“Two other considerations will fully justify us in describing Mr. Sumner’s address as marked by the most distinctly unfair and unfriendly animus toward this country. The first is, that he has carefully avoided doing the slightest justice to the strong Antislavery feeling which prevails among us, and even insinuates a disposition to favor the slave empire of the South.…
“Finally, what construction is to be placed upon the remarkable circumstance, that, throughout his whole address, while endeavoring to rouse the wrath of his countrymen by a vicious enumeration of the supposed offences of Great Britain, he says not a word against France, which has participated in nearly all, and added others of her own? He charges us with hostile designs, because we recognized belligerent rights in the Confederates; but he utters no word of complaint against France, who recognized these at the same date and in the same terms.”
Referring to Mr. Sumner’s speech, it will be seen how untrue is the statement that he said “not a word against France”; nor is it true that he was unjust to “the strong Antislavery feeling” which had done so much honor to English history, although he lamented that it was impotent to save England from fatal concession to Rebel Slavery.
There was a critical spirit in the provincial press. The Halifax Reporter, in Nova Scotia, said:—
“Mr. Sumner, whose judgment is evidently warped by his abhorrence of Slavery, seems to expect that England should look upon the North as waging the war on behalf of human liberty. It is obvious he considers, that, in recognizing the Confederates as belligerents, her statesmen have exhibited a sympathy with slaveholders which is unjustifiable.…
“Mr. Sumner is peculiarly wrathy that any portion of the British people should have been allowed to give aid and comfort to the Rebels by affording them supplies of various kinds.”
The Globe, at Toronto, said:—
“He reviews the whole transactions between England and the United States since the commencement of the civil war with great warmth, beginning with the proclamation of neutrality and ending with Mr. Laird’s rams, and tortures every action of the British Government into a manifestation of unfriendliness towards the Republic. We expected from Mr. Sumner more enlightened consideration for the circumstances in which the English people have been placed, and some acknowledgment of the provocation they have received from this side of the Atlantic.…
“There is only one excuse for Mr. Sumner. As an Abolitionist, he has been accustomed to look to England for sympathy and aid, and he is disappointed to find so many enemies where he supposed he would see none but friends. This feeling should not prevent him, however, from doing justice as a publicist, nor, as a statesman, from pursuing the course most wise and expedient at the moment.”