_Saturday, February 15th_.--Anniversary of the day of my resignation
from the navy of the United States; and what an eventful year it has
been! The Northern States have been making a frantic and barbarous war
upon thirteen states and nine millions of people; in face, too, of
Madison's words: "If there be a principle that ought not to be
questioned in the United States, it is that every nation has the right
to abolish an old Government and establish a new one. This principle is
not only recorded in every public archive, written in every American
heart, and sealed with the blood of a host of American martyrs, but it
is _the only lawful tenure_ by which the United States hold their
existence as a nation." And then what flood-gates of private misery have
been raised by this war--overwhelming families without number in utter
ruin and desolation.
Reduced my worthless sergeant to the ranks, and promoted a corporal in
his stead. The British Parliament met on the 6th, and we have in the
papers to-day the address to the Queen, and the speeches of the Earl of
Derby and Lord Palmerston. From the general tone of all these papers we
shall not be acknowledged at present. They say the quarrel is no
business of theirs, and we must fight it out. Astute Great Britain! she
sees that we are able to fight it out, and thus her darling object will
be accomplished without the expenditure of blood or money.
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