CHARLES SUMNER.*
THE English newspapers have been somewhat unfair in com- plaining of the size of Mr. Pierce's biography of Sumner. Sumner, though not himself a great man, played a great part in the greatest epoch of American history ; and there- fore, not unnaturally, the American public are anxious to know his career in detail. Besides, he was, owing to the brutal attack made upon him by Brooks the Southerner, a martyr in the cause of freedom and the Union, and so an object of special interest to the Northern public. Lastly, he was the friend and correspondent of all the distinguished men of the North, and of many of the most distinguished men in England, from 1840 to 1874. These circumstances, and the fact that he left behind him an enormous mass of letters and papers, explain, and in no small measure excuse, the length of Mr. Pierre's biography. But though we fully recognise this fact, we cannot help thinking that Mr. Pierce would have been better advised had he cut down his book by a half. The German proverb that the half is better than the whole, applies with special force to biographies. If only the very best of the many things collected by Mr. Pierce had been put together, the general reader would have been left with a far more vivid impression of Sumner than he gets from the abundant stores placed before him. In saying this, however, we are aware that there is something un- gracious when we have before us an exceedingly interest- ing book, and one which is a permanent contribution to the history of one of the greatest and most glorious epochs in the record of the English race,—the epoch of the American Civil War. The time may come when the example of the men who overthrew treason to the Union at Gettysburg and in the Wilderness will be of supreme moment to other portions of the English kin. Who knows, indeed, whether that time is not now at hand P If it is, the full record of those who, with sword and pen and spoken word, helped to save the Union will be of the utmost importance to us in England, and books like that of Mr. Pierce will help to teach us how to act and think.
Even at this moment, and while it is still more than pro- bable that we may be spared, to use Lord Spencer's phrase, the necessity of shedding blood to maintain the Union, Mr. Pierce's book may be of service to those who are seeking to do in Parliament, in the Press, and on the platform, what Grant and Sherman did on the field of battle. Mr. Gladstone, though England has almost forgotten it, played a great part in the Secession struggle. It was he more than any other public man, except Lord Palmerston, who created the resentment and the sense of burning indignation which the Northerners felt against the English Government, and who made America
* Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner. By Edward L. Pierce. Vole. III. and IV. London Sampson Low, Marston, and Co.
believe that England looked with satisfaction upon the " inevitable " triumph of the South. Mr. Gladstone's motives were no doubt as pure as they are at the present moment; but what are we to think of the statesmanship, the political insight, nay, the political decency, of a Member of an English Cabinet who, while a friendly Government was engaged in a death- struggle with rebellion, never opened his mouth in public with- out shouting preens of victory for the rebels ? Just as Mr. Gladstone is now quite sure that the Irish must beat us, and that therefore we ought to yield to the Irish without further ado, so then he was quite sure that the South would beat the North, and that therefore the North had better acquiesce in disruption. Mr. Pierce quotes a very remarkable letter written to Sumner by John Bright apropos of Mr. Glad- stone's attitude towards the South, Though long, it is too important not to be extracted entire :—
" Mr. Bright wrote to Sumner, October 10th, 1882: I write to you from a feeling of anxiety. You will see what is being said here by public men who speak on your question, and most of all, and worst of all, by your old acquaintance and friend, Mr. Glad- stone. He has made a vile speech at Newcastle, full of insulting pity for the North, and of praise and support for the South. He is unstable as water in some things. He is for union and freedom in Italy, and for disunion and bondage in America. A handful of Italians in prison in Naples, without formal trial, shocked his soul so much that he wrote a pamphlet, and has made many speeches upon it; but he has no word of sympathy or of hope for the four millions of the bondsmen of the South ! I have known for months past that he talked of a European remonstrance, or mediation, or recognition, or some mischief of that kind ; but I did not expect that he would step out openly as the defender and eulogist of Jeff. Davis and his fellow-conspirators against God and man. He has spoken, as you will see by the time you receive this ; and what he has said will encourage the friends of the South here to increased exertions to promote something hostile to your government and people. Palmerston and Russell, I fear, will not need much pres- sure to induce them to do anything they dare do on behalf of the permanent disruption of your Union.' Union victories put an end to Mr. Gladstone's hostile prophecies. Mr. Bright wrote to Sumner, September 11th, 18631= It would be curious to have a speech from Gladstone now. Perhaps he is beginning to doubt whether Jeff. Davis has made a nation. There is much clever- ness mixed with little wisdom, or much folly, in some men, and our Chancellor [of the Exchequer] seems to be one of them,'"
