Men stand on a long staircase, but the crowd congregates near the bottom, and the lower steps are very broad.

In America men stand upon a common platform, but the platform is raised above the ground, though it does not approach in height the top of our staircase.

If we take the average altitude in the two countries, we shall find that the American heads are the more elevated of the two[1360]." A comparison of dates shows that the unanimity of conservative and aristocratic expression on the failure of American democracy and its lesson to England was most marked and most open at the moment when the Government was seriously considering an offer of mediation in the war.
Meanwhile the emancipation proclamation of September, 1862, had appeared.

It did not immediately affect governmental attitude, save adversely to the North, and it gave a handle for pro-Southern outcry on the score of a "servile war." Indeed, the radicals were at first depressed by it; but when months passed with no appearance of a servile war and when the second emancipation proclamation of January, 1863, further certified the moral purpose of the North, a great element of strength was added to the English advocates of democracy.

The numerous "addresses" to Lincoln exhibited both a revived moral enthusiasm for the cause of anti-slavery and were frequently combined with a laudation of American political institutions.