“It was impossible to look on the uprising of a community of five million people as a mere petty insurrection [‘Hear! hear!’], or as not having the rights which at all times are given to those who, by their numbers and importance, or by the extent of the territory they possess, are entitled to these rights. [Cheers.] Well, it was said we ought not to have done that, because they were a community of Slaveholders.
“Gentlemen, I trust that our abhorrence of Slavery is not in the least abated or diminished. [Loud and prolonged cheers.] For my own part, I consider it one of the most horrible crimes that yet disgrace humanity. [Cheers.] But then, when we are treating of the relations which we bear to a community of men, I doubt whether it would be expedient or useful for humanity that we should introduce that new element of declaring that we will have no relations with a people who permit Slavery to exist among them. We have never adopted it yet, we have not adopted it in the case of Spain or Brazil, and I do not believe that the cause of humanity would be served by our adoption of it. [‘Hear! hear!’]
“Well, then it was said that these Confederate States were Rebels,—Rebels against the Union. Perhaps, Gentlemen, I am not so nice as I ought to be on the subject. But I recollect that we rebelled against Charles the First [a laugh], we rebelled against James the Second, and the people of New England, not content with these two rebellions, rebelled against George the Third. [‘Hear!’ and laughter.] … But, certainly, if I look to the declarations of those New England orators,—and I have been reading lately, if not the whole, yet a very great part, of the very long speech by Mr. Sumner on the subject, delivered at New York,—I own, I cannot but wonder to see these men, the offspring, as it were, of three rebellions, as we are the offspring of two rebellions, really speaking, like the Czar of Russia, the Sultan of Turkey, or Louis the Fourteenth himself, of the dreadful crime and guilt of rebellion. [Loud laughter and cheers.] …
“I said, that in America, although there were some of the local courts which had not the authority of such men as Lord Stowell and Sir William Grant, yet there was a Court of Appeal, there was a Supreme Court, in the United States, which contained, and had for many years contained, men as learned and of as high reputation in the law and of as unsullied reputation for integrity as any that have sat in our English courts of justice, and that we ought to wait patiently for the decision of those tribunals. Now what is my surprise to find, and what would be your surprise to find, that Mr. Sumner is so prejudiced that he brings these declarations of mine against me, saying that I have diminished the reputation of the American Courts, and that I showed myself biased against the Federal States, by the declaration I then made in Parliament! [A gentleman from the Southern States among the company here ejaculated, ‘He is not to be believed.’]
“I will not detain you further on these subjects; but one remark I must make on the general tendency of these speeches and writings in America. The Government of America discusses these matters very fairly with the English Government. Sometimes we think them quite in the wrong; sometimes they say we are quite in the wrong; but we discuss them fairly, and with regard to the Secretary of State I see no complaint to make. I think he weighs the disadvantages and difficulties of our situation in a very fair and equal balance. But there are others, and Mr. Sumner is one of them, his speech being an epitome almost of all that has been contained in the American press, by whom our conduct is very differently judged.”
In defending the concession of belligerent rights to Rebel Slavery, Earl Russell forgot two things: first, that the Rebels, whatever their numbers, were without ports or Prize Courts, and therefore unable to administer justice on the ocean, which was essential to the protection of neutrals, and, in the nature of things, the condition precedent of any such concession; and, secondly, he forgot, that, whatever might be the traditional relations with existing nations “permitting Slavery to exist among them,” it was now proposed, for the first time in history, to recognize a rebel community seeking to found a new nation whose declared corner-stone was Slavery, which Mr. Sumner insisted was contrary to good morals and the Antislavery principles so constantly and loftily avowed by England.
On another occasion Earl Russell seems to have laid down a rule requiring Prize Courts, as will be seen in Mr. Sumner’s speech.[172] He insisted that vessels seized should be tried in a Prize Court. If this rule is correct, how vindicate the award of belligerent rights to a community without Prize Courts? Another question may also be asked: If Slavery be, as Earl Russell declared, “one of the most horrible crimes that yet disgrace humanity,” how could England make any concession to Rebels whose single declared object of separate existence was this very crime?
The answer to Mr. Sumner on Prize Courts will be appreciated after reading the report in the London Times, June 16, 1863,[173] of what Earl Russell actually said in the House of Lords.
“With regard to the decisions in Prize Courts, I must say I lament that the Constitution of the United States is such, that, instead of being brought at once before the Court of Admiralty, where generally you have a very eminent judge to preside, perfectly well acquainted with the Law of Nations, such cases go in the first instance before the District Courts, then, I think, before a Circuit Court, and it is only after a considerable delay that they come before the Supreme Court of the United States. I say this, because I believe we should all very much respect a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, and it is to be lamented that there should be a considerable delay before the judgment of that tribunal can be obtained.”