Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 1).djvu/120

108 ers received the impression, and reported it to their government, that the Americans were very much in earnest, and that what they really desired was not to make peace, but to put things in an aspect calculated to unite their people at home in favor of the war. Then something of decisive importance happened behind the scenes, which, no doubt, the Americans would have been glad to know. The leading statesmen in England were not at all anxious to break off negotiations, especially not upon points a final rupture on which might have “made the war popular in America.” In fact, as Lord Liverpool wrote to Lord Castlereagh, they were apprehensive that then the war would be a long affair; that “some of their European allies would not be indisposed to favor the Americans,” meaning especially the Emperor of Russia, and that this American business would “entail upon them prodigious expense.” They did not desire to have it said that “the property tax was continued for the purpose of securing a better frontier for Canada.” Besides, the state of the negotiations at the Vienna Congress was “unsatisfactory;” the situation of the interior of France was “alarming;” the English people were tired of war taxes. Was it not more prudent after all to let the Americans off without a cession of territory? The Duke of Wellington was consulted; he emphatically expressed himself against any territorial or other demand which would “afford the Americans a proper and creditable ground” for declining to make peace.