The _Daily News_ lauded Lincoln's message to Congress as the speech of a great leader, and asserted that the issue in America was for all free people a question of upholding the eternal principles of liberty, morality and justice.

"War for such a cause, though it be civil war, may perhaps without impiety be called 'God's most perfect instrument in working out a pure intent[322].'" The disaster to the Northern army, its apparent testimony that the North lacked real fighting men, bolstered that British opinion which regarded military measures against the South as folly--an impression reinforced in the next few months by the long pause by the North before undertaking any further great effort in the field.

The North was not really ready for determined war, indeed, until later in the year.

Meanwhile many were the moralizations in the British press upon Bull Run's revelation of Northern military weakness.
Probably the most influential newspaper utterances of the moment were the letters of W.H.Russell to the _Times_.

This famous war-correspondent had been sent to America in the spring of 1861 by Delane, editor of the _Times_, his first letter, written on March 29, appearing in the issue of April 16.