INTRODUCTION xxxv 



Dunning has set forth with so much judgment as 

 well as with a conspicuous impartiality, will be 

 struck by the fact that groundless suspicions 

 by either nation of the purposes of the other, 

 and the attribution by either to the other of 

 motives which did not exist or were of slight 

 importance, played no small part in the imbit- 

 terment of relations. Such suspicions and mis 

 conceptions between states are always to be 

 feared. They have been fruitful sources of 

 strife. That they did not, as between Britain 

 and America, prove fatal in times of strain may 

 be ascribed to the fact that there were always 

 in both nations men capable of correcting these 

 misapprehensions, and that each knew enough 

 of its own defects to be able to make al 

 lowances for the like defects in the other. The 

 most serious misapprehension was that which, 

 owing largely to the unwisdom of a section of 

 the English press, arose during the Civil War, 

 when most Americans supposed that a jealous 

 spirit made England desire the downfall of the 

 Republic. That was never the case, as I can 

 venture to assert from my recollection of those 

 now distant days. There was a good deal of 

 sympathy with the valor and constancy of the 

 Confederates. But the fact was, though Amer- 



