during my residence + at Vienna, that because I have the honor of being a public servant + of the American people I am deprived of the right of discussing + within my own walls the gravest subjects that can interest freemen. + A minister of the United States does not cease to be a citizen of + the United States, as deeply interested as others in all that + relates to the welfare of his country." + +Among the "occasional American visitors" spoken of above must have been +some of those self-appointed or hired agents called "interviewers," who +do for the American public what the Venetian spies did for the Council of +Ten, what the familiars of the Inquisition did for the priesthood, who +invade every public man's privacy, who listen at every key-hole, who +tamper with every guardian of secrets; purveyors to the insatiable +appetite of a public which must have a slain reputation to devour with +its breakfast, as the monster of antiquity called regularly for his +tribute of a spotless virgin. + +The "interviewer" has his use, undoubtedly, and often instructs and +amuses his public with gossip they could not otherwise listen to. He +serves the politician by repeating the artless and unstudied remarks +which fall from his lips in a conversation which the reporter has been +invited to take notes of. He tickles the author's vanity by showing him +off as he sits in his library unconsciously uttering the engaging items +of self-portraiture which, as he well knows, are to be given to the +public in next week's illustrated paper. The feathered end of his shaft +titillates harmlessly enough, but too often the arrowhead is crusted with +a poison worse than the Indian gets by mingling the wolf's gall with the +rattlesnake's venom. No man is safe whose unguarded threshold the +mischief-making questioner has crossed. The more unsuspecting, the more +frank, the more courageous, the more social is the subject of his +vivisection, the more easily does he get at his vital secrets, if he has +any to be extracted. No man is safe if the hearsay reports of his +conversation are to be given to the public without his own careful +revision. When we remember that a proof-text bearing on the mighty +question of the future life, words of supreme significance, uttered as +they were in the last hour, and by the lips to which we listen as to none +other,--that this text depends for its interpretation on the position of +a single comma, we can readily see what wrong may be done by the +unintentional blunder of the most conscientious reporter. But too +frequently it happens that the careless talk of an honest and high-minded +man only reaches the public after filtering through the drain of some +reckless hireling's memory,--one who has played so long with other men's +characters and good name that he forgets they have any value except to +fill out his morning paragraphs. + +Whether the author of the scandalous letter which it was disgraceful to +the government to recognize was a professional interviewer or only a +malicious amateur, or whether he was a paid "spotter," sent by some +jealous official to report on the foreign ministers as is sometimes done +in the case of conductors of city horsecars, or whether the dying +miscreant before mentioned told the truth, cannot be certainly known. +But those who remember Mr. Hawthorne's account of his consular +experiences at Liverpool are fully aware to what intrusions and +impertinences and impositions our national representatives in other +countries are subjected. Those fellow-citizens who "often came to the +consulate in parties of half a dozen or more, on no business whatever, +but merely to subject their public servant to a rigid examination, and +see how he was getting on with his duties," may very possibly have +included among them some such mischief-maker as the author of the odious +letter which received official recognition. Mr. Motley had spoken in one +of his histories of "a set of venomous familiars who glided through every +chamber and coiled themselves at every fireside." He little thought that +under his own roof he himself was to be the victim of an equally base +espionage. + +It was an insult on the part of the government to have sent Mr. Motley +such a letter with such questions as were annexed to it. No very exact +rule can be laid down as to the manner in which an insult shall be dealt +with. Something depends on temperament, and his was of the warmer +complexion. His first impulse, he says, was to content himself with a +flat denial of the truth of the accusations. But his scrupulous honesty +compelled him to make a plain statement of his opinions, and to avow the +fact that he had made no secret of them in conversation under conditions +where he had a right to speak freely of matters quite apart from his +official duties. His answer to the accusation was denial of its charges; +his reply to the insult was his resignation. + +It may be questioned whether this was the wisest course, but wisdom is +often disconcerted by an indignity, and even a meek Christian may forget +to turn the other cheek after receiving the first blow until the natural +man has asserted himself by a retort in kind. But the wrong was +committed; his resignation was accepted; the vulgar letter, not fit to be +spread out on these pages, is enrolled in the records of the nation, and +the first deep wound was inflicted on the proud spirit of one whose +renown had shed lustre on the whole country. + +That the burden of this wrong may rest where it belongs, I quote the +following statement from Mr. Jay's paper, already referred to. + + "It is due to the memory of Mr. Seward to say, and there would seem + now no further motive for concealing the truth, that I was told in + Europe, on what I regarded as reliable authority, that there was + reason to believe that on the receipt of Mr. Motley's resignation + Mr. Seward had written to him declining to accept it, and that this + letter, by a telegraphic order of President Johnson, had been + arrested in the hands of a dispatch agent before its delivery to Mr. + Motley, and that the curt letter of the 18th of April had been + substituted in its stead." + +The Hon. John Bigelow, late Minister to France, has published an article +in "The International Review" for July-August, 1878, in which he defends +his late friend Mr. Seward's action in this matter at the expense of the +President, Mr. Andrew Johnson, and not without inferences unfavorable to +the discretion of Mr. Motley. Many readers will think that the simple +record of Mr. Seward's unresisting acquiescence in the action of the +President is far from being to his advantage. I quote from his own +conversation as carefully reported by his friend Mr. Bigelow. "Mr. +Johnson was in a state of intense irritation, and more or less suspicious +of everybody about him."--"Instead of throwing the letter into the fire," +the President handed it to him, the secretary, and suggested answering +it, and without a word, so far as appears, he simply answered, +"Certainly, sir." Again, the secretary having already written to Mr. +Motley that "his answer was satisfactory," the President, on reaching the +last paragraph of Mr. Motley's letter, in which he begged respectfully to +resign his post, "without waiting to learn what Mr. Seward had done or +proposed to do, exclaimed, with a not unnatural asperity, 'Well, let him +go,' and 'on hearing this,' said Mr. Seward, laughing, 'I did not read my +dispatch.'" Many persons will think that the counsel for the defence has +stated the plaintiff's case so strongly that there is nothing left for +him but to show his ingenuity and his friendship for the late secretary +in a hopeless argument. At any rate, Mr. Seward appears not to have made +the slightest effort to protect Mr. Motley against his coarse and jealous +chief at two critical moments, and though his own continuance in office +may have been more important to the State than that of the Vicar of Bray +was to the Church, he ought to have risked something, as it seems to me, +to shield such a patriot, such a gentleman, such a scholar, from ignoble +treatment; he ought to have been as ready to guard Mr. Motley from wrong +as Mr. Bigelow has shown himself to shield Mr. Seward from reproach, and +his task, if more delicate, was not more difficult. I am willing to +accept Mr. Bigelow's loyal and honorable defence of his friend's memory +as the best that could be said for Mr. Seward, but the best defence in +this case is little better than an impeachment. As for Mr. Johnson, he +had held the weapon of the most relentless of the 'Parcae' so long that +his suddenly clipping the thread of a foreign minister's tenure of office +in a fit of jealous anger is not at all surprising. + +Thus finished Mr. Motley's long and successful diplomatic service at the +Court of Austria. He may have been judged hasty in resigning his place; +he may have committed himself in expressing his opinions too strongly +before strangers, whose true character as spies and eavesdroppers he was +too high-minded to suspect. But no caution could have protected him +against a slanderer who hated the place he came from, the company he +kept, the name he had made famous, to whom his very look and bearing-- +such as belong to a gentleman of natural refinement and good breeding-- +must have been a personal grievance and an unpardonable offence. + +I will add, in illustration of what has been said, and as showing his +feeling with reference to the matter, an extract from a letter to me from +Vienna, dated the 12th of March, 1867. + + . . . "As so many friends and so many strangers have said so much + that is gratifying to me in public and private on this very painful + subject, it would be like affectation, in writing to so old a friend + as you, not to touch upon it. I shall confine myself, however, to + one fact, which, so far as I know, may be new to you. + + "Geo. W. M'Cracken is a man and a name utterly unknown to me. + + "With the necessary qualification which every man who values truth + must make when asserting such a negation,--viz., to the very best of + my memory and belief,--I never set eyes on him nor heard of him + until now, in the whole course of my life. Not a member of my + family or of the legation has the faintest recollection of any such + person. I am quite convinced that he never saw me nor heard the + sound of my voice. That his letter was a tissue of vile calumnies, + shameless fabrications, and unblushing and contemptible falsehoods, + --by whomsoever uttered,--I have stated in a reply to what ought + never to have been an official letter. No man can regret more than + I do that such a correspondence is enrolled in the capital among + American state papers. I shall not trust myself to speak of the + matter. It has been a sufficiently public scandal." + + + + +XIX. + +1867-1868. AEt. 53-54. + +LAST TWO VOLUMES OF THE "HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS."