509 POLICY AND JUSTICE IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS. AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY W HEN I accepted the invitation of your committee, it was implied, if not expressed, that I should discuss passing political topics; and you will naturally expect me, in the beginning, to declare with emphasis the satisfaction we all feel that certain grave questions concerning the fortunes of the country have been settled by the judgment of the people, at the October and November elections. But I think I ought not to omit to express the obligations which are due from us to two persons, whose names have not, as far as I know, been often, or perhaps ever, associated together, to whom we are largely indebted for these successes. I refer to Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, and to "Nasby," of the "Toledo Blade," both of whom, with undiscriminating zeal, have supported the policy of the President, although some persons suspect that they are both satirists. Those gentlemen, in the profusion of their arguments in behalf of the executive policy, have convinced nearly every person who has listened to the one, or read the productions of the other, of the unsoundness of that policy which they have undertaken to maintain. - In connection with the recent elections and their results, there are two facts which ought not to pass without observation. One is, that by very meagre majorities we have carried the great States of Pennsylvania and New York. In the latter State, in a vote probably not much less than three-fourths of a million, we have maintained the ascendency of the Republican party, and secured the election of a Union man for Governor, by a majority not exceeding twelve or fifteen thousand voters, not more than two per cent of the entire voting force of that State. This fact shows conclusively that the contest is not yet over, that the battle is to be fought on other fields and with other issues. The second great fact is, that the State of Maryland, one of the border States, a State in which more has been done than in any other of the border States, except, possibly, Missouri, has surrendered, under the influence of the President and Governor Swann, to rebel associations and to rebel control. While this result, as far as Maryland is concerned, was not unexpected, I regard it as the omen of a happy future, in the conclusion I reach that the people of this country cannot long be blind to the great truth, that there is no security for republican principles or for the prevalence of Union sentiments in any State which during this century has been cursed by the institution of slavery, except in rallying the entire force of that State to the support of the Union and of free government. The subject on which I speak to-night, is not novel, and my plan of discourse is simple. I shall discuss the topic announced,—“ Policy and Justice in Public Affairs." By "policy," I mean that course of conduct which proceeds from the opinions of men, with reference to what it may seem to them wise to do under a given condition of things, without regard to the justice of their proceedings. Said Mr. Burke, a long time ago, "Justice is the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it under any circumstances lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all." One of the most eminent men of antiquity declares that "it is not possible to found a lasting government upon injustice, perjury, and treachery. These may succeed for once, and borrow for a while from hope a gay and flourishing appearance; but time soon reveals their weakness, and they fall into ruin of themselves. As in every structure the lowest parts should be the firmest, so the grounds and principles of all our actions should be just and true." We shall learn, if we have not been taught the lesson sufficiently already, that it is not possible in government to discard justice, and rely upon mere human policy. There are in governments, and in the affairs of government, three forms which injustice may take. First, it may be recognized in the Constitution of the government itself; secondly, in the policy of the government with reference to domestic affairs; and, lastly, in the policy of the government in its foreign. relations. I propose, in the first place, to call your attention to a few signal instances of the effects of injustice in the conduct of nations, chiefly in their domestic affairs, with the design of gathering therefrom, if possible, some force of .argument by which I may dissuade you from the purpose, if purpose you have, of re-establishing this government upon the principles of manifest injustice. Some of us have not forgotten the story of the partition of Poland; and we know very well, that, from the time of its partition, the Poles, exiles from their native land, have been the enemies, in every capital in Europe, of the governments that participated in or sanctioned that injustice. They have been the promoters of revolution, and the disturbers of the public peace everywhere. We remember, also, the injustice of Austria in respect to Hungary; and it does not require any stretch of the imagination to accept the inference, that, in the recent conflict between Austria and Prussia, the power of Austria to resist the demands and the material forces of Prussia was very much diminished by the circumstance that she did not enlist heartily the support of the Hungarian portion of her empire. We know very well, too, the injustice of England towards Ireland. For many centuries, England has been unjust in every particular to the Irish people; and now we see, that not only are there disorder and violence in Ireland, but that the disaffection extends to this coun-try, and disturbs the British possessions on the American continent. It is also true that, at a more recent period, England, desiring to see us prostrated under the power of the rebellion, lent herself to the support of the rebels, and contributed, indirectly, to the destruction of our commerce upon the ocean. Through the policy of Great Britain, piratical corsairs were put afloat, sailing under the flag of the Confederate States, with no port into which they could enter, no prize court anywhere which could adjudge Nay, more than that: whether the prizes taken by those corsairs were legal prizes or not; establishing, as a matter of fact, a new principle of maritime law, that the man who walks the quarter-deck may decide whether the prize he takes is lawfully captured or not; and Great Britain to-day is powerless relatively, because she consented to and permitted that unjust policy in maritime affairs. She is not able to make war upon any nation that has a single port. if there be a nation on the face of the globe that has not a port, and that nation should engage in a contest with Great Britain, she may employ the maritime capacity of the United States, or of any other commercial power, and drive British commerce from the ocean. Great Britain has not the capacity to maintain her population from her own soil, and hence she is dependent, for her supply of bread, upon her commercial resources. When Prussia and Austria combined for the purpose of wresting Schleswig and Holstein from Denmark, England was disposed to resist the wrong. She was finally compelled, however, to withdraw from the contest; for she saw that Prussia and Austria, acting upon her own rules of maritime law, could, either directly or indirectly, put afloat privateers or quasi ships of war, that would drive her commerce from the seas. Great Britain cannot regain her position as a maritime nation until she recedes from her doctrine in regard to the "Alabama" and the "Shenandoah," compensates this country for the losses we have sustained, and incorporates into the maritime law of the world a provision which shall |