s of liberty,
morality and justice. "War for such a cause, though it be civil war, may
perhaps without impiety be called 'God's most perfect instrument in
working out a pure intent[322].'" The disaster to the Northern army, its
apparent testimony that the North lacked real fighting men, bolstered
that British opinion which regarded military measures against the South
as folly--an impression reinforced in the next few months by the long
pause by the North before undertaking any further great effort in the
field. The North was not really ready for determined war, indeed, until
later in the year. Meanwhile many were the moralizations in the British
press upon Bull Run's revelation of Northern military weakness.

Probably the most influential newspaper utterances of the moment were
the letters of W.H. Russell to the _Times_. This famous
war-correspondent had been sent to America in the spring of 1861 by
Delane, editor of the _Times_, his first letter, written on March 29,
appearing in the issue of April 16. He travelled through the South, was
met everywhere with eager courtesy as became a man of his reputation and
one representing the most important organ of British public opinion,
returned to the North in late June, and at Washington was given intimate
interviews by Seward and other leaders. For a time his utterances were
watched for, in both England and America, with the greatest interest and
expectancy, as the opinions of an unusually able and thoroughly honest,
dispassionate observer. He never concealed his abhorrence of slavery,
terming apologists of that institution "the miserable sophists who
expose themselves to the contempt of the world by their paltry theiscles
on the divine origin and uses of Slavery[323]...." and writing "day
after day ... the impression of my mind was strengthened that 'States
Rights' meant protection to slavery, extension of slave territory, and
free-trade in slave produce with the other world[324]." But at the same
time he depicted the energy, ability, and determination of the South in
high colours, and was a bit doubtful of similar virtues in the North.
The battle of Bull Run itself he did not see, but he rode out from
Washington to meet the defeated army, and his description of the routed
rabble, jostling and pushing, in frenzy toward the Capitol, so ridiculed
Northern fighting spirit as to leave a permanent sting behind it. At
the same time it convinced the British pro-Southern reader that