[On Mason and Slidell] “Is the present a case of war or of diplomacy?”–Adams Family Letters, Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his brother, Henry.

Boston, December 17, 1861

I clearly see that the little squall you refer to in yours of the 23d of November was a gentle zephyr in comparison with the gale that set in four days later. Your Manchester paper got here just too late. The Atlantic could not have printed it till January, and so, as you told me, I carried it to the Courier. It has been printed and I send it to you, but I doubt if any one has read it, or any notice will be taken of it; for you might as well expect the sailors on a sinking ship to pay attention to flourishes of a fiddle. It happened at exactly the wrong moment, and people were too much absorbed in the questions of the moment to pay attention to those of the day. I made a mistake, however, in sending it to the Courier, but I am under some obligation to them and this paid it off. I shall certainly have nothing to do in the future with that low toned and semi-treasonable sheet — that is, when I can use any other.

Is the present a case of war or of diplomacy? I cannot tell, but I do hope not war. The idea of two great countries setting to work to do each other all the injury in their power on a technical point of law, or error into which one fell in its desire not to offend the other. Still, if England will take that tone, so be it. We have our war paint and feathers on and we shall die hard. Do you remember how hard France was pressed just after the revolution and how she turned on her enemies? We can make a better fight now than we ever could before, and our two first measures would almost necessarily be those most troublesome to England — a decree of universal emancipation on the one hand, and a swoop on English commerce on the other. A true democracy is a pretty hard thing to whip and I cannot help thinking that, in a war forced upon us on this issue, England would find us as ugly a customer as she had often dealt with. Still it is a conclusion terrible to think of. As great a cause as ever men struggled for ruined forever by so needless a side issue! Yet for one I do not see how it can long be avoided and perhaps it would be as well to face it at once. . . .

I send you herewith a copy of a lecture by Boutwell of some interest just now. By the way, it is a hopeful sign to see that Seward on this question has Congress under the curb. I should n’t wonder if the wily old bird changed his note now, as he did when the South kicked out, and you suddenly found him most suave and peaceable.