--GENERAL +CRITICISMS OF DUTCH SCHOLARS ON MOTLEY'S HISTORICAL WORKS. + +In his letter to me of March 12, 1867, just cited, Mr. Motley writes:-- + + "My two concluding volumes of the United Netherlands are passing + rapidly through the press. Indeed, Volume III. is entirely printed + and a third of Volume IV. + + "If I live ten years longer I shall have probably written the + natural sequel to the first two works,--viz., the Thirty Years' War. + After that I shall cease to scourge the public. + + "I don't know whether my last two volumes are good or bad; I only + know that they are true--but that need n't make them amusing. + + "Alas! one never knows when one becomes a bore." + +In 1868 the two concluding volumes of the "History of the Netherlands" +were published at the same time in London and in New York. The events +described and the characters delineated in these two volumes had, +perhaps, less peculiar interest for English and American readers than +some of those which had lent attraction to the preceding ones. There was +no scene like the siege of Antwerp, no story like that of the Spanish +Armada. There were no names that sounded to our ears like those of Sir +Philip Sidney and Leicester and Amy Robsart. But the main course of his +narrative flowed on with the same breadth and depth of learning and the +same brilliancy of expression. The monumental work continued as nobly as +it had begun. The facts had been slowly, quietly gathered, one by one, +like pebbles from the empty channel of a brook. The style was fluent, +impetuous, abundant, impatient, as it were, at times, and leaping the +sober boundaries prescribed to it, like the torrent which rushes through +the same channel when the rains have filled it. Thus there was matter +for criticism in his use of language. He was not always careful in the +construction of his sentences. He introduced expressions now and then +into his vocabulary which reminded one of his earlier literary efforts. +He used stronger language at times than was necessary, coloring too +highly, shading too deeply in his pictorial delineations. To come to the +matter of his narrative, it must be granted that not every reader will +care to follow him through all the details of diplomatic intrigues which +he has with such industry and sagacity extricated from the old +manuscripts in which they had long lain hidden. But we turn a few pages +and we come to one of those descriptions which arrest us at once and show +him in his power and brilliancy as a literary artist. His characters +move before us with the features of life; we can see Elizabeth, or +Philip, or Maurice, not as a name connected with events, but as a +breathing and acting human being, to be loved or hated, admired or +despised, as if he or she were our contemporary. That all his judgments +would not be accepted as final we might easily anticipate; he could not +help writing more or less as a partisan, but he was a partisan on the +side of freedom in politics and religion, of human nature as against +every form of tyranny, secular or priestly, of noble manhood wherever he +saw it as against meanness and violence and imposture, whether clad in +the soldier's mail or the emperor's purple. His sternest critics, and +even these admiring ones, were yet to be found among those who with +fundamental beliefs at variance with his own followed him in his long +researches among the dusty annals of the past. + +The work of the learned M. Groen van Prinsterer,--[Maurice et Barnevelt, +Etude Historique. Utrecht, 1875.]--devoted expressly to the revision and +correction of what the author considers the erroneous views of Mr. Motley +on certain important points, bears, notwithstanding, such sincere and +hearty tribute to his industry, his acquisitions, his brilliant qualities +as a historian, that some extracts from it will be read, I think, with +interest. + + "My first interview, more than twenty years ago, with Mr. Lothrop + Motley, has left an indelible impression on my memory. + + "It was the 8th of August, 1853. A note is handed me from our + eminent archivist Bakhuyzen van den Brink. It informs me that I am + to receive a visit from an American, who, having been struck by the + analogies between the United Provinces and the United States, + between Washington and the founder of our independence, has + interrupted his diplomatic career to write the life of William the + First; that he has already given proof of ardor and perseverance, + having worked in libraries and among collections of manuscripts, + and that he is coming to pursue his studies at the Hague. + + "While I am surprised and delighted with this intelligence, I am + informed that Mr. Motley himself is waiting for my answer. My + eagerness to make the acquaintance of such an associate in my + sympathies and my labors may be well imagined. But how shall I + picture my surprise, in presently discovering that this unknown and + indefatigable fellow-worker has really read, I say read and reread, + our Quartos, our Folios, the enormous volumes of Bor, of van + Meteren, besides a multitude of books, of pamphlets, and even of + unedited documents. Already he is familiar with the events, the + changes of condition, the characteristic details of the life of his + and my hero. Not only is he acquainted with my Archives, but it + seems as if there was nothing in this voluminous collection of which + he was ignorant. . . . + + "In sending me the last volume of his 'History of the Foundation of + the Republic of the Netherlands,' Mr. Motley wrote to me: 'Without + the help of the Archives I could never have undertaken the difficult + task I had set myself, and you will have seen at least from my + numerous citations that I have made a sincere and conscientious + study of them.' Certainly in reading such a testimonial I + congratulated myself on the excellent fruit of my labors, but the + gratitude expressed to me by Mr. Motley was sincerely reciprocated. + The Archives are a scientific collection, and my 'Manual of National + History,' written in Dutch, hardly gets beyond the limits of my own + country. And here is a stranger, become our compatriot in virtue of + the warmth of his sympathies, who has accomplished what was not in + my power. By the detail and the charm of his narrative, by the + matter and form of a work which the universality of the English + language and numerous translations were to render cosmopolitan, Mr. + Motley, like that other illustrious historian, Prescott, lost to + science by too early death, has popularized in both hemispheres the + sublime devotion of the Prince of Orange, the exceptional and + providential destinies of my country, and the benedictions of the + Eternal for all those who trust in Him and tremble only at his + Word." + +The old Dutch scholar differs in many important points from Mr. Motley, +as might be expected from his creed and his life-long pursuits. This I +shall refer to in connection with Motley's last work, "John of +Barneveld." An historian among archivists and annalists reminds one of +Sir John Lubbock in the midst of his ant-hills. Undoubtedly he disturbs +the ants in their praiseworthy industry, much as his attentions may +flatter them. Unquestionably the ants (if their means of expressing +themselves were equal to their apparent intellectual ability) could teach +him many things that he has overlooked and correct him in many mistakes. +But the ants will labor ingloriously without an observer to chronicle +their doings, and the archivists and annalists will pile up facts forever +like so many articulates or mollusks or radiates, until the vertebrate +historian comes with his generalizing ideas, his beliefs, his prejudices, +his idiosyncrasies of all kinds, and brings the facts into a more or less +imperfect, but still organic series of relations. The history which is +not open to adverse criticism is worth little, except as material, for it +is written without taking cognizance of those higher facts about which +men must differ; of which Guizot writes as follows, as quoted in the work +of M. Groen van Prinsterer himself. + + "It is with facts that our minds are exercised, it has nothing but + facts as its materials, and when it discovers general laws these + laws are themselves facts which it determines. . . . In the + study of facts the intelligence may allow itself to be crushed; it + may lower, narrow, materialize itself; it may come to believe that + there are no facts except those which strike us at the first glance, + which come close to us, which fall, as we say, under our senses; a + great and gross error; there are remote facts, immense, obscure, + sublime, very difficult to reach, to observe, to describe, and which + are not any less facts for these reasons, and which man is not less + obliged to study and to know; and if he fails to recognize them or + forgets them, his thought will be prodigiously abashed, and all his + ideas carry the stamp of this deterioration." + +In that higher region of facts which belongs to the historian, whose +task it is to interpret as well as to transcribe, Mr. Motley showed, of +course, the political and religious school in which he had been brought +up. Every man has a right to his "personal equation" of prejudice, and +Mr. Motley, whose ardent temperament gave life to his writings, betrayed +his sympathies in the disputes of which he told the story, in a way to +insure sharp criticism from those of a different way of thinking. Thus +it is that in the work of M. Groen van Prinsterer, from which I have +quoted, he is considered as having been betrayed into error, while his +critic recognizes "his manifest desire to be scrupulously impartial and +truth-telling." And M. Fruin, another of his Dutch critics, says, "His +sincerity, his perspicacity, the accuracy of his laborious researches, +are incontestable." + +Some of the criticisms of Dutch scholars will be considered in the pages +which deal with his last work, "The Life of John of Barneveld." + + + + +XX. + +1868-1869. AEt. 54-55. + +VISIT TO AMERICA.--RESIDENCE AT NO. 2 PARK STREET, BOSTON.--ADDRESS ON +THE COMING PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.--ADDRESS ON HISTORIC PROGRESS AND +AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.--APPOINTED MINISTER TO ENGLAND. + +In June, 1868, Mr. Motley returned with his family to Boston, and +established himself in the house No. 2 Park Street. During his residence +here he entered a good deal into society, and entertained many visitors +in a most hospitable and agreeable way. + +On the 20th of October, 1868, he delivered an address before the Parker +Fraternity, in the Music Hall, by special invitation. Its title was +"Four Questions for the People, at the Presidential Election." This was +of course what is commonly called an electioneering speech, but a speech +full of noble sentiments and eloquent expression. Here are two of its +paragraphs:-- + + "Certainly there have been bitterly contested elections in this + country before. Party spirit is always rife, and in such vivid, + excitable, disputatious communities as ours are, and I trust always + will be, it is the very soul of freedom. To those who reflect upon + the means and end of popular government, nothing seems more stupid + than in grand generalities to deprecate party spirit. Why, + government by parties and through party machinery is the only + possible method by which a free government can accomplish the + purpose of its existence. The old republics of the past may be said + to have fallen, not because of party spirit, but because there was + no adequate machinery by which party spirit could develop itself + with facility and regularity. + + "And if our Republic be true to herself, the future of the human + race is assured by our example. No sweep of overwhelming armies, no + ponderous treatises on the rights of man, no hymns to liberty, + though set to martial music and resounding with the full diapason of + a million human throats, can exert so persuasive an influence as + does the spectacle of a great republic, occupying a quarter of the + civilized globe, and governed quietly and sagely by the people + itself." + +A large portion of this address is devoted to the proposition that it is +just and reasonable to pay our debts rather than to repudiate them, and +that the nation is as much bound to be honest as is the individual. "It +is an awful thing," he says, "that this should be a question at all," but +it was one of the points on which the election turned, for all that. + +In his advocacy of the candidate with whom, and the government of which +he became the head, his relations became afterwards so full of personal +antagonism, he spoke as a man of his ardent nature might be expected to +speak on such an occasion. No one doubts that his admiration of General +Grant's career was perfectly sincere, and no one at the present day can +deny that the great captain stood before the historian with such a record +as one familiar with the deeds of heroes and patriots might well consider +as entitling him to the honors too often grudged to the living to be +wasted on the dead. The speaker only gave voice to the widely prevailing +feelings which had led to his receiving the invitation to speak. The +time was one which called for outspoken utterance, and there was not a +listener whose heart did not warm as he heard the glowing words in which +the speaker recorded the noble achievements of the soldier who must in so +many ways have reminded him of his favorite character, William the +Silent. + +On the 16th of December of this same year, 1868, Mr. Motley delivered an +address before the New York Historical Society, on the occasion of the +sixty-fourth anniversary of its foundation. The president of the +society, Mr. Hamilton Fish, introduced the speaker as one "whose name +belongs to no single country, and to no single age. As a statesman and +diplomatist and patriot, he belongs to America; as a scholar, to the +world of letters; as a historian, all ages will claim him in the future." + +His subject was "Historic Progress and American Democracy." The +discourse is, to use his own words, "a rapid sweep through the eons and +the centuries," illustrating the great truth of the development of the +race from its origin to the time in which we are living. It is a long +distance from the planetary fact of the obliquity of the equator, which +gave the earth its alternation of seasons, and rendered the history, if +not the existence of man and of civilization a possibility, to the +surrender of General Lee under the apple-tree at Appomattox Court-House. +No one but a scholar familiar with the course of history could have +marshalled such a procession of events into a connected and intelligible +sequence. It is indeed a flight rather than a march; the reader is borne +along as on the wings of a soaring poem, and sees the rising and decaying +empires of history beneath him as a bird of passage marks the succession +of cities and wilds and deserts as he keeps pace with the sun in his +journey. + +Its eloquence, its patriotism, its crowded illustrations, drawn from +vast resources of knowledge, its epigrammatic axioms, its occasional +pleasantries, are all characteristic of the writer. + +Mr. Gulian C. Verplanck, the venerable senior member of the society, +proposed the vote of thanks to Mr. Motley with words of warm +commendation. + +Mr. William Cullen Bryant rose and said:-- + + "I take great pleasure in seconding the resolution which has just + been read. The eminent historian of the Dutch Republic, who has + made the story of its earlier days as interesting as that of Athens + and Sparta, and who has infused into the narrative the generous glow + of his own genius, has the highest of titles to be heard with + respectful attention by the citizens of a community which, in its + origin, was an offshoot of that renowned republic. And cheerfully + has that title been recognized, as the vast audience assembled here + to-night, in spite of the storm, fully testifies; and well has our + illustrious friend spoken of the growth of civilization and of the + improvement in the condition of mankind, both in the Old World--the + institutions of which he has so lately observed--and in the country + which is proud to claim him as one of her children." + +Soon after the election of General Grant, Mr. Motley received the +appointment of Minister to England. That the position was one which was +in many respects most agreeable to him cannot be doubted. Yet it was not +with unmingled feelings of satisfaction, not without misgivings which +warned him but too truly of the dangers about to encompass him, that he +accepted the place. He writes to me on April 16, 1869:-- + + "I feel anything but exultation at present,--rather the opposite + sensation. I feel that I am placed higher than I deserve, and at + the same time that I am taking greater responsibilities than ever + were assumed by me before. You will be indulgent to my mistakes and + shortcomings,--and who can expect to avoid them? But the world will + be cruel, and the times are threatening. I shall do my best,--but + the best may be poor enough,--and keep 'a heart for any fate.'" + + + + +XXI. + +1869-1870. AEt. 55-56. + +RECALL FROM THE ENGLISH MISSION.