notice from the Czar, or an imperial invitation at Vienna or a smile from an Empress at Paris; and this from something stirring within them better than snobbishness, or any kind of express egotism. The good social understanding between Americans and king-ridden people,—or, rather, I fear I must say, the admiration of Americans for that kind of society,—is natural enough; and it may have some effect on republican diplomacy, inasmuch as the diplomatists themselves are subject to the same. beguiling influences; but there is much more in the matter than this view includes. The plain truth is that there have been grounds of sympathy between the Americans and the despotisms of Europe which do not exist as between them and free nations. There is no question of the fact on any hand; and the only matter for controversy is, whether this good understanding is owing to the republicanism of the Americans or to some other characteristic.
The most conspicuous instance of this close friendship with despotism is perhaps the intercourse of Americans with Russia during the reign of Nicholas. It is remarked by all Europeans who visit Washington that the Russian ambassador has easy work there, while the representatives of other powers are kept in continual hot water. The Russian is attended by trains of enthusiastic citizens when he enters the Capitol, extolling the majesty of the Czar, or longing to go to St. Petersburgh; and ladies crowd round him at the balls, twinkling away their tears of sensibility about some not of imperial charity, or echoing some soft sentiment of the empress. The Spanish ambassador, meanwhile, is internally raging, and outwardly restless under the ever-renewed insult of debates in Congress, or proposals from the President, about buying Cuba. The ambassador informs the government that Cuba is not on sale; but this makes no sort of difference; and the unhappy man who undertakes the post at Washington has to hear something every day about what the Americans mean to do with Cuba. The British ambassador is scarcely happier. He has to make up his mind to live in an atmosphere of jealousy, suspicion, and misapprehension, and under constant irritation from evil construction and bad manners. If there is an interval of reasonable temper and courteous behaviour, it is sure to be presently over. If the ministers are amiable, the journalists are sure to be insulting; and, from one quarter or another, he is under the constant necessity of explaining matters which would never raise a question in any other country. The French Minister stands next in favour to the Russian, generally speaking. There were bickerings and threatenings of war during the Orleans reign; but under the two Napoleons, France has appeared very charming to the republicans at Washington and at Paris. Other Ministers meet with varying degrees of favour; but the two extremes of treatment correspond with the political extremes. The Czar's ambassador is the pet; and the British is the butt.
We all remember how the Americans sided with Russia during the Crimean war; and what books and journals were published by the Czar's visitors from the United States, and by American surgeons and journalists who accompanied the Russian army, or accepted Russian accounts of the war. Almost every year, we read of interviews with the Czar, and invitations from the Empress, and frank friendships with the young princes; and of the confidential explanations and sentimentalities, evidently intended to come to the world's ears through the vanity of flattered republican tourists. I have watched the process, as no doubt others have, for many years; and, if they and I have been partly amused and partly indignant at seeing the game that was being played, our feelings have been tame and careless in comparison with those of sound-hearted and clear-minded Americans, who resented being made tools of by the Czar, in virtue of the political anomaly and social vice which is the root of all the serious troubles of the republic.
It was that order of American citizens which pointed out, many years ago, that every serious agitation on the Slavery question in America was coincident in time with some scheme of Russian aggression. I have not room here to follow out that curious series of facts; but it so happens that every alarm of insurrection or revolution in the United States, and every aggression of the Southern faction on constitutional liberty,—every repeal of compromise, fugitive slave law, outrage on the freedom of the press or of the mails, happened just when the Emperor Nicholas was moving upon Finland, upon Turkey, upon Poland, towards India, or the Caucasus, or China, or the Levant. In America it is well understood that Russian intrigue was as busy on the one side of the Atlantic as on the other, and that these coincidences were due to the imperial caution which employed the energies of the republic at home when they might have been troublesome to him in Europe. He might gloze at St. Petersburgh about the singular likeness between his and their aims and aspirations; but he took care to draw off their sympathies from Hungary and Poland, from Cracow and Constantinople, when he bad business of his own in that direction. This is one discovery of patriotic Americans.
Another is that a wonderful likeness has grown up between the mode of Russian and American filibustering. The Southern States have certainly taken a lesson from the Russian government in this matter; and, the mode being precisely what the Czar Peter prescribed to his descendants, it is believed that the Slave-power in America has been under the actual training of Russian political teachers. I need only remind my readers of the method. First, some citizens pass quietly into the doomed neighbour's country, and there establish themselves in pursuit of some branch of industry. There were Russian manufacturers and merchants in Caubul, just as there were American farmers in Texas, and at the same time. After a while, the settlers, or countrymen who follow upon their traces, find or make some cause for native discontent, and stir up disaffection and disorder. Then, the government of St. Petersburgh or of Washington, as it may be, benevolently intervenes to afford protection and secure order; and, a military force once introduced, annexation is only a question of time. History will by-and-