In the interest of period history.

[A. P. Hill]

Excuse me for a few minutes as I present this to you for your enjoyment.

Many times on many subjects getting intelligent information from people living at the time is a great blessing. Accurate and historical information can very possibly cause people who have been misinformed, misdirected, lied to, led on purpose according to their schemes. Sadly many of the "educational" institutions of the world are becoming indoctrination facilities, and therefore actual history is being revised to the will of the "educators" and indoctrinators.

And so it would appear with the history of the era that this game puts us in.

I have found a document written by a very honorable individual living at the time. Apparently the way I understand events to have happened is that this gentleman got wind of an Article written in the London Times, regarding the early stages of our Civil War. This document was a written rebuttal of the misinformation and speculation of that London Times article. As such, it is composed in a very intelligent and understandable manner, as eventually many citizens of the U.K. would read this, and he wished not to insult his audience.

The document is 52 pages long, it is a bit of reading, but I found that once I got started reading it I couldn't stop and before I knew it I had reached the end of the document and was wholly refreshed mentally and educationally as it is history in the making at that time. He is concise with dates and events, and has many references from various sources if he quotes from them.

Here is the Link. (https://archive.org/details/causesofamerican00motl/page/n5) The document is entitled "Causes of the American Civil War" written in 1862 or late 1861.

I've known about this site for a very long time and I have discovered many a publications on various topics here and all of them very valuable to me, and are now a part of my personal library.

[John Jones]

Apparently the way I understand events to have happened is that this gentleman got wind of an Article written in the London Times, regarding the early stages of our Civil War.

Interesting read, thank you very much for sharing it, I have now added it to my collection! You are quite right, there is no substitute for going back to primary sources if you want to try to get closer to the events of the past.

I don't suppose you know which article in the The Times the response was written for? There are clearly certain assertions Mr Motley wishes to rebuff and I am curious as to whether I am reading his response correctly.

These assertions would appear to include, in no particular order, quite a lengthy rebuttal of the legality of the right of individual states to cecede viz a viz the Constitution, the question of Northern control over free trade, the extension or containment (but not, I note the abolition) of the institution of slavery and the legitimacy of the southern states to be recognised as legal entities by foreign states. Mr Motley appears particularly piqued by the fact that it was the Untied States that furnished much of the southern states 'infrastructure of nationhood' in the form of ports, fortressess etc.(even the Postal Service!), and had effectively underwritten elements of the 'Manifest Destiny' doctrine such as the attempted acquisition of Cuba and the actual acquisition of Florida, so I wonder whether there was a specific point here he was trying to address?

As an observation, he was keen to stress the normalisation of relations between Great Britain and the United States following the Revolutionary War but I assume he failed to mention the War of 1812 in the interests of keeping readers of the Times sweet!

All very interesting and thanks once again.

[A. P. Hill]

Thanks for the reply.

The linked document says it was published in 1861, a quick search of the net, only provided one possible article, but again I haven't had sufficient time. Work and all you understand.

But if this one article published by the London Times, is indeed the one, then Mr. Motley was an amazing writer with publisher connections.

The dated article I discovered so far, is: November 7th, 1861.

I'll post more after a longer seach is conducted by myself.

[Rbater]

The document was actually two articles. One appeared in the London Times for May 23 and the other on the 24, 1861. They were after the fact made into this pamphlet that's linked. Both articles were signed as J.L.M. (Motley - Historian). However, Motley was not real historian in the sense that we see it fit now because in Rise of the Dutch Republic, he had a bad tendency to make up "facts" if they made for a good story. But I digress on that point. The article at hand was not written as a rebuttal to any other article. It was written to argue that the whole responsibility of the war, and the deepest political guilt, was attached to the South. He was born a Northerner (Massachusetts) and lived in the North until he moved to Europe. Therefore his work is heavily biased towards the position that President Lincoln was bound to oppose the secession movement. He was bound by oath to defend the Commonwealth, the Constitution because secession meant revolution, and it had be dealt with as such. Motley was made the United States minister to the Austrian Empire in 1861 in due part because Lincoln was impressed with the work. He then worked with other American diplomats such as John Bigelow and Charles Francis Adams to help prevent European intervention on the side of the Confederacy in the American Civil War.