upon the United States, it is as pernicious to the West as it is to the
South; and further, that Louisiana, which is a Southern State and a
seceded State, has always voted along with Pennsylvania until last year
in favour of protection--protection for its sugar, whilst Pennsylvania
wished protection for its coal and iron. But if the tariff was onerous
and grievous, was that any reason for this great insurrection? Was there
ever a country that had a tariff, especially in the article of food,
more onerous and more cruel than that which we had in this country
twenty years ago? We did not secede. We did not rebel. What we did was
to raise money for the purpose of distributing among all the people
perfect information upon the question; and many men, as you know,
devoted all their labours, for several years, to teach the great and
wise doctrine of free trade to the people of England. The price of a
single gunboat, the equipment of a single regiment, the garrisoning of a
single fort, the cessation of their trade for a single day, cost more
than it would have cost to have spread among all the intelligent people
of the United States the most complete statement of the whole case; and
the West and South could easily have revised, or, if need had been, have
repealed the tariff altogether.
The question is a very different and a far more grave question. It is a
question of slavery, and for thirty years it has constantly been coming
to the surface, disturbing social life, and overthrowing almost all
political harmony in the working of the United States. In the North
there is no secession; there is no collision. These disturbances and
this insurrection are found wholly in the South and in the Slave States;
and therefore I think that the man who says otherwise, who contends that
it is the tariff, or anything whatsoever else than slavery, is either
himself deceived or endeavours to deceive others. The object of the
South is this, to escape from the majority who wish to limit the area of
slavery. They wish to found a Slave State freed from the influence and
opinions of freedom. The Free States in the North now stand before the
world as the advocates and defenders of freedom and civilization. The
Slave States offer themselves for the recognition of a Christian nation,
based upon the foundation, the unchangeable foundation in their eyes, of
slavery and barbarism.
I will not discuss the guilt of the men who, ministers of a great nation
only last year, conspired to overthrow it. I will not point out or
recapitulate the statements of the fraudulent manner in which they
disposed of the funds in the national exchequer. I will not point out by
name any of the men, in this conspiracy, whom history will designate by
titles they would not like to hear; but I say that slavery has sought to
break up the most free government in the world, and to found a new
State, in the nineteenth century, whose corner-stone is the perpetual
bondage of millions of men.
Having thus described what appears to me briefly the literal truth of
this matter, what is the course that England would be expected to
pursue? We should be neutral as far as regards mingling in the strife.
We were neutral in the strife in Italy; but we were not neutral in
opinion or sympathy; and we know perfectly well that throughout the
whole of Italy at this moment there is a feeling that, though no shot
was fired from an English ship, and though no English soldier trod their
soil, yet still the opinion of England was potent in Europe, and did
much for the creation of the Italian kingdom.
With regard to the United States, you know how much we hate slavery,--
that is, some years ago we thought we knew; that we have given twenty
millions sterling,--a million a year, or nearly so, of taxes for ever,--
to free eight hundred thousand slaves in the English colonies. We knew,
or thought we knew, how much we were in love with free government
everywhere, although it might not take precisely the same form as our
own government. We were for free government in Italy; we were for free
government in Switzerland; and we were for free government, even under a
republican form, in the United States of America; and with all this,
every man would have said that England would wish the American Union to
be prosperous and eternal.
Now, suppose we turn our eyes to the East, to the empire of Russia, for
a moment. In Russia, as you all know, there has been one of the most
important and magnificent changes of policy ever seen in any country.
Within the last year or two, the present Emperor of Russia, following
the wishes of his father, has insisted upon the abolition of serfdom in
that empire; and twenty-three millions of human beings, lately serfs,
little better than real slaves, have been raised to the ranks of
freedom. Now, suppose that the millions of the serfs of Russia had been
chiefly in the South of Russia. We hear of the nobles of Russia, to whom
those serfs belonged in a great measure, that they have been hostile to
this change; and there has been some danger that the peace of that
empire might be disturbed during the change. Suppose these nobles, for
the purpose of maintaining in perpetuity the serfdom of Russia, and
barring out twenty-three millions of your fellow-creatures from the
rights of freedom, had established a great and secret conspiracy, and
that they had risen in great and dangerous insurrection against the
Russian Government,--I say that you, the people of England, although
seven years ago you were in mortal combat with the Russians in the South
of Europe,--I believe at this moment you would have prayed Heaven in all
sincerity and fervour to give strength to the arm and success to the
great wishes of the Emperor, and that the vile and atrocious
insurrection might be suppressed.
