256 THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 



This happy outcome of the dispute was quite 

 as pleasing to the American as to the British 

 Government. Fish and his coadjutors had no 

 expectation or desire that Great Britain should 

 be mulcted in consequential damages. Sum- 

 ner s speech had created a surprisingly strong 

 sentiment in support of such mulcting, and it 

 was problematical whether the administration 

 could afford, in the year of a presidential elec 

 tion, to run counter to this sentiment. Ani 

 mosity toward the Southerners was at this time 

 a strong factor in the politics of the Republican 

 party, and it fell in well with this feeling to 

 disparage the South by contending that the 

 remarkable prolongation of its resistance to the 

 North was due solely to the aid it received 

 from Great Britain. The rejection of the indi 

 rect claims by the tribunal of arbitration itself 

 relieved the administration of all responsibility 

 for abandoning them, and passed without note 

 worthy effect on American public opinion. 



The judgment of the tribunal needs but cas 

 ual mention. In respect to three of the Con 

 federate cruisers, the Alabama, the Florida, and 

 the Shenandoah, Great Britain was found to 

 have contravened the three rules of neutral con 

 duct laid down by the treaty, and the damages 