Mr. Gladstone's extraordinary infatuation in regard to the South was even more strongly exemplified in his letters to Bumper. Even after the capture of Vicksburg and Lee's retreat to Gettysburg, he treated the re-establishment of the Union as " a contingency wholly unattainable." So late indeed as February, 1864, he would not give up his notion that disrup- tion must be the fate of the American Union. " Ever since the development of an earnest purpose in the South, my opinion has remained absolutely the same." How characteristic is the phrase ! Mr. Gladstone does not say definitely what his 'opinion is, though, of course, it was obvious enough from the context. It is as well that at the present juncture Mr. Glad- stone's anti-Unionist sentiments should be put before the English public. Here is Mr. Pierce's excellent summary of his speeches in aid of the South :-
" Gladstone, unlike Russell, had no direct official relation to our contest, and he came as a volunteer before the public when he sought to produce a popular impression against us, There is evidence that very early in the struggle he had been free in per- sonal intercourse in expressing his sympathy with the Southern insurrection ; but he first gave his views to the public early in 1862,—at first in a guarded, and later in a more positive, manner ; venturing further than any member of the Cabinet, and, accord- ing to Mr. Adams, ' transcending the line of policy' which it had agreed upon. There is no way so effective in carrying opinion against a cause as to make it appear hopeless, and Mr. Gladstone chose that way. At Leith, January 11th, he said All thinking men had come to the conclusion that the party apparently the strongest had committed themselves to an enterprise which would probably prove to be beyond their strength' At Manchester, April 24th, before the Chamber of Commerce, he argued from historical analogies that the North could not succeed in its gigantic enterprise, and that it was impossible to conquer a people set upon independence ; refused to see in the struggle any ques- tion of freedom or slavery ; or if such an issue were to be admitted, he rebuked the idea that free institutions were to be propagated at the point of the sword, or the horrors of war bent to philan- thropic ends ; reaffirmed Russell's declaration that the contest was on one side for empire and on the other for independence ; and set aside the claim of Americans to sympathy on the politic ground that Englishmen could not be expected to risk the per- manent hostility of six or ten millions of the Southern people who might hereafter become a great nation. His treatment of the American question was throughout captious and cynical. The London Times responded heartily to his espousal of the cause of the Confederates, saying : 'The view taken by Mr. Gladstone of American affairs is so entirely in accordance with that which we
have long advocated, that we do not scruple to adopt that por- tion of his speech as our own.' But as if enough had not been said, he returned to the theme again at Newcastle, October 7th, when he said : 'There is no doubt that Jefferson Davis and other leaders of the South have made an army ; they are making, it appears, a navy ; and they have made what is more than either, a nation.' This triumphant tone showed where his heart was. He affected to believe, and sought to make others believe, in face of the antislavery measures of Congress and Mr. Lincoln's Pro- clamation of Emancipation, that the slaves would be better off, and their final liberation nearer, by a division of the country into two sections. He declared in Parliament, June 30th, 1863, his belief that "the restoration of the American Union by force is unattainable,' and again denounced (after Lincoln's Proclama- tion) the emancipation of the negro race as an object that can be legitimately pursued by means of coercion and bloodshed.' Sumner well said of Gladstone's prophecies : British statesmen, forgetting for the moment moral distinctions, forgetting God who will not be forgotten, gravely announce that our cause must fail.
. . . . . Opinions are allies more potent than subsidies Nothing is more clear than that whoever assumes to play prophet becomes pledged in character and pretension to sustain his prophecy,' "
A. proof of the harm done by Mr. Gladstone's Newcastle speech is to be found in the fact that after its delivery, Mr. Adams, the American Minister, wrote home that he had begun to consider " the condition of his travelling equipage ; " and regarded the close of his mission as likely to be at hand. A rupture was indeed only prevented by Lord Russell assuring Mr. Adams, on behalf of himself, Lord Palmerston, and other members of the Cabinet, of their regret at the speech having been made. So strong indeed was their feeling on the point, that Sir George Oornewall Lewis was commissioned to neutralise the effect of Mr. Gladstone's words by a speech of his own. We cannot leave the part played bylMr. Gladstone in regard
to the war without noticing the only excuse he ever made for conduct so unfriendly and so foolish :—" Some years after the contest had ended," says Mr. Pierce, "and when no man's word in our behalf was needed, Mr. Gladstone offered error of insight into the nature and working of the American Union'
as his excuse, with that facility of speech in reconciling adverse positions and explaining changed opinions for which he has since been remarkable." How can we tell that Mr. Gladstone is not now misunderstanding the nature and working of the English and Irish Union ?
We have left ourselves little space to speak of the rest of Mr. Pierce's book. We can only say that it is full of interesting matter, and that the work of the biographer has been carried out with extraordinary diligence and care. The references are, abundant, and greatly increase the historical value of the book. The style is throughout quiet, dignified, and cultivated.
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