--ITS ALLEGED AND ITS PROBABLE REASONS. + +The misgivings thus expressed to me in confidence, natural enough in one +who had already known what it is to fall on evil days and evil tongues, +were but too well justified by after events. I could have wished to +leave untold the story of the English mission, an episode in Motley's +life full of heart-burnings, and long to be regretted as a passage of +American history. But his living appeal to my indulgence comes to me +from his grave as a call for his defence, however little needed, at least +as a part of my tribute to his memory. It is little needed, because the +case is clear enough to all intelligent readers of our diplomatic +history, and because his cause has been amply sustained by others in many +ways better qualified than myself to do it justice. The task is painful, +for if a wrong was done him it must be laid at the doors of those whom +the nation has delighted to honor, and whose services no error of +judgment or feeling or conduct can ever induce us to forget. If he +confessed him, self-liable, like the rest of us, to mistakes and +shortcomings, we must remember that the great officers of the government +who decreed his downfall were not less the subjects of human infirmity. + +The outline to be filled up is this: A new administration had just been +elected. The "Alabama Treaty," negotiated by Motley's predecessor, Mr. +Reverdy Johnson, had been rejected by the Senate. The minister was +recalled, and Motley, nominated without opposition and unanimously +confirmed by the Senate, was sent to England in his place. He was +welcomed most cordially on his arrival at Liverpool, and replied in a +similar strain of good feeling, expressing the same kindly sentiments +which may be found in his instructions. Soon after arriving in London +he had a conversation with Lord Clarendon, the British Foreign Secretary, +of which he sent a full report to his own government. While the reported +conversation was generally approved of in the government's dispatch +acknowledging it, it was hinted that some of its expressions were +stronger than were required by the instructions, and that one of its +points was not conveyed in precise conformity with the President's view. +The criticism was very gently worded, and the dispatch closed with a +somewhat guarded paragraph repeating the government's approbation. + +This was the first offence alleged against Mr. Motley. The second ground +of complaint was that he had shown written minutes of this conversation +to Lord Clarendon to obtain his confirmation of its exactness, and that +he had--as he said, inadvertently,--omitted to make mention to the +government of this circumstance until some weeks after the time of the +interview. + +He was requested to explain to Lord Clarendon that a portion of his +presentation and treatment of the subject discussed at the interview +immediately after his arrival was disapproved by the Secretary of State, +and he did so in a written communication, in which he used the very words +employed by Mr. Fish in his criticism of the conversation with Lord +Clarendon. An alleged mistake; a temperate criticism, coupled with a +general approval; a rectification of the mistake criticised. All this +within the first two months of Mr. Motley's official residence in London. + +No further fault was found with him, so far as appears, in the discharge +of his duties, to which he must have devoted himself faithfully, for he +writes to me, under the date of December 27, 1870: "I have worked harder +in the discharge of this mission than I ever did in my life." This from +a man whose working powers astonished the old Dutch archivist, Groen van +Prinsterer, means a good deal. + +More than a year had elapsed since the interview with Lord Clarendon, +which had been the subject of criticism. In the mean time a paper of +instructions was sent to Motley, dated September 25, 1869, in which the +points in the report of his interview which had been found fault with +are so nearly covered by similar expressions, that there seemed no real +ground left for difference between the government and the minister. +Whatever over-statement there had been, these new instructions would +imply that the government was now ready to go quite as far as the +minister had gone, and in some points to put the case still more +strongly. Everything was going on quietly. Important business had been +transacted, with no sign of distrust or discontent on the part of the +government as regarded Motley. Whatever mistake he was thought to have +committed was condoned by amicable treatment, neutralized by the virtual +indorsement of the government in the instructions of the 25th of +September, and obsolete as a ground of quarrel by lapse of time. The +question about which the misunderstanding, if such it deserves to be +called, had taken place, was no longer a possible source of disagreement, +as it had long been settled that the Alabama case should only be opened +again at the suggestion of the British government, and that it should be +transferred to Washington whenever that suggestion should again bring it +up for consideration. + +Such was the aspect of affairs at the American Legation in London. +No foreign minister felt more secure in his place than Mr. Motley. +"I thought myself," he says in the letter of December 27, "entirely in +the confidence of my own government, and I know that I had the thorough +confidence and the friendship of the leading personages in England." +All at once, on the first of July, 1870, a letter was written by the +Secretary of State, requesting him to resign. This gentle form of +violence is well understood in the diplomatic service. Horace Walpole +says, speaking of Lady Archibald Hamilton: "They have civilly asked her +and grossly forced her to ask civilly to go away, which she has done, +with a pension of twelve hundred a year." Such a request is like the +embrace of the "virgin" in old torture-chambers. She is robed in soft +raiment, but beneath it are the knife-blades which are ready to lacerate +and kill the victim, if he awaits the pressure of the machinery already +in motion. + +Mr. Motley knew well what was the logical order in an official execution, +and saw fit to let the government work its will upon him as its servant. +In November he was recalled. + +The recall of a minister under such circumstances is an unusual if not +an unprecedented occurrence. The government which appoints a citizen +to represent the country at a foreign court assumes a very serious +obligation to him. The next administration may turn him out and nothing +will be thought of it. He may be obliged to ask for his passports and +leave all at once if war is threatened between his own country and that +which he represents. He may, of course, be recalled for gross +misconduct. But his dismissal is very serious matter to him personally, +and not to be thought of on the ground of passion or caprice. Marriage +is a simple business, but divorce is a very different thing. The world +wants to know the reason of it; the law demands its justification. It +was a great blow to Mr. Motley, a cause of indignation to those who were +interested in him, a surprise and a mystery to the world in general. + +When he, his friends, and the public, all startled by this unexpected +treatment, looked to find an explanation of it, one was found which +seemed to many quite sufficient. Mr. Sumner had been prominent among +those who had favored his appointment. A very serious breach had taken +place between the President and Mr. Sumner on the important San Domingo +question. It was a quarrel, in short, neither more nor less, at least so +far as the President was concerned. The proposed San Domingo treaty had +just been rejected by the Senate, on the thirtieth day of June, and +immediately thereupon,--the very next day,--the letter requesting Mr. +Motley's resignation was issued by the executive. This fact was +interpreted as implying something more than a mere coincidence. +It was thought that Sumner's friend, who had been supported by him as +a candidate for high office, who shared many of his political ideas and +feelings, who was his intimate associate, his fellow-townsman, his +companion in scholarship and cultivation, his sympathetic co-laborer in +many ways, had been accounted and dealt with as the ally of an enemy, +and that the shaft which struck to the heart of the sensitive envoy had +glanced from the 'aes triplex' of the obdurate Senator. + +Mr. Motley wrote a letter to the Secretary of State immediately after his +recall, in which he reviewed his relations with the government from the +time of his taking office, and showed that no sufficient reason could be +assigned for the treatment to which he had been subjected. He referred +finally to the public rumor which assigned the President's hostility to +his friend Sumner, growing out of the San Domingo treaty question, as the +cause of his own removal, and to the coincidence between the dates of the +rejection of the treaty and his dismissal, with an evident belief that +these two occurrences were connected by something more than accident. + +To this, a reply was received from the Secretary of State's office, +signed by Mr. Fish, but so objectionable in its tone and expressions that +it has been generally doubted whether the paper could claim anything more +of the secretary's hand than his signature. It travelled back to the old +record of the conversation with Lord Clarendon, more than a year and a +half before, took up the old exceptions, warmed them over into +grievances, and joined with them whatever the 'captatores verborum,' +not extinct since Daniel Webster's time, could add to their number. +This was the letter which was rendered so peculiarly offensive by a most +undignified comparison which startled every well-bred reader. No answer +was possible to such a letter, and the matter rested until the death of +Mr. Motley caused it to be brought up once more for judgment. + +The Honorable John Jay, in his tribute to the memory of Mr. Motley, read +at a meeting of the New York Historical Society, vindicated his character +against the attacks of the late executive in such a way as to leave an +unfavorable impression as to the course of the