ALABAMA CLAIMS. 17 



consciousness of injury, ninnifested grcfiter magnanim- 

 ity than "Nvas displayed in that emergency by the 

 United States. 



We had on the sea lumdreds of ships of war or of 

 transport ; we had on hand liundreds of thousands of 

 veteran sokliers under arms ; we had ofllcers of huul 

 and sea, the combatants in a hundred battles : all this 

 vast force of war was in a condition to be launched 

 as a tlauiderbolt at any enemy; and, in the present 

 case, the possessions of that enemy, whether conti- 

 nental or insular, lay at our very door in tempting 

 liel]>lessness. 



But neither the Government and people of the 

 United States, nay, nor their laurel-crowned Gener- 

 als and Admirals, desired war as a choice, nor would 

 accept it but as a necessity; and they elected to con- 

 tinue to necjotiatc with Great Britain, and to do what 

 no great European State has ever done under like cir- 

 cumstances, — that is, to disarm absolutely, and make 

 thorough trial of the experiment of gi.'uerous forbear- 

 ance before having recourse to the dread extremity 

 of ven!:i:eful hostilities acjaiust Great Britain. 



NEGOTLVTIONS BY MU. SEWARD. 



The event justified our conduct. To the prejudiced 

 and impracticable Lord llussell, there succeeded in 

 charice of the foreiirn affairs of the British Govern- 

 ment, first. Lord Stanley [now the Earl of Derby], 

 and then the Earl of Clarendon, who, more wise and 

 just than lie, successively entered upon negotiations 

 with the United States on that very basis of arbitra- 



B 



