"
Such judgment and such excuses will appear to the historian as
well-founded. But to Americans who conceived the Civil War as one fought
first of all for the preservation of the nation, the issue of democracy
in England seemed of little moment and little to excuse either the "cold
neutrality" of the Government or the tone of the press. To Americans
Great Britain appeared friendly to the dissolution of the Union and the
destruction of a rival power. Nationality was the issue for the North;
that democracy was an issue in America was denied, nor could it, in the
intensity of the conflict, be conceived as the vital question
determining British attitude. The Reform Bill of 1867 brought a new
British nation into existence, the nation decrying American institutions
was dead and a "sister democracy" holding out hands to the United
States had replaced it, but to this the men who had won the war for the
North long remained blind. Not during the generation when Americans,
immersed in a life and death struggle for national existence, felt that
"he who is not for me is against me," could the generally correct
neutrality of the British Government and the whole-hearted support of
Radical England be accepted at their true value to the North. For nearly
half a century after the American Civil War the natural sentiments of
friendship, based upon ties of blood and a common heritage of literature
and history and law, were distorted by bitter and exaggerated
memories.
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