government. Objection was +made on this account to placing the tribute upon the minutes of the +society. This led to a publication by Mr. Jay, entitled "Motley's Appeal +to History," in which the propriety of the society's action is +questioned, and the wrong done to him insisted upon and further +illustrated. + +The defence could not have fallen into better hands. Bearing a name +which is, in itself, a title to the confidence of the American people, +a diplomatist familiar with the rights, the customs, the traditions, the +courtesies, which belong to the diplomatic service, the successor of Mr. +Motley at Vienna, and therefore familiar with his official record, not +self-made, which too commonly means half-made, but with careful training +added to the instincts to which he had a right by inheritance, he could +not allow the memory of such a scholar, of such a high-minded lover of +his country, of so true a gentleman as Mr. Motley, to remain without +challenge under the stigma of official condemnation. I must refer to Mr. +Jay's memorial tribute as printed in the newspapers of the day, and to +his "Appeal" published in "The International Review," for his convincing +presentation of the case, and content myself with a condensed statement +of the general and special causes of complaint against Mr. Motley, and +the explanations which suggest themselves, as abundantly competent to +show the insufficiency of the reasons alleged by the government as an +excuse for the manner in which he was treated. + +The grounds of complaint against Mr. Motley are to be looked for:-- + +1. In the letter of Mr. Fish to Mr. Moran, of December 30, 1870. + +2. In Mr. Bancroft Davis's letter to the New York "Herald" of January 4, +1878, entitled, "Mr. Sumner, the Alabama Claims and their Settlement." + +3. The reported conversations of General Grant. + +4. The reported conversations of Mr. Fish. + +In considering Mr. Fish's letter, we must first notice its animus. The +manner in which Dickens's two old women are brought in is not only +indecorous, but it shows a state of feeling from which nothing but harsh +interpretation of every questionable expression of Mr. Motley's was to be +expected. + +There is not the least need of maintaining the perfect fitness and +rhetorical felicity of every phrase and every word used by him in his +interview with Lord Clarendon. It is not to be expected that a minister, +when about to hold a conversation with a representative of the government +to which he is accredited, will commit his instructions to memory and +recite them, like a school-boy "speaking his piece." He will give them +more or less in his own language, amplifying, it may be, explaining, +illustrating, at any rate paraphrasing in some degree, but endeavoring to +convey an idea of their essential meaning. In fact, as any one can see, +a conversation between two persons must necessarily imply a certain +amount of extemporization on the part of both. I do not believe any long +and important conference was ever had between two able men without each +of them feeling that he had not spoken exactly in all respects as he +would if he could say all over again. + +Doubtless, therefore, Mr. Motley's report of his conversation shows that +some of his expressions might have been improved, and others might as +well have been omitted. A man does not change his temperament on taking +office. General Jackson still swore "by the Eternal," and his +illustrious military successor of a more recent period seems, by his own +showing, to have been able to sudden impulses of excitement. It might be +said of Motley, as it was said of Shakespeare by Ben Jonson, "aliquando +sufflaminandus erat." Yet not too much must be made of this concession. +Only a determination to make out a case could, as it seems to me, have +framed such an indictment as that which the secretary constructed by +stringing together a slender list of pretended peccadillos. One instance +will show the extreme slightness which characterizes many of the grounds +of inculpation:-- + +The instructions say, "The government, in rejecting the recent +convention, abandons neither its own claims nor those of its citizens," +etc. + +Mr. Motley said, in the course of his conversation, "At present, the +United States government, while withdrawing neither its national claims +nor the claims of its individual citizens against the British +government," etc. + +Mr. Fish says, "The determination of this government not to abandon its +claims nor those of its citizens was stated parenthetically, and in such +a subordinate way as not necessarily to attract the attention of Lord +Clarendon." + +What reported conversation can stand a captious criticism like this? +Are there not two versions of the ten commandments which were given out +in the thunder and smoke of Sinai, and would the secretary hold that this +would have been a sufficient reason to recall Moses from his "Divine +Legation" at the court of the Almighty? + +There are certain expressions which, as Mr. Fish shows them apart from +their connection, do very certainly seem in bad taste, if not actually +indiscreet and unjustifiable. Let me give an example:-- + + "Instead of expressing the hope entertained by this government that + there would be an early, satisfactory, and friendly settlement of + the questions at issue, he volunteered the unnecessary, and from the + manner in which it was thrust in, the highly objectionable statement + that the United States government had no insidious purposes,'" etc. + +This sounds very badly as Mr. Fish puts it; let us see how it stands in +its proper connection:-- + + "He [Lord Clarendon] added with some feeling, that in his opinion it + would be highly objectionable that the question should be hung up on + a peg, to be taken down at some convenient moment for us, when it + might be difficult for the British government to enter upon its + solution, and when they might go into the debate at a disadvantage. + These were, as nearly as I can remember, his words, and I replied + very earnestly that I had already answered that question when I said + that my instructions were to propose as brief a delay as would + probably be requisite for the cooling of passions and for producing + the calm necessary for discussing the defects of the old treaty and + a basis for a new one. The United States government had no + insidious purposes," etc. + +Is it not evident that Lord Clarendon suggested the idea which Mr. Motley +repelled as implying an insidious mode of action? Is it not just as +clear that Mr. Fish's way of reproducing the expression without the +insinuation which called it forth is a practical misstatement which does +Mr. Motley great wrong? + +One more example of the method of wringing a dry cloth for drops of +evidence ought to be enough to show the whole spirit of the paper. + +Mr. Fish, in his instructions:-- + + "It might, indeed, well have occurred in the event of the selection + by lot of the arbitrator or umpire in different cases, involving + however precisely the same principles, that different awards, + resting upon antagonistic principles, might have been made." + +Mr. Motley, in the conversation with Lord Clarendon:-- + + "I called his lordship's attention to your very judicious suggestion + that the throwing of the dice for umpires might bring about opposite + decisions in cases arising out of identical principles. He agreed + entirely that no principle was established by the treaty, but that + the throwing of dice or drawing of lots was not a new invention on + that occasion, but a not uncommon method in arbitrations. I only + expressed the opinion that such an aleatory process seemed an + unworthy method in arbitrations," etc. + +Mr. Fish, in his letter to Mr. Moran:-- + + "That he had in his mind at that interview something else than his + letter of instructions from this department would appear to be + evident, when he says that 'he called his lordship's attention to + your [my] very judicious suggestion that the throwing of dice for + umpire might bring about opposite decisions.' The instructions + which Mr. Motley received from me contained no suggestion about + throwing of dice.' That idea is embraced in the suggestive words + 'aleatory process' (adopted by Mr. Motley), but previously applied + in a speech made in the Senate on the question of ratifying the + treaty." + +Charles Sumner's Speech on the Johnson-Clarendon Treaty, April 13, 1869: + + "In the event of failure to agree, the arbitrator is determined 'by + lot' out of two persons named by each side. Even if this aleatory + proceeding were a proper device in the umpirage of private claims, + it is strongly inconsistent with the solemnity which belongs to the + present question." + +It is "suggestive" that the critical secretary, so keen in detecting +conversational inaccuracies, having but two words to quote from a printed +document, got one of them wrong. But this trivial comment must not lead +the careful reader to neglect to note how much is made of what is really +nothing at all. The word aleatory, whether used in its original and +limited sense, or in its derived extension as a technical term of the +civil law, was appropriate and convenient; one especially likely to be +remembered by any person who had read Mr. Sumner's speech,--and everybody +had read it; the secretary himself doubtless got the suggestion of +determining the question "by lot" from it. What more natural than that +it should be used again when the subject of appealing to chance came up +in conversation? It "was an excellent good word before it was ill- +sorted," and we were fortunate