It is noble in a nation to acknowledge wrong; but it is weakness to sacrifice a great cause.

Joyfully should I welcome it, as one of the signs of a new order of ages.

Truth is illustrated by error, health is maintained by knowledge of disease, and crime itself is made repulsive by bringing its perpetrators to judgment.

Such instances, so recent, show how little the injunction of International Law has been regarded by Great Britain, whether before or after the Crimean War; and yet British censors have not hesitated to arraign the United States in brutal…

I do not admit their competency to sit in judgment on us; I plead to the jurisdiction.

If they would teach correct principles, they must begin by a correct example.

Meanwhile the abuses for which Great Britain is responsible cannot be forgotten by those who sincerely desire a new era in International Law.

President, does any one suppose that these agents of the Rebel Government were moved to this criminal enterprise merely by considerations of plunder?--that they risked life and everything merely to rob a bank?

It was to embroil the Government of the United States with the Government of Great Britain.

These agents, or rather the men behind who set them on, knew the sensitiveness of our people, and how naturally they would be aroused against the foreign country where the enterprise had its origin.

They saw that excitement, passion, anger on our part were inevitable, that out of these some complication or collision might ensue, and that any such complication or collision must necessarily help the Rebellion more than a victory on the…

The whole proceeding was a trap in which to catch the Government of our country.

It was hoped that in this way the Rebellion might gain that powerful British intervention which would restore its failing fortunes.

Nobody sees the wrongs we have suffered more clearly than I do; but I see other wrongs also.

To this work let us dedicate ourselves, without arousing another enemy, through whose alliance the Rebellion may be encouraged and strengthened.

Washington, in his Farewell Address, warns against “the insidious wiles of foreign influence”; but the “insidious wiles” of our Rebels, seeking to embroil us with foreign powers, are as deadly as any influence brought against us.

It is a question for reason, and not for passion or sentiment, and in this spirit I enter upon the discussion.

But the practical question remains, whether any seeming advantage in this respect is sufficient to counterbalance the disadvantage in other respects.

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc, is too loose a rule for our Government on the present occasion.

I cannot doubt that the railroad system of the two countries has been in itself a Reciprocity Treaty more comprehensive and equal than any written on parchment.

These various illustrations show that the revenue of the United States has suffered by the treaty, and that in this important particular its advantages are not shared equally by the two countries.

Thus, for instance, the lumber of our country is left free from excise, though I am assured it might well bear it, simply because no countervailing tax can be imposed upon lumber from the British provinces.

I have kept back nothing favorable to the treaty that could be adequately stated in the brief space I have allowed myself, nor have I exaggerated its unequal operation.

We must husband our resources; nor can a foreign Government justly expect us to continue a treaty which is a drain upon our revenue.

An inequality which in ordinary times might escape observation becomes too apparent in the blaze of present responsibilities.