Well, but let us look a little at what has been said and clone in this
country since the period when Parliament rose at the beginning of
August. There have been two speeches to which I wish to refer, and in
terms of approbation. The Duke of Argyll, a member of the present
Government,--and, though I have not the smallest personal acquaintance
with him, I am free to say that I believe him to be one of the most
intelligent and liberal of his order,--the Duke of Argyll made a speech
which was fair and friendly to the Government of the United States. Lord
Stanley, only a fortnight ago, I think, made a speech which it is
impossible to read without remarking the thought, the liberality, and
the wisdom by which it is distinguished. He doubted, it is true, whether
the Union could be restored. A man need not be hostile, and must not
necessarily be unfriendly, to doubt that or the contrary; but he spoke
with fairness and friendliness of the Government of the United States;
and he said that they were right and justifiable in the course they
took; and he gave us some advice,--which is now more important than at
the moment when it was given,--that amid the various incidents and
accidents of a struggle of this nature, it became a people like this to
be very moderate, very calm, and to avoid, as much as possible, any
feeling of irritation, which sometimes arises, and sometimes leads to
danger.
I mention these two speeches as from Englishmen of great distinction in
this country--speeches which I believe will have a beneficial effect on
the other side of the Atlantic. Lord John Russell, in the House of
Commons, during the last session, made a speech also, in which he
rebuked the impertinence of a young Member of the House who had spoken
about the bursting of the 'bubble republic.' It was a speech worthy of
the best days of Lord John Russell. But at a later period he spoke at
Newcastle on an occasion something like this, when the inhabitants, or
some portion of the inhabitants, of the town invited him to a public
dinner. He described the contest in words something like these--I speak
from memory only: 'The North is contending for empire, the South for
independence.' Did he mean contending for empire, as England contends
for it when making some fresh conquest in India? If he meant that, what
he said was not true. But I recollect Lord John Russell, some years ago,
in the House of Commons, on an occasion when I made some observation as
to the unreasonable expenditure of our colonies, and said that the
people of England should not be taxed to defray expenses which the
colonies themselves were well able to bear, turned to me with a
sharpness which was not necessary, and said, 'The honourable Member has
no objection to make a great empire into a little one; but I have.'
Perhaps if he had lived in the United States, if he was a member of the
Senate or the House of Representatives there, he would doubt whether it
was his duty to consent at once to the destruction of a great country by
separation, it may be into two hostile camps, or whether he would not
try all the means which were open to him, and would be open to the
Government, to avert so unlooked-for and so dire a calamity.
There are other speeches that have been made. I will not refer to them
by any quotation,--I will not, out of pity to some of the men who
uttered them. I will not bring their names even before you, to give
them an endurance which I hope they will not otherwise obtain. I leave
them in the obscurity which they so richly merit. But you know as well
as I do, that, of all the speeches made since the end of the last
session of Parliament by public men, by politicians, the majority of
them have either displayed a strange ignorance of American affairs, or a
stranger absence of that cordiality and friendship which, I maintain,
our American kinsmen have a right to look for at our hands.
And if we part from the speakers and turn to the writers, what do we
find there? We find that which is reputed abroad, and has hitherto been
believed in at home, as the most powerful representative of English
opinion--at least of the richer classes--we find in that particular
newspaper there has not been since Mr. Lincoln took office, in March
last, as President of the United States, one fair and honourable and
friendly article on American affairs. Some of you, I dare say, read it;
but, fortunately, every district is now so admirably supplied with local
newspapers, that I trust in all time to come the people of England will
drink of purer streams nearer home, and not of those streams which are
muddled by party feeling and political intrigue, and by many motives
that tend to anything rather than the enlightenment and advantage of the
people. It is said,--that very paper has said over and over again,--'Why
this war? Why not separate peaceably? Why this fratricidal strife ?' I
hope it is equally averse to fratricidal strife in other districts; for
if it be true that God made of one blood all the families of man to
dwell on the face of all the earth, it must be fratricidal strife
whether we are slaughtering Russians in the Crimea or bombarding towns
on the sea-coast of the United States.
Now no one will expect that I should stand forward as the advocate of
war, or as the defender of that great sum of all crimes which is
involved in war. But when we are discussing a question of this nature,
it is only fair that we should discuss it upon principles which are
acknowledged not only in the country where the strife is being carried
on, but are universally acknowledged in this country. When I discussed
the Russian war, seven or eight years ago, I always condemned it, on
principles which were accepted by the Government and people of England,
and I took my facts from the blue-books presented to Parliament. I take
the liberty, then, of doing that in this case; and I say that, looking
at the principles avowed in England, and at its policy, there is no man,
who is not absolutely a non-resistant in every sense, who can fairly
challenge the conduct of the American Government in this war. It would
be a curious thing to find that the party in this country which on every
public question affecting England is in favour of war at any cost, when
they come to speak of the duty of the Government of the United States,
is in favour 'of peace at any price.'