in having a minister who was scholar +enough to know what it meant. The language used by Mr. Motley conveyed +the idea of his instructions plainly enough, and threw in a compliment to +their author which should have saved this passage at least from the +wringing process. The example just given is, like the concession of +belligerency to the insurgents by Great Britain, chiefly important as +"showing animus." + +It is hardly necessary to bring forward other instances of virtual +misrepresentation. If Mr. Motley could have talked his conversation over +again, he would very probably have changed some expressions. But he felt +bound to repeat the interview exactly as it occurred, with all the errors +to which its extemporaneous character exposed it. When a case was to be +made out against him, the secretary wrote, December 30, 1870: + + "Well might he say, as he did in a subsequent dispatch on the 15th + of July, 1869, that he had gone beyond the strict letter of his + instructions. He might have added, in direct opposition to their + temper and spirit." + +Of the same report the secretary had said, June 28, 1869: "Your general +presentation and treatment of the several subjects discussed in that +interview meet the approval of this department." This general approval +is qualified by mild criticism of a single statement as not having been +conveyed in "precise conformity" to the President's view. The minister +was told he might be well content to rest the question on the very +forcible presentation he had made of the American side of the question, +and that if there were expressions used stronger than were required by +his instructions, they were in the right direction. The mere fact that a +minute of this conversation was confidentially submitted to Lord +Clarendon in order that our own government might have his authority for +the accuracy of the record, which was intended exclusively for its own +use, and that this circumstance was overlooked and not reported to the +government until some weeks afterward, are the additional charges against +Mr. Motley. The submission of the dispatch containing an account of the +interview, the secretary says, is not inconsistent with diplomatic usage, +but it is inconsistent with the duty of a minister not to inform his +government of that submission. "Mr. Motley submitted the draft of his +No. 8 to Lord Clarendon, and failed to communicate that fact to his +government." He did inform Mr. Fish, at any rate, on the 30th of July, +and alleged "inadvertence" as the reason for his omission to do it +before. + +Inasmuch as submitting the dispatch was not inconsistent with diplomatic +usage, nothing seems left to find fault with but the not very long delay +in mentioning the fact, or in his making the note "private and +confidential," as is so frequently done in diplomatic correspondence. + +Such were the grounds of complaint. On the strength of the conversation +which had met with the general approval of the government, tempered by +certain qualifications, and of the omission to report immediately to the +government the fact of its verification by Lord Clarendon, the secretary +rests the case against Mr. Motley. On these grounds it was that, +according to him, the President withdrew all right to discuss the Alabama +question from the minister whose dismissal was now only a question of +time. But other evidence comes in here. + +Mr. Motley says:-- + + "It was, as I supposed, understood before my departure for England, + although not publicly announced, that the so-called Alabama + negotiations, whenever renewed, should be conducted at Washington, + in case of the consent of the British government." + +Mr. Sumner says, in his "Explanation in Reply to an Assault:"-- + + "The secretary in a letter to me at Boston, dated at Washington, + October 9, 1869, informs the that the discussion of the question was + withdrawn from London 'because (the italics are the secretary's) we + think that when renewed it can be carried on here with a better + prospect of settlement, than where the late attempt at a convention + which resulted so disastrously and was conducted so strangely was + had;' and what the secretary thus wrote he repeated in conversation + when we met, carefully making the transfer to Washington depend upon + our advantage here, from the presence of the Senate,--thus showing + that the pretext put forth to wound Mr. Motley was an afterthought." + +Again we may fairly ask how the government came to send a dispatch like +that of September 25, 1869, in which the views and expressions for which +Mr. Motley's conversation had been criticised were so nearly reproduced, +and with such emphasis that Mr. Motley says, in a letter to me, dated +April 8, 1871, "It not only covers all the ground which I ever took, but +goes far beyond it. No one has ever used stronger language to the +British government than is contained in that dispatch. . . . It is +very able and well worth your reading. Lord Clarendon called it to me +'Sumner's speech over again.' It was thought by the English cabinet to +have 'out-Sumnered Sumner,' and now our government, thinking that every +one in the United States had forgotten the dispatch, makes believe that +I was removed because my sayings and doings in England were too much +influenced by Sumner!" Mr. Motley goes on to speak of the report that an +offer of his place in England was made to Sumner "to get him out of the +way of San Domingo." The facts concerning this offer are now +sufficiently known to the public. + +Here I must dismiss Mr. Fish's letter to Mr. Moran, having, as I trust, +sufficiently shown the spirit in which it was written and the strained +interpretations and manifest overstatements by which it attempts to make +out its case against Mr. Motley. I will not parade the two old women, +whose untimely and unseemly introduction into the dress-circle of +diplomacy was hardly to have been expected of the high official whose +name is at the bottom of this paper. They prove nothing, they disprove +nothing, they illustrate nothing--except that a statesman may forget +himself. Neither will I do more than barely allude to the unfortunate +reference to the death of Lord Clarendon as connected with Mr. Motley's +removal, so placidly disposed of by a sentence or two in the London +"Times" of January 24, 1871. I think we may consider ourselves ready for +the next witness. + +Mr. J. C. Bancroft Davis, Assistant Secretary of State under President +Grant and Secretary Fish, wrote a letter to the New York "Herald," under +the date of January 4, 1878, since reprinted as a pamphlet and entitled +"Mr. Sumner, the Alabama Claims and their Settlement." Mr. Sumner was +never successfully attacked when living,--except with a bludgeon,--and +his friends have more than sufficiently vindicated him since his death. +But Mr. Motley comes in for his share of animadversion in Mr. Davis's +letter. He has nothing of importance to add to Mr. Fish's criticisms on +the interview with Lord Clarendon. Only he brings out the head and front +of Mr. Motley's offending by italicizing three very brief passages from +his conversation at this interview; not discreetly, as it seems to me, +for they will not bear the strain that is put upon them. These are the +passages:-- + +1. "but that such, measures must always be taken with a full view of the +grave responsibilities assumed." +2. "and as being the fountain head of the disasters which had been +caused to the American people." +3. "as the fruits of the proclamation." + +1. It is true that nothing was said of responsibility in Mr. Motley's +instructions. But the idea was necessarily involved in their statements. +For if, as Mr. Motley's instructions say, the right of a power "to define +its own relations," etc., when a civil conflict has arisen in another +state depends on its (the conflict's) having "attained a sufficient +complexity, magnitude, and completeness," inasmuch as that Power has to +judge whether it has or has not fulfilled these conditions, and is of +course liable to judge wrong, every such act of judgment must be attended +with grave responsibilities. The instructions say that "the necessity +and propriety of the original concession of belligerency by Great Britain +at the time it was made have been contested and are not admitted." It +follows beyond dispute that Great Britain may in this particular case +have incurred grave responsibilities; in fact, the whole negotiations +implied as much. Perhaps Mr. Motley need not have used the word +"responsibilities." But considering that the government itself said in +dispatch No. 70, September 25, 1869, "The President does not deny, on the +contrary he maintains, that every sovereign power decides for itself on +its responsibility whether or not it will, at a given time, accord the +status of belligerency," etc., it was hardly worth while to use italics +about Mr. Motley's employment of the same language as constituting a +grave cause of offence. + +2. Mr. Motley's expression, "as being the fountain head of the +disasters," is a conversational paraphrase of the words of his +instructions, "as it shows the beginning and the animus of that course of +conduct which resulted so disastrously," which is not "in precise +conformity" with his instructions, but is just such a variation as is to +be expected when one is talking with another and using the words that +suggest themselves at the moment, just as the familiar expression, "hung +up on a peg," probably suggested itself to Lord Clarendon. + +3. "The fruits of the proclamation" is so inconsiderable a variation on +the text of the