The American wits and critics of that day did not fail to note the significance of the date, and to appreciate the statesmanship and philosophy which led the British Parliament to terminate the trade at the precise moment when the American Congress closed the market.
Blaine notes the significance of the timing of the British Parliament's decision to end the slave trade coinciding with the closure of the American market.
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I am in no boastful mood: I shall not do more than I can, but I shall do all I can to save the Government, which is my sworn duty as well as my personal inclination.
In turn, the course of the National Administration would certainly be influenced, and its fate in large degree determined, by the conduct of the Southern men, in whom the President was placing unbounded trust.
The Northern people shrank from the responsibility of transferring the government of States to the control of men who had already shown themselves capable of desperate deeds.
With whatever strength or prestige the President left Washington, he certainly returned to the Capital personally discredited and politically ruined.
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