I want to know whether it has ever been admitted by politicians, or
statesmen, or people, that a great nation can be broken up at any time
by any particular section of any part of that nation. It has been tried
occasionally in Ireland, and if it had succeeded history would have said
that it was with very good cause. But if anybody tried now to get up a
secession or insurrection in Ireland,--and it would be infinitely less
disturbing to everything than the secession in the United States,
because there is a boundary which nobody can dispute--I am quite sure
the _Times_ would have its 'Special Correspondent,' and would
describe with all the glee and exultation in the world the manner in
which the Irish insurrectionists were cut down and made an end of.
Let any man try in this country to restore the heptarchy, do you think
that any portion of the people would think that the project could be
tolerated for a moment? But if you look at a map of the United States,
you will see that there is no country in the world, probably, at this
moment, where any plan of separation between the North and the South, as
far as the question of boundary is concerned, is so surrounded with
insurmountable difficulties. For example, Maryland is a Slave State; but
Maryland, by a large majority, voted for the Union. Kentucky is a Slave
State, one of the finest in the Union, and containing a fine people;
Kentucky has voted for the Union, but has been invaded from the South.
Missouri is a Slave State; but Missouri has not seceded, and has been
invaded by the South, and there is a secession party in that State.
There are parts of Virginia which have formed themselves into a new
State, resolved to adhere to the North; and there is no doubt a
considerable Northern and Union feeling in the State of Tennessee. I
have no doubt there is in every other State. In fact, I am not sure that
there is not now within the sound of my voice a citizen of the State of
Alabama, who could tell you that in his State the question of secession
has never been put to the vote; and that there are great numbers of men,
reasonable and thoughtful and just men, in that State, who entirely
deplore the condition of things there existing.
Then, what would you do with all those States, and with what we may call
the loyal portion of the people of those States? Would you allow them to
be dragooned into this insurrection, and into the formation or the
becoming parts of a new State, to which they themselves are hostile? And
what would you do with the City of Washington? Washington is in a Slave
State. Would anybody have advised that President Lincoln and his
Cabinet, with all the members of Congress, of the House of
Representatives and the Senate, from the North, with their wives and
children, and everybody else who was not positively in favour of the
South, should have set off on their melancholy pilgrimage northwards,
leaving that capital, hallowed to them by such associations,--having its
name even from the father of their country,--leaving Washington to the
South, because Washington is situated in a Slave State?
Again, what do you say to the Mississippi River, as you see it upon the
map, the 'father of waters,' rolling its gigantic stream to the ocean?
Do you think that the fifty millions which one day will occupy the banks
of that river northward, will ever consent that its great stream shall
roll through a foreign, and it may be a hostile State? And more, there
are four millions of negroes in subjection. For them the American Union
is directly responsible. They are not secessionists; they are now, as
they always were, not citizens nor subjects, but legally under the care
and power of the Government of the United States. Would you consent that
these should be delivered up to the tender mercies of their taskmasters,
the defenders of slavery as an everlasting institution?
But if all had been surrendered without a struggle, what then? What
would the writers in this newspaper and other newspapers have said? If a
bare rock in your empire, that would not keep a goat--a single goat--
alive, be touched by any foreign power, the whole empire is roused to
resistance; and if there be, from accident or passion, the smallest
insult to your flag, what do your newspaper writers say upon the
subject, and what is said in all your towns and upon all your Exchanges?
I will tell you what they would have said if the Government of the
Northern States had taken their insidious and dishonest advice. They
would have said the great Republic was a failure, that democracy had
murdered patriotism, that history afforded no example of such meanness
and of such cowardice; and they would have heaped unmeasured obloquy and
contempt upon the people and Government who had taken that course.
They tell you, these candid friends of the United States,--they tell you
that all freedom is gone; that the Habeas Corpus Act, if they ever had
one, is known no longer; and that any man may be arrested at the dictum
of the President or of the Secretary of State. Well, but in 1848 you
recollect, many of you, that there was a small insurrection in Ireland.
It was an absurd thing altogether; but what was done then? I saw, in one
night, in the House of Commons, a bill for the suspension of the Habeas
Corpus Act passed through all its stages. What more did I see? I saw a
bill brought in by the Whig Government of that day, Lord John Hussell
being the Premier, which made speaking against the Government and
against the Crown--which up to that time had been sedition--which
proposed to make it felony; and it was only by the greatest exertions of
a few of the Members that the Act, in that particular, was limited to a
period of two years. In the same session a bill was brought in called an
Alien Bill, which enabled the Home Secretary to take any foreigner
whatsoever, not being a naturalized Englishman, and in twenty-four hours
to send him out of the country. Although a man might have committed no
crime, this might be done to him, apparently only on suspicion.
