f the Southern States under the measures of
Reconstruction, with Ireland under the measures of the British
Government, naturally suggested by hostile criticism in the English
press, is not without its useful lessons. The complaint of
discontented people in the Southern States was that there had been too
great an expansion of popular rights, too large an extension of the
elective franchise. But in Ireland, according to eminent British
statesmen and historian, the suffering was from directly opposite
causes.(3) Self-government of all the people was the rule established
in the Southern States: subjection of all the people and government
with the sword was the rule established in Ireland. Even if the
American Government had made a mistake in its treatment of the
Southern States, the history and traditions of the Republic gave ample
guarantees that wrong steps would be speedily retraced, that all
grievances would be thoroughly redressed; whereas the complaints of
Ireland have remained unredressed for centuries.

There is no parallel among civilized nations to the prolonged
discontent among the Irish people. A race gifted with many of the
noblest qualities of humanity, strong in intellect and quick in
apprehension, could not for centuries complain of grievances if they
did not exist, and the grievances could not exist for centuries without
serious reproach to the British Government. To the lasting honor of
American statesmanship, Southern grievances were not allowed by neglect
or arrogance to grow and become chronic after the civil war had closed.
The one safeguard against an evil so great was the restoration of
self-government to the people who had rebelled, the broadening of the
elective franchise, the abolition of caste and privilege. If
Englishmen had studied the Reconstruction policy instead of deriding
it, they might have learned that the American Government accomplished
for the South in four years what their own Government has failed to
accomplish for Ireland through ten generations.

The Government of the United States had steadily protested during the
continuance of the civil war against the unfriendly and unlawful
course of England, and it was determined that compensation should be
demanded upon the return of Peace. Mr. Adams, under instructions from
Secretary Seward, had presented and ably argued the American case.
He proposed a friendly arbitration of the _Alabama_ claims, but was
met by a flat refusal f