instructions, "supplemented by acts causing direct +damage," that the secretary's hint about want of precise conformity seems +hardly to have been called for. + +It is important to notice this point in the instructions: With other +powers Mr. Motley was to take the position that the "recognition of the +insurgents' state of war" was made "no ground of complaint;" with Great +Britain that the cause of grievance was "not so much" placed upon the +issuance of this recognition as upon her conduct under, and subsequent +to, such recognition. + +There is no need of maintaining the exact fitness of every expression +used by Mr. Motley. But any candid person who will carefully read the +government's dispatch No. 70, dated September 25, 1869, will see that a +government holding such language could find nothing in Mr. Motley's +expressions in a conversation held at his first official interview to +visit with official capital punishment more than a year afterwards. If +Mr. Motley had, as it was pretended, followed Sumner, Mr. Fish had "out- +Sumnered" the Senator himself. + +Mr. Davis's pamphlet would hardly be complete without a mysterious letter +from an unnamed writer, whether a faithless friend, a disguised enemy, a +secret emissary, or an injudicious alarmist, we have no means of judging +for ourselves. The minister appears to have been watched by somebody in +London, as he was in Vienna. This somebody wrote a private letter in +which he expressed "fear and regret that Mr. Motley's bearing in his +social intercourse was throwing obstacles in the way of a future +settlement." The charge as mentioned in Mr. Davis's letter is hardly +entitled to our attention. Mr. Sumner considered it the work of an +enemy, and the recollection of the M'Crackin letter might well have made +the government cautious of listening to complaints of such a character. +This Somebody may have been one whom we should call Nobody. We cannot +help remembering how well 'Outis' served 'Oduxseus' of old, when he was +puzzled to extricate himself from an embarrassing position. 'Stat nomin- +is umbra' is a poor showing for authority to support an attack on a +public servant exposed to every form of open and insidious abuse from +those who are prejudiced against his person or his birthplace, who are +jealous of his success, envious of his position, hostile to his politics, +dwarfed by his reputation, or hate him by the divine right of +idiosyncrasy, always liable, too, to questioning comment from well- +meaning friends who happen to be suspicious or sensitive in their +political or social relations. + +The reported sayings of General Grant and of Mr. Fish to the +correspondents who talked with them may be taken for what they are worth. +They sound naturally enough to have come from the speakers who are said +to have uttered them. I quote the most important part of the Edinburgh +letter, September 11, 1877, to the New York "Herald." These are the +words attributed to General Grant:-- + + "Mr. Motley was certainly a very able, very honest gentleman, fit to + hold any official position. But he knew long before he went out + that he would have to go. When I was making these appointments, Mr. + Sumner came to me and asked me to appoint Mr. Motley as minister to + the court of St. James. I told him I would, and did. Soon after + Mr. Sumner made that violent speech about the Alabama claims, and + the British government was greatly offended. Mr. Sumner was at the + time chairman of the committee on foreign affairs. Mr. Motley had + to be instructed. The instructions were prepared very carefully, + and after Governor Fish and I had gone over them for the last time I + wrote an addendum charging him that above all things he should + handle the subject of the Alabama claims with the greatest delicacy. + Mr. Motley instead of obeying his explicit instructions, + deliberately fell in line with Sumner, and thus added insult to the + previous injury. As soon as I heard of it I went over to the State + Department and told Governor Fish to dismiss Motley at once. I was + very angry indeed, and I have been sorry many a time since that I + did not stick to my first determination. Mr. Fish advised delay + because of Sumner's position in the Senate and attitude on the + treaty question. We did not want to stir him up just then. We + dispatched a note of severe censure to Motley at once and ordered + him to abstain from any further connection with that question. We + thereupon commenced negotiations with the British minister at + Washington, and the result was the joint high commission and the + Geneva award. I supposed Mr. Motley would be manly enough to resign + after that snub, but he kept on till he was removed. Mr. Sumner + promised me that he would vote for the treaty. But when it was + before the Senate he did all he could to beat it." + +General Grant talked again at Cairo, in Egypt. + + "Grant then referred to the statement published at an interview with + him in Scotland, and said the publication had some omissions and + errors. He had no ill-will towards Mr. Motley, who, like other + estimable men, made mistakes, and Motley made a mistake which made + him an improper person to hold office under me." + + "It is proper to say of me that I killed Motley, or that I made war + upon Sumner for not supporting the annexation of San Domingo. But + if I dare to answer that I removed Motley from the highest + considerations of duty as an executive; if I presume to say that he + made a mistake in his office which made him no longer useful to the + country; if Fish has the temerity to hint that Sumner's temper was + so unfortunate that business relations with him became impossible, + we are slandering the dead." + +"Nothing but Mortimer." Those who knew both men--the Ex-President and +the late Senator--would agree, I do not doubt, that they would not be the +most promising pair of human beings to make harmonious members of a +political happy family. "Cedant arma togae," the life-long sentiment of +Sumner, in conflict with "Stand fast and stand sure," the well-known +device of the clan of Grant, reminds one of the problem of an +irresistible force in collision with an insuperable resistance. +But the President says,--or is reported as saying,--"I may be blamed for +my opposition to Mr. Sumner's tactics, but I was not guided so much by +reason of his personal hatred of myself, as I was by a desire to protect +our national interests in diplomatic affairs." + +"It would be useless," says Mr. Davis in his letter to the "Herald," "to +enter into a controversy whether the President may or may not have been +influenced in the final determination of the moment for requesting +Motley's resignation by the feeling caused by Sumner's personal hostility +and abuse of himself." Unfortunately, this controversy had been entered +into, and the idleness of suggesting any relation of cause and effect +between Mr. Motley's dismissal and the irritation produced in the +President's mind by the rejection of the San Domingo treaty--which +rejection was mainly due to Motley's friend Sumner's opposition-- +strongly insisted upon in a letter signed by the Secretary of State. +Too strongly, for here it was that he failed to remember what was due to +his office, to himself, and to the gentleman of whom he was writing; if +indeed it was the secretary's own hand which held the pen, and not +another's. + +We might as well leave out the wrath of Achilles from the Iliad, as the +anger of the President with Sumner from the story of Motley's dismissal. +The sad recital must always begin with M-----------. He was, he is +reported as saying, "very angry indeed" with Motley because he had, +fallen in line with Sumner. He couples them together in his conversation +as closely as Chang and Eng were coupled. The death of Lord Clarendon +would have covered up the coincidence between the rejection of the San +Domingo treaty and Mr. Motley's dismissal very neatly, but for the +inexorable facts about its date, as revealed by the London "Times." It +betrays itself as an afterthought, and its failure as a defence reminds +us too nearly of the trial in which Mr. Webster said suicide is +confession. + +It is not strange that the spurs of the man who had so lately got out of +the saddle should catch in the scholastic robe of the man on the floor of +the Senate. But we should not have looked for any such antagonism +between the Secretary of State and the envoy to Great Britain. On the +contrary, they must have had many sympathies, and it must have cost the +secretary pain, as he said it did, to be forced to communicate with Mr. +Moran instead of with Mr. Motley. + +He, too, was inquired of by one of the emissaries of the American Unholy +Inquisition. His evidence is thus reported: + + "The reason for Mr. Motley's removal was found in considerations of + state. He misrepresented the government on the Alabama question, + especially in the two speeches made by him before his arrival at his + post." + +These must be the two speeches made to the American and the Liverpool +chambers of commerce. If there is anything in these short addresses +beyond those civil generalities which the occasion called out, I have +failed to find it. If it was in these that the reason of Mr. Motley's +removal was to be looked for, it is singular that they are not mentioned +in the secretary's letter to Mr. Moran, or by Mr. Davis in his letter to +the New York "Herald." They must have been as unsuccessful as myself in +the search after anything in these speeches which could be construed into +misinterpretation of the government on the Alabama question. + +We may much more