[1208] This was a commonplace of American writing at the time and long after. A Rev. C.B. Boynton published a book devoted to the thesis that England and France had united in a "policy" of repressing the development of America and Russia (English and French Neutrality and the Anglo-French Alliance in their relations to the United States and Russia, Cincinnati, C.F. Vest & Co., 1864). Boynton wrote: "You have not come to the bottom of the conduct of Great Britain, until you have touched that delicate and real foundation cause--we are too large and strong a nation" (Preface, p. 3). The work has no historical importance except that it was thought worth publication in 1864.
[1209] Lyons Papers. July 16, 1864. Copy.
[1210] Russell Papers. Lyons to Russell, Aug. 23, 1864.
[1211] June 3, 1864.
[1212] The Times, August 4, 1864. Letters dated June 27 and July 5, 1864.
[1213] A Cycle of Adams' Letters, II, p. 126. Henry Adams to his brother, May 13, 1864. "The current is dead against us, and the atmosphere so uncongenial that the idea of the possibility of our success is not admitted."
[1214] Ibid., p. 136. Henry Adams to his brother, June 3, 1864.
[1215] The Index, Feb. 19, 1863, p. 265.
[1216] This was written immediately after the battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg, but the tone complained of was much more marked in 1864.
[1217] The Times average of editorials on the Civil War ran two in every three days until May, 1864, and thereafter one in every three days.