ALABAMA CLAIMS. 185 



■ We liave gained the vindication of our rights as 

 a Government ; the redress of the wrong done to our 

 citizens ; the political prestige, in Europe and Amer- 

 ica, of the enforcement of our rights against the most 

 powerful State of Christendom; the elevation of 

 maxims of right and of justice into the judgment-seat 

 of the world ; the recognition of our theory and poli- 

 cy of neutrality by Great Britain ; the honorable con- 

 clusion of a long-standing controversy and the ex- 

 tinction of a cause of war between Great Britain and 

 the United States ; and the moral authority of hav- 

 ing accomplished these great objects without war, by 

 peaceful means, by appeals to conscience and to rea- 

 son, through the arbitrament of a high international 

 Tribunal. 



That war, the great curse and scourge of mankind, 

 will utterly cease because of the present successful 

 instance of international arbitration, nobody pretends. 

 Questions of national ambition or national resent- 

 ment, — conflicts of dynastic interest, — schemes of ter- 

 ritorial aggrandizement, — nay, deeper causes, resting 

 in superabundant population or other internal facts 

 of malaise, misery and discontent, — will continue to 

 produce wars to the end of time. 



" Non, sans doute," says M. de Mazade, — speaking of the 

 acts of the Tribunal, — " la guerre n'est point bannie de ce 

 monde, elle n'est pas remphacee par un tribunal de concilia- 

 tion faisant rentrer an fourreau los epees impatientes d'en sor- 

 tir: ce n'est pas moins un evenement caracteristique et heu- 

 reux que le succes de ce tribunal d'equite, de cette sorte de jus- 

 tice Internationale." ... 



We, Great Britain and the United States, have in 



