Page:Anglo-American relations during the Spanish-American war (IA abz5883.0001.001.umich.edu).pdf/30

14 Adams, minister to Great Britain, read to the Earl of Clarendon a confidential dispatch from William Henry Seward, secretary of state, which has served as a solution of that question ever since. Mr. Seward declared that Americans "whether native born or naturalized owe submission to the same jaws in Great Britain as British subjects while residing there and enjoying the protection of the British government"

For a period of nearly fifty years American theories of democracy had served as a source of irritation between the two countries but in 1830 the Whigs, under the leadership of Earl Grey, as prime minister, came into power with a policy of internal reform. With the adoption of the Reform bill of 1882 Great Britain entered upon an era of democratic development that was to continue throughout the century. One event after another occurred to shorten the distance between the two political systems. During the Civil War when