Newark Daily Mercury, May 24, 1861

When we consider the large interests affected by the rebellion of the Confederate States, we are not surprised that the English Government and Press should approach the solution of the question with timidity and uncertainty. The London Times is the organ, especially, of the great manufacturing and commercial interests of Great Britain, and it sees in the conflict about to take place only ruin and disaster to those interests. The want of a supply of cotton is already a problem for her statesmen, and every means have been taken to secure it from other sources than the Southern States. The present amount of cotton in England is about 250,000 bales, equal to three months' consumption, but beyond this the cotton-spinners feel the coming of a storm more disastrous to England than even a Continental war. Besides this the Morrill Tariff bill has shown the English manufacturers that hereafter American interests are to be protected to their disadvantage, and thus while their opinions are not in sympathy with the slaveholding oligarchy of the South, their fears lead them to judge incorrectly of the whole questions at issue.

We have, however, no fears that the English Government will take any step inimical to the United States. They saw, at the outset of these difficulties, the Government paralyzed and dismayed; they saw State after State declaring itself independent of the Government, while the President and a portion of his Cabinet held that there was no power in the Constitution to maintain and establish the Government. Even after Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated, they saw no such decisive policy adopted as was calculated to give stability and force to the Union, and naturally they came to the hasty conclusion that the Union was, as the London Times asserted, "utterly destroyed," and that it was their duty simply to regard their own interests. It was at this period that Lord John Russell announced the policy of the Government, recognizing the belligerent rights of the Confederate States. Since that time full intelligence of the uprising of the loyal States has reached the British Government. Mr. Adams, the able Minister from this country to the Court of St. James, has undoubtedly announced the policy and determination of our Government, and the Ministry are aware that the American Union is to be maintained intact, and that we shall hold all who foster or strengthen this rebellion, either at home or abroad, as enemies. At the period when this announcement is made, the English people will have the details of that unparellelled enlistment of troops, the gigantic preparations of the Government, the general and universal tender of men and money, and that enthusiastic spirit everywhere pervading the loyal States, which has never been equalled in the history of any people on the face of the globe. And with these facts before them, the English Ministry will review its first judgment and prove its discretion by avoiding a policy which would necessarily lead it into collision with this country.

It is easy to perceive that the Government of Great Britain cannot recognize the Confederate States as a belligerent without bringing upon that Nation a war with the United States. If the Confederate States are to be regarded as standing in the same relation as the United States, then their clearances from ports are legal; their privateers may enter British ports with their prizes; they may claim upon every occasion the same consideration as the Nation with which Great Britain has made sacred treaties. It is not too much to say that upon such a policy being distinctly avowed by that Government, our Minister at London would be recalled, and all commercial and business intercourse with Great Britain cease. There would be no doubt, there could be no hesitation on the part of our Government to resent so gross an insult, and the quarrel thus begun would find support in every loyal heart throughout the country.

But what object could Great Britain have in producing such a rupture? For the last twenty years the people of the United States have shown their sympathy with the English people in all their national difficulties. During that great struggle with Russia when the English name and prestige seemed well nigh broken for a time, none watched the progress of the contest more eagerly than their American brethren. We gloried in their triumphs, and grieved over their reverses, and at the crowning victory at Sebastopol, we felt that our kinsmen had proved themselves staunch and true. And when, like an alarm bell in the night, there came upon us the intelligence of the Indian mutiny, we failed not to exhibit the same earnest sympathy in their behalf. We did not speak or write of a broken or disrupted empire; we rejoiced over the activity of the British dockyards and the assembling of its armies, trusting that they might soon save from disaster and peril those who were holding out against overwhelming numbers in their Eastern Empire. We felt a common glory in the gallant efforts of Havelock and others who won fame and honor in the suppression of the rebellion. Who believes that Great Britain, moved by jealousy of our commercial rivalry, or by the selfish necessities of trade, will excite the animosity of this people, by being false alike to national faith and national honor? Should she give her sympathy to this unrighteous rebellion she will create an enemy of every loyal American in the land. England's extremity will be our opportunity, and most richly will we repay her for her perfidy, to professions and principles which she has proclaimed for years.

The action of Great Britain may embarrass but it cannot change the result of this contest. The American Union will be preserved by the bravery and determination of the loyal States. The flag of the nation will float over a united people, and it will be honored and revered in every quarter of the Republic. When this rebellion is crushed out the nation will find its vitality greater than ever before, for it will have vindicated its power and proved its strength. One common feeling and purpose animates the million of patriot hearts who are eagerly watching the progress of the contest. To them there is no future if the Union be destroyed. The dissevered States might for a period preserve the semblance of a free government, but soon even this would be lost, and the history of our decline and fall would be written and recorded. THE UNION, IT MUST AND SHALL BE PRESERVED.