ΤΟ ABIEL A. LOW, ESQ. WHEN Great Britain was last in the position of requiring from other nations the observance of a strict neutrality, the unjust aspersion was cast upon your house of fitting out a vessel in the interest of her enemy. The searching investigation-demanded by you-which followed, led to your complete vindication, and an indignant declaration by the merchants of New York of their abhorrence of the crime against honest neutrality, which had been so falsely laid upon American merchants. Now, when England is called upon to perform the duties of neutrality, you become, by the loss of your ship, the Jacob Bell, a principal sufferer from her flagrant disregard of international justice and honor. These special circumstances alone, show an evident propriety in inscribing to you this reading of law and history upon the cases of those public marauders, the Alabama and Florida. But other considerations unite to prove the fitness of such a dedication: and among them may be enumerated that eminent enterprise which has made your name the synonym of honor in the four quarters of the globe; your unflinching and self-sacrificing patriotism in these days of trial; your public and intelligent advocacy of right principles and right practice toward other nations under the irritating and embarrassing circumstances of the time; and, above all, that universal judgment of the community in which you live, by which is conceded to you a union of public and private virtues fully entitling you to the high place hold in men's esteem. you The public voice will cordially endorse the truth of these observations, and admit their force as a justification for joining your name to this effort to direct popular attention to those serious complications, now arising from the course of conduct towards this nation which Great Britain has chosen to adopt. With great respect, I am Your obedient servant, GROSVENOR P. LOWREY. NEW YORK, March 14, 1863. |