readily accept "considerations of state" as a reason for +Mr. Motley's removal. Considerations of state have never yet failed the +axe or the bowstring when a reason for the use of those convenient +implements was wanted, and they are quite equal to every emergency which +can arise in a republican autocracy. But for the very reason that a +minister is absolutely in the power of his government, the manner in +which that power is used is always open to the scrutiny, and, if it has +been misused, to the condemnation, of a tribunal higher than itself; a +court that never goes out of office, and which no personal feelings, no +lapse of time, can silence. + +The ostensible grounds on which Mr. Motley was recalled are plainly +insufficient to account for the action of the government. If it was in +great measure a manifestation of personal feeling on the part of the high +officials by whom and through whom the act was accomplished, it was a +wrong which can never be repaired and never sufficiently regretted. + +Stung by the slanderous report of an anonymous eavesdropper to whom the +government of the day was not ashamed to listen, he had quitted Vienna, +too hastily, it may be, but wounded, indignant, feeling that he had been +unworthily treated. The sudden recall from London, on no pretext +whatever but an obsolete and overstated incident which had ceased to have +any importance, was under these circumstances a deadly blow. It fell +upon "the new-healed wound of malice," and though he would not own it, +and bore up against it, it was a shock from which he never fully +recovered. + +"I hope I am one of those," he writes to me from the Hague, in 1872, "who +'fortune's buffets and rewards can take with equal thanks.' I am quite +aware that I have had far more than I deserve of political honors, and +they might have had my post as a voluntary gift on my part had they +remembered that I was an honorable man, and not treated me as a +detected criminal deserves to be dealt with." + +Mr. Sumner naturally felt very deeply what he considered the great wrong +done to his friend. He says:-- + + "How little Mr. Motley merited anything but respect and courtesy + from the secretary is attested by all who know his eminent position + in London, and the service he rendered to his country. Already the + London press, usually slow to praise Americans when strenuous for + their country, has furnished its voluntary testimony. The 'Daily + News' of August 16, 1870, spoke of the insulted minister in these + terms:-- + + "'We are violating no confidence in saying that all the hopes of Mr. + Motley's official residence in England have been amply fulfilled, + and that the announcement of his unexpected and unexplained recall + was received with extreme astonishment and unfeigned regret. The + vacancy he leaves cannot possibly be filled by a minister more + sensitive to the honor of his government, more attentive to the + interests of his country, and more capable of uniting the most + vigorous performance of his public duties with the high-bred + courtesy and conciliatory tact and temper that make those duties + easy and successful. Mr. Motley's successor will find his mission + wonderfully facilitated by the firmness and discretion that have + presided over the conduct of American affairs in this country during + too brief a term, too suddenly and unaccountably concluded.'" + +No man can escape being found fault with when it is necessary to make out +a case against him. A diplomatist is watched by the sharpest eyes and +commented on by the most merciless tongues. The best and wisest has his +defects, and sometimes they would seem to be very grave ones if brought +up against him in the form of accusation. Take these two portraits, for +instance, as drawn by John Quincy Adams. The first is that of Stratford +Canning, afterwards Lord Stratford de Redcliffe:-- + + "He is to depart to-morrow. I shall probably see him no more. He + is a proud, high-tempered Englishman, of good but not extraordinary + parts; stubborn and punctilious, with a disposition to be + overbearing, which I have often been compelled to check in its own + way. He is, of all the foreign ministers with whom I have had + occasion to treat, the man who has most severely tried my temper. + Yet he has been long in the diplomatic career, and treated with + governments of the most opposite characters. He has, however, a + great respect for his word, and there is nothing false about him. + This is an excellent quality for a negotiator. Mr. Canning is a man + of forms, studious of courtesy, and tenacious of private morals. As + a diplomatic man, his great want is suppleness, and his great virtue + is sincerity." + +The second portrait is that of the French minister, Hyde de Neuville:-- + + "No foreign minister who ever resided here has been so universally + esteemed and beloved, nor have I ever been in political relations + with any foreign statesman of whose moral qualities I have formed so + good an opinion, with the exception of Count Romanzoff. He has not + sufficient command of his temper, is quick, irritable, sometimes + punctilious, occasionally indiscreet in his discourse, and tainted + with Royalist and Bourbon prejudices. But he has strong sentiments + of honor, justice, truth, and even liberty. His flurries of temper + pass off as quickly as they rise. He is neither profound nor + sublime nor brilliant; but a man of strong and good feelings, with + the experience of many vicissitudes of fortune, a good but common + understanding, and good intentions biassed by party feelings, + occasional interests, and personal affections." + +It means very little to say that a man has some human imperfections, or +that a public servant might have done some things better. But when a +questionable cause is to be justified, the victim's excellences are +looked at with the eyes of Liliput and his failings with those of +Brobdingnag. + +The recall of a foreign minister for alleged misconduct in office is a +kind of capital punishment. It is the nearest approach to the Sultan's +bowstring which is permitted to the chief magistrate of our Republic. A +general can do nothing under martial law more peremptory than a President +can do with regard to the public functionary whom he has appointed with +the advice and consent of the Senate, but whom he can officially degrade +and disgrace at his own pleasure for insufficient cause or for none at +all. Like the centurion of Scripture, be says Go, and he goeth. The +nation's representative is less secure in his tenure of office than his +own servant, to whom he must give warning of his impending dismissal. + +"A breath unmakes him as a breath has made." + +The chief magistrate's responsibility to duty, to the fellow-citizen at +his mercy, to his countrymen, to mankind, is in proportion to his power. +His prime minister, the agent of his edicts, should feel bound to +withstand him if he seeks to gratify a personal feeling under the plea of +public policy, unless the minister, like the slaves of the harem, is to +find his qualification for office in leaving his manhood behind him. + +The two successive administrations, which treated Mr. Motley in a manner +unworthy of their position and cruel, if not fatal to him, have been +heard, directly or through their advocates. I have attempted to show +that the defence set up for their action is anything but satisfactory. +A later generation will sit in judgment upon the evidence more calmly +than our own. It is not for a friend, like the writer, to anticipate its +decision, but unless the reasons alleged to justify his treatment, and +which have so much the air of afterthoughts, shall seem stronger to that +future tribunal than they do to him, the verdict will be that Mr. Motley +was twice sacrificed to personal feelings which should never have been +cherished by the heads of the government, and should never have been +countenanced by their chief advisers. + + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A great historian is almost a statesman +Admired or despised, as if he or she were our contemporary +Alas! one never knows when one becomes a bore +American Unholy Inquisition +best defence in this case is little better than an impeachment +But after all this isn't a war It is a revolution +Can never be repaired and never sufficiently regretted +Considerations of state as a reason +Considerations of state have never yet failed the axe +Everything else may happen This alone must happen +Fortune's buffets and rewards can take with equal thanks +He was not always careful in the construction of his sentences +In revolutions the men who win are those who are in earnest +Irresistible force in collision with an insuperable resistance +It is n't strategists that are wanted so much as believers +John Quincy Adams +Manner in which an insult shall be dealt with +Motley was twice sacrificed to personal feelings +No man is safe (from news reporters) +Our mortal life is but a string of guesses at the future +Played so long with other men's characters and good name +Progress should be by a spiral movement +Public which must have a slain reputation to devour +Reasonable to pay our debts rather than to repudiate them +Recall of a foreign minister for alleged misconduct in office +Shall Slavery die, or the great Republic? +Suicide is confession +The nation is as much bound to be honest as is the individual +This Somebody may have been one whom we should call Nobody +Unequivocal policy of slave emancipation +Wringing a dry cloth for drops of evidence + + +[The End] + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 4726 *** |