To the people who had been engaged in chang-
ing Illinois from a wilderness into a civilized
State, Europe had been an abstraction, a mere col-
ored spot upon a map, which in their lives meant
nothing. Though England had been the home of
their ancestors, it was really less interesting than
the west coast of Africa, which was the home of
the negroes; for the negroes were just now of
vastly more consequence than the ancestors. So
even Dahomey had some claim to be regarded as a
more important place than Great Britain, and the
early settlers wasted little thought on the affairs of
Queen Victoria. Amid these conditions, absorbed
even more than his neighbors in the exciting ques-
tions of domestic politics, and having no tastes or
pursuits which guided his thoughts abroad, Mr.
Lincoln had never had occasion to consider the
foreign relations of the United States, up to the
time when he was suddenly obliged to take an ac-
tive part in managing them.

At an early stage of the civil dissensions each
side hoped for the good-will of England. For
obvious reasons that island counted to the United

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