But suppose that an insurgent army had been so near to London that you
could see its outposts from every suburb of your Capital, what then do
you think would have been the regard of the Government of Great Britain
for personal liberty, if it interfered with the necessities, and, as
they might think, the salvation of the State? I recollect, in 1848, when
the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended in Ireland, that a number of persons
in Liverpool, men there of position and of wealth, presented a petition
to the House of Commons, praying--what? That the Habeas Corpus Act
should not be suspended? No. They were not content with its suspension
in Ireland; and they prayed the House of Commons to extend that
suspension to Liverpool. I recollect that at that time--and I am sure my
friend Mr. Wilson will bear me out in what I say--the Mayor of Liverpool
telegraphed to the Mayor of Manchester, and that messages were sent on
to London nearly every hour. The Mayor of Manchester heard from the
Mayor of Liverpool that certain Irishmen in Liverpool, conspirators, or
fellow-conspirators with those in Ireland, were going to burn the cotton
warehouses in Liverpool and the cotton mills of Lancashire. I read that
petition from Liverpool. I took it from the table of the House of
Commons, and read it, and I handed it over to a statesman of great
eminence, who has been but just removed from us--I refer to Sir James
Graham, a man not second to any in the House of Commons for his
knowledge of affairs and for his great capacity--I handed to him that
petition. He read it; and after he had read it, he rose from his seat,
and laid it upon the table with a gesture of abhorrence and disgust. Now
that was a petition from the town of Liverpool, in which some persons
have been making themselves very ridiculous of late by reason of their
conduct on this American question.
There is one more point. It has been said, 'How much better it would
be'--not for the United States, but--'for us, that these States should
be divided.' I recollect meeting a gentleman in Bond-street one day
before the session was over. He was a rich man, and one whose voice is
much heard in the House of Commons; but his voice is not heard when he
is on his legs, but when he is cheering other speakers; and he said to
me: 'After all, this is a sad business about the United States; but
still I think it very much better that they should be split up. In
twenty years,' or in fifty years, I forget which it was, 'they will be
so powerful that they will bully all Europe.' And a distinguished Member
of the House of Commons--distinguished there by his eloquence,
distinguished more by his many writings--I mean Sir Edward Bulwer
Lytton--he did not exactly express a hope, but he ventured on something
like a prediction, that the time would come when there would be, I do
not know how many, but about as many independent States on the American
Continent as you can count upon your fingers.
There cannot be a meaner motive than this I am speaking of, in forming a
judgment on this question,--that it is 'better for us'--for whom? the
people of England, or the Government of England?--that the United States
should be severed, and that the North American continent should be as
the continent of Europe is, in many States, and subject to all the
contentions and disasters which have accompanied the history of the
States of Europe. I should say that, if a man had a great heart within
him, he would rather look forward to the day when, from that point of
land which is habitable nearest to the Pole, to the shores of the Great
Gulf, the whole of that vast continent might become one great
confederation of States,--without a great army, and without a great
navy,--not mixing itself up with the entanglements of European
politics,--without a custom-house inside, through the whole length and
breadth of its territory,--and with freedom everywhere, equality
everywhere, law everywhere, peace everywhere,--such a confederation
would afford at least some hope that man is not forsaken of Heaven, and
that the future of our race may be better than the past.
It is a common observation, that our friends in America are very
irritable. And I think it is very likely, of a considerable number of
them, to be quite true. Our friends in America are involved in a great
struggle. There is nothing like it before in their or in any history. No
country in the world was ever more entitled, in my opinion, to the
sympathy and the forbearance of all friendly nations, than are the
United States at this moment. They have there some newspapers that are
no wiser than ours. They have there some papers, which, up to the
election of Mr. Lincoln, were his bitterest and most unrelenting foes,
who, when the war broke out, and it was not safe to take the line of
Southern support, were obliged to turn round and to appear to support
the prevalent opinion of the country. But they undertook to serve the
South in another way, and that was by exaggerating every difficulty and
misstating every fact, if so doing could serve their object of creating
distrust between the people of the Northern States and the people of
this United Kingdom. If the _Times_ in this country has done all
that it could do to poison the minds of the people of England, and to
irritate the minds of the people of America, the _New York Herald_,
I am sorry to say, has done, I think, all that it could, or all that it
dared to do, to provoke mischief between the Government in Washington
and the Government in London.