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A British Consul’s View
After the election of Lincoln in November 1860, British consul at Boston, Thomas Colley Grattan (1792-1864) wrote:
“The day must no doubt come when clashing objects will break the ties of common interest which now preserve the American union. But no man may foretell the period of dissolution . . . The many retaining cause are out of sight of foreign observation. If a foreign nation hints at hostility, the whole union becomes in reality united. And thus, any contingency from which there can be danger, there is also found the element of safety.”
Yet, he added, “All attempts to strengthen this federal government at the expense of the State governments must be futile . . . The federal government exists on sufferance only. Any State may at any time constitutionally withdraw from the American union, and thus virtually dissolve it.”
(Great Britain and the American Civil War. Ephraim Douglass Adams. Alpha Editions, 2018. p.37)