THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 221 



piratical enterprises. Even from remote Aus 

 tralia came eventually reports that the last of 

 the Confederate cruisers, the Shenandoah, had 

 been enabled by illegitimate privileges allowed to 

 it at Melbourne to destroy the American whal 

 ing fleet in the Arctic seas. Every item in this 

 account and by no means all the items familiar 

 in 1865 have been catalogued here was charged 

 with bitterness, hatred, and a longing for re 

 venge. Nor were these emotions less conspicu 

 ous in the conquered South than in the victo 

 rious North. Recognition by Great Britain for 

 the sake of cotton had been the rock bottom on 

 which Confederate hopes were built. Refusal of 

 this recognition left a feeling that Great Britain 

 was wholly responsible for the ensuing catas 

 trophe, and not a few voices were heard from 

 the ruins of the South declaring that, if a settle 

 ment of old scores with that power should be 

 undertaken, Lee s veterans would not be slow 

 to join Grant s in the enterprise. 



The vindictive feeling in the United States 

 declined in aggressiveness as Napoleon s insolent 

 challenge across the Rio Grande engaged atten 

 tion, and as the problems of reconstructing the 

 South became more and more absorbing. Yet 

 governmental action, legislative, diplomatic, and 



