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BEECHER'S SPEECH AT LIVERPOOL

October 16, 1863

ALTHOUGH Bright had been able to prevent England from entering the war in behalf of the Southern Confederacy he had not been able to do away with all antagonism toward the North. Sentiment in the manufacturing districts of England and generally among the working and business classes, was with the South when Beecher delivered his address in Liverpool on October 16, 1863. Lack of cotton and the closing of Southern markets to English goods had brought no little distress to the poorer people. It was Beecher's task to try to win over to the side of the North the moral support of those whose economic welfare seemed to depend on the success of the South.

When it was announced that he was to speak in Liverpool, the mob-spirit of the community was aroused and the opposition was organized to make a determined and desperate attempt to prevent the delivery of the speech. The streets were placarded with abusive and scurrilous posters urging Englishmen to

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see that he gets the welcome that he deserves." The leading papers published editorial articles attacking Mr. Beecher. It was openly declared that if he attempted to address the meeting he would never leave Liverpool alive.

On the evening of the 16th the great hall was packed with enemies and with sympathizers. When Mr. Beecher came upon the platform there were cat-calls

and cheers for several minutes, and the chairman with great difficuty obtained the opportunity to introduce the speaker. The tumult continued for three hours excepting the few brief intervals when Mr. Beecher succeeded in obtaining the involuntary attention of his audience. Laughter, shouts, hisses, and insults continually interrupted the delivery of the address. On at least two occasions men were carried forcibly from the hall. Nevertheless, Mr. Beecher was able, in spite of all opposition, to create with his audience an impression that was of great benefit to the cause of the North; and the published report of his address, which the next day was spread all over England, became one of the important influences that led Great Britain to decide finally against lending her assistance to the Confederacy.

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SPEECH AT LIVERPOOL

HENRY WARD BEECHER

For more than twenty-five years I have been made perfectly familiar with popular assemblies in all parts of my country except the extreme South. There has not for the whole of that time been a single day of my life when it would have been safe for me to go south of Mason and Dixon's line 1 in my own country, and all for one reason: my solemn, earnest, persistent testimony against that which I consider to be the most atrocious thing under the sun-the system of American slavery in a great free republic. [Cheers.] I have passed through that early period when right of free speech was denied to me. Again and again I have attempted to address audiences that, for no other crime than that of free speech, visited me with

all manner of contumelious epithets; and now since I have been in England, although I have met with greater kindness and courtesy on the part of most than I deserved, yet, on the other hand, I perceive that the Southern influence prevails to some extent in England. [Applause and uproar.] It is my old acquaintance; I understand it perfectly [laughter]—and I have always held it to be an unfailing truth that where a man had a cause that would bear examination he was perfectly willing to have it spoken about. [Applause.] And when in Manchester I saw those huge placards: "Who is Henry Ward Beecher?"-[laughter, cries of "Quite right," and applause]-and when in Liverpool I was told that there were those blood-red placards, purporting to say what Henry Ward Beecher had said, and calling upon Englishmen to suppress free speech-I tell you what I thought. I thought simply this: "I am glad of it." [Laughter.] Why? Because if they had felt perfectly secure, that you are the minions of the South and the slaves of slavery, they would have been perfectly still. [Applause and uproar.] And, therefore, when I saw so much nervous apprehension that, if I were permitted to speak-—[hisses and applause]—when I found they were afraid to have me speak-[hisses, laughter, and "No, no!"]-when I found that they considered my speaking damaging to their cause [applause]-when I found that they appealed from facts and reasonings to mob law-[applause and uproar]—I said, no man need tell me what the heart and secret counsel of these men are. They tremble and are afraid. [Applause, laughter, hisses, "No, No!" and a voice: "New York mob."] Now, personally, it is a matter of very little consequence to me whether I speak here to-night or not. [Laughter and cheers.] But, one thing is very certain, if you do permit me to speak here to-night you will hear very plain talking. [Applause and

hisses.] You will not find a man-[interruption]-you will not find me to be a man that dared to speak about Great Britain three thousand miles off, and then is afraid to speak to Great Britain when he stands on her shores. [Immense applause and hisses.] And if I do not mistake the tone and temper of Englishmen, they had rather have a man who opposes them in a manly way-[applause from all parts of the hall]-than a sneak that agrees with them in an unmanly way. [Applause and "Bravo!"] Now, if I can carry you with me by sound convictions, I shall be immensely glad-[applause]-; but if I cannot carry you with me by facts and sound arguments, I do not wish you to go with me at all; and all that I ask is simply FAIR PLAY. [Applause, and a voice: "You shall have it, too."]

Those of you who are kind enough to wish to favor my speaking-and you will observe that my voice is slightly husky, from having spoken almost every night in succession for some time past,-those who wish to hear me will do me the kindness simply to sit still, and to keep still— and I and my friends the Secessionists will make all the noise. [Laughter.]

Wherever a nation that is crushed, cramped, degraded under despotism is struggling to be free, you-Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Paisley-all have an interest that that nation should be free. When depressed and backward people demand that they may have a chance to rise -Hungary, Italy, Poland--it is a duty for humanity's sake, it is a duty for the highest moral motives, to sympathize with them; but besides all these there is a material and an interested reason why you should sympathize with them. Pounds and pence join with conscience and with honor in this design. Now, Great Britain's chief want is -what?

They have said that your chief want is cotton. I deny

it. Your chief want is consumers. [Applause and hisses.] You have got skill, you have got capital, and you have got machinery enough to manufacture goods for the whole population of the globe. You could turn out fourfold as much as you do, if you only had the market to sell in. It is not so much the want, therefore, of fabric, though there may be a temporary obstruction of it; but the principal and increasing want-increasing from year to year -is, where shall we find men to buy what we can manufacture so fast? [Interruption, and a voice, "The Morrill tariff,"2 and applause.] Before the American war broke out, your warehouses were loaded with goods that you could not sell. [Applause and hisses.] You had over-manufactured; what is the meaning of over-manufacturing but this: that you had skill, capital, machinery, to create faster than you had customers to take goods off your hands? And you know that rich as Great Britain is, vast as are her manufactures, if she could have fourfold the present demand, she could make fourfold riches tomorrow; and every political economist will tell you that your want is not cotton primarily, but customers. Therefore, the doctrine, how to make customers, is a great deal more important to Great Britain than the doctrine how to raise cotton. It is to that doctrine I ask from you, business men, practical men, men of fact, sagacious Englishmen to that point I ask a moment's attention. [Shouts of "Oh, oh!" hisses, and applause.] There are no more continents to be discovered. [Hear, hear!] The market of the future must be found-how? There is very little hope of any more demand being created by new fields. If you are to have a better market there must be some kind of process invented to make the old fields better. [A voice, "Tell us something new," shouts of "Order," and interruption.] Let us look at it, then. You must civilize the world in order to make a better

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