“But there’s Grotius,” I said, to an elderly female at New York, who had quoted to me some half dozen writers on international law, thinking thereby that I should trump her last card.  “I’ve looked into Grotius too,” said she, “and as far as I can see,” etc. etc. etc.  So I had to fall back again on the convictions to which instinct and common sense had brought me.  I never doubted for a moment that those convictions would be supported by English lawyers.

I left Boston with a sad feeling at my heart that a quarrel was imminent between England and the States, and that any such quarrel must be destructive to the cause of the North.  I had never believed that the States of New England and the Gulf States would again become parts of one nation, but I had thought that the terms of separation would be dictated by the North, and not by the South.  I had felt assured that South Carolina and the Gulf States, across from the Atlantic to Texas, would succeed in forming themselves into a separate confederation; but I had still hoped that Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri might be saved to the grander empire of the North, and that thus a great blow to slavery might be the consequence of this civil war.  But such ascendency could only fall to the North by reason of their command of the sea.  The Northern ports were all open, and the Southern ports were all closed.  But if this should be reversed.  If by England’s action the Southern ports should be opened, and the Northern ports closed, the North could have no fair expectation of success.  The ascendency in that case would all be with the South.  Up to that moment—­the Christmas of 1861—­Maryland was kept in subjection by the guns which General Dix had planted over the City of Baltimore.  Two-thirds of Virginia were in active rebellion, coerced originally into that position by her dependence for the sale of her slaves on the cotton States.  Kentucky was doubtful, and divided.  When the Federal troops prevailed, Kentucky was loyal; when the Confederate troops prevailed, Kentucky was rebellious.  The condition in Missouri was much the same.  These four States, by two of which the capital, with its District of Columbia, is surrounded, might be gained or might be lost.  And these four States are susceptible of white labor—­as much so as Ohio and Illinois—­are rich in fertility, and rich also in all associations which must be dear to Americans.  Without Virginia, Maryland, and Kentucky, without the Potomac, the Chesapeake, and Mount Vernon, the North would indeed be shorn of its glory!  But it seemed to be in the power of the North to say under what terms secession should take place, and where should be the line.  A Senator from South Carolina could never again sit in the same chamber with one from Massachusetts; but there need be no such bar against the border States.  So much might at any rate be gained, and might stand hereafter as the product of all that money spent on