ch I
was an interested spectator, I may say that albeit I was mistaken; but
the mistake was partaken of by many hundred thousands of my
fellow-countrymen, who had not the courage subsequently to avow that
they had been mistaken, but yet set to curry favor with the North by
saying that they had always been their friends. The only apology--if
apology I should choose to make--would be this: that that which I had to
say against you I said while I was in your midst, when I was living at
the Brevoort House; and when my letters came weekly back from England;
and when it was quite in your power to have ridden me out on a rail or
to have inflicted on me any of the ordinary visitations which a
malignant Copperhead was supposed to deserve. But you did not do so, and
I remember that when I left New York, I had quite as many good, kind,
cordial friends on the Union League side as I had on the Democratic
side. I would say further that when I came to publish my letters I found
that there were many statements which I had made, which seemed to me to
have been hasty and inconsiderate, and I did my best to modify them; and
I did not wait until I got home to malign the people from whom I had
received hospitality.

But I have been indeed an enemy to the United States; so much so that
when I came here again in 1879-80 with my wife, the enemy was received
on all sides with the greatest kindness and cordiality. So much am I an
enemy to the United States, that for years while I was connected with
the weekly paper called "The Echo" there was hardly a week when I did
not receive scores of letters from Americans from every part of the
Union--from down South, from the West, the North, and the East--full of
kindly matter and expressions bearing out the idea that I am a friend
rather than an enemy to the United States. And I know perfectly well
that there is no American who comes to London, be he lawyer,
diplomatist, actor, artist, or man of letters, but I am always glad to
see him, and always glad to show him, that, although an enemy, I still
retain some feelings of gratitude toward my friends in the United
States.

I have seen it stated in one of your remarkably versatile and "Graphic"
journals that I have boasted of having come here with the idea of making
some money in the United States. But bless your hearts and souls,
gentlemen of the Lotos Club, I assure you that I have no such idea!
[Laughter.] I am really speaking to you seriously when I s