"
In this presentation of the case to the jury certain minor points are
insisted upon to establish a ground for suspicion--as the question of
who first made the proposal--that are not essential to Henry Adams'
conclusions. This conclusion is that "From the delays interposed by
Russell, Adams must conclude that the British Cabinet was trying one
device after another to evade the proposition; and finally, from the
written declaration of August 19, he could draw no other inference than
that Russell had resorted to the only defensive weapon left to him, in
order to avoid the avowal of his true motives and policy[255]." The
_motive_ of this tortuous proceeding, the author believed to have been a
deep-laid scheme to revive, _after_ the American War was ended, the
earlier international practice of Great Britain, in treating as subject
to belligerent seizure enemy's goods under the neutral flag. It was the
American stand, argues Henry Adams, that in 1854 had compelled Great
Britain to renounce this practice. A complete American adherence, now,
to the Declaration, would for ever tie Britain's hands, but if there
were no such complete adherence and only temporary observation of the
second article, after the war had resulted in the disruption of the
United States, thus removing the chief supporter of that article, Great
Britain would feel free to resume her old-time practice when she engaged
in war.
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