Chapter 6

The two successive administrations, which treated Mr. Motley in a manner unworthy of their position and cruel, if not fatal to him, have been heard, directly or through their advocates. I have attempted to show that the defence set up for their action is anything but satisfactory. A later generation will sit in judgment upon the evidence more calmly than our own. It is not for a friend, like the writer, to anticipate its decision, but unless the reasons alleged to justify his treatment, and which have so much the air of afterthoughts, shall seem stronger to that future tribunal than they do to him, the verdict will be that Mr. Motley was twice sacrificed to personal feelings which should never have been cherished by the heads of the government, and should never have been countenanced by their chief advisers.

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

A great historian is almost a statesman Admired or despised, as if he or she were our contemporary Alas! one never knows when one becomes a bore American Unholy Inquisition best defence in this case is little better than an impeachment But after all this isn't a war It is a revolution Can never be repaired and never sufficiently regretted Considerations of state as a reason Considerations of state have never yet failed the axe Everything else may happen This alone must happen Fortune's buffets and rewards can take with equal thanks He was not always careful in the construction of his sentences In revolutions the men who win are those who are in earnest Irresistible force in collision with an insuperable resistance It is n't strategists that are wanted so much as believers John Quincy Adams Manner in which an insult shall be dealt with Motley was twice sacrificed to personal feelings No man is safe (from news reporters) Our mortal life is but a string of guesses at the future Played so long with other men's characters and good name Progress should be by a spiral movement Public which must have a slain reputation to devour Reasonable to pay our debts rather than to repudiate them Recall of a foreign minister for alleged misconduct in office Shall Slavery die, or the great Republic? Suicide is confession The nation is as much bound to be honest as is the individual This Somebody may have been one whom we should call Nobody Unequivocal policy of slave emancipation Wringing a dry cloth for drops of evidence

[The End]