ty of
politicians in the political public life of America. I considered
them an unavoidable and harmless result of free democratic
institutions. [See "America and Europe."] At that time I observed
the politician from a distance, and reasoned on him altogether
metaphysically, after the so-called German fashion. Since 1861 I
have come into personal contact with the genus politician--and oh!
what a monstrous breed they are!

_September 10. New York._--Senator Sumner on our foreign relations.
The Senator enumerates all the violations of good comity, of
international duties, of the obligations of neutrals, violations so
deliberately and so maliciously perpetrated by England and by
France. But why has the Senator forgotten to ascend to one of the
paramount causes? Previous to England or France, the State
Department in Washington and Mr. Lincoln recognized in the rebels
_the condition of belligerents_. It was done by the Proclamation
instituting the blockade. The _Blue Book_ fully proves that already
months before Mr. Lincoln's inauguration the English Government had
a perfect knowledge of the vascillating policy which was to be
inaugurated after March 1, 1861. At the same time, the English
Government knew well that already previous to March 4, the rebel
conspirators were fully decided on carrying out their treacherous
aim across streams of blood. A long war was imminent, and a
recognition of the rebels as _in parte_ belligerents, could not have
been avoided. A part of the English nation, a part of the English
Cabinet, was and is overflowing with the most malicious ill will,
and such ones crave for an occasion to satisfy their hatred. But our
domestic and foreign policy singularly served our English
ill-wishers.

I deeply regret that the Senator preferred the halls of the Cooper
Institute to the hall of the United States Senate; that he threw the
gauntlet to Europe as a lecturer, when for days and months he could
have done it so authoritatively as a Senator of the United States;
could have done it from his senatorial chair, and in the fulfilment
of the most sacred public and patriotic duty. How could the Senator
thus belittle one of the most elevated political positions in the
world, that of a Senator of the United States?

Not so happy is the part of the lecture concerning _Intervention_.
It is rather sentimental than statesmanlike. _Intervention_ is, and
will remain, an act of physical, material force, and history large