1862. CHAP. II. labored to excite public interest in the American antislavery movement, and to maintain the active alliance and coöperation established and fostered by him in his three visits to England. Thompson himself was the chairman, and his son-in-law, Frederick W. Chesson, the secretary, of this Committee. The enlarged Society included such men as John Stuart Mill, John Bright, Richard Cobden, Lord Houghton, Samuel Lucas, William E. Forster, Peter A. Taylor, Goldwin Smith, Justin McCarthy, Thomas Hughes, James Stansfeld, Jr., Prof. J. E. Cairnes, Herbert Spencer, Prof. Francis W. Newman, Rev. Baptist Noel, and Rev. Newman Hall, most of whom rendered direct and important service; but the organizer and tireless spirit of the movement was Mr. Chesson, to whose wide acquaintance with public men, unfailing tact and address, thorough information, and extraordinary industry and executive ability, a very large measure of credit for its success was due. J. M. Mason. The most cordial and sympathetic relations existed between the Society and Minister Adams and Secretary Moran of the American Legation. Its first task was to evoke such expressions of popular sympathy with the American Government in all parts of the kingdom as would effectually deter the English Government from listening to Napoleon's schemes of intervention in favor of the South, and permitting the escape from English ports of other piratical cruisers like the Alabama, and to counteract the plottings of Mason and other rebel emissaries in London. To the organizations which were the legitimate and direct outgrowth of Mr. Garrison's antislavery missions to England1 were largely due the suc 1 The Union and Emancipation Society, formed in Manchester in 1863, with Thomas Bayley Potter, M. P., as its President, and Thomas H. Barker as its indefatigable Secretary, had also many of Mr. Garrison's friends and co-workers among its members, and did an immense work in encouraging and supporting the strong Union sympathies of the suffering Lancashire operatives. Mr. Potter's labors were as disinterested as they were ardent, and his munificent pecuniary support-his personal contributions aggregating £5000-enabled the Society, during the two years of its existence, to hold three hundred meetings and distribute nearly 600,000 cessful accomplishment of that work, and the enormous advantage which thereby accrued to the American cause.1 But without the Proclamation of Emancipation to conjure with, the task would have been infinitely greater, if not impossible. On the eve of its issue, George Thompson wrote to Mr. Garrison as follows: George Thompson to W. L. Garrison. Evening of Christmas Day, 1862. In the endeavor to arrive at a sound and unprejudiced judgment on the true state of public feeling in this country, certain facts should be kept in mind. On the The sentiments of our leading journals, of a portion of our public men, and of the aristocratic circles, at the present time, on the subject of slavery, are precisely similar to those which prevailed in the same quarters during the struggle for the emancipation of our own slaves. In this respect, England is neither better nor worse. Blackwood's Magazine and the Times of to-day are the same as they were in 1832 - the one the essence of Toryism, the other of Mammon. vital question of slavery, the heart of the people is sound. It would be impossible to carry a pro-slavery resolution in any unpacked assembly in the kingdom. I could obtain a vote of censure from the constituents of every man who has vindicated the pamphlets (Lib. 35: 46). He clearly recognized, and continually impressed upon the workingmen of Lancashire, the fact that the struggle raging in America was their own battle, and that on the maintenance of the great republic the progress of popular institutions all over the world largely depended (Lib. 33: 174). In Glasgow, the vigilance and energetic measures of Mr. Garrison's steadfast friends, Andrew Paton, William Smeal, and a few others, prevented the sailing from the Clyde of a Confederate war vessel that would have been more formidable than the Alabama. 1 "All the anti-slavery people, with here and there an exception, support the North; while the representatives of the old West India interests and the Conservative party generally remain true to their dishonorable traditions. It has been the fashion of the Times to taunt the Emancipation Society with being deserted by all the old, well-remembered names. This is true of Lord Brougham, but not of Dr. Lushington. Several of the Buxtons, the Gurneys, the Croppers, and the Hughes have avowed their sympathy with the Northern cause; and Mr. Henry Wilberforce, the younger son of the great philanthropist, is most earnest in his advocacy of sound views on the American question, and feels deeply the dishonor which some of his countrymen have put upon themselves by their pro-Southern sentiments" (F. W. Chesson to W. L. G., Feb. 18, 1865, Lib. 35: 46). . CHAP. II. 1862. MS., and Lib. 33: 11. CHAP. II. 1862. cause of the slaveholding rebels. The Times could not obtain an endorsement of its sentiments in any open meeting in the city of London or elsewhere, where an opportunity was afforded of speaking the truth. The mention of its name invariably calls forth "a groan." It should always be remembered, too, that our people are very imperfectly acquainted with the powers of your Federal Government. They know little or nothing of your Constitution-its compromises, guarantees, limitations, obligations, etc. They are consequently unable to appreciate the difficulties of your President, or to comprehend the caution, forbearance, and tenderness which he displays when speaking of slavery, slaveholders, slave States, etc. Then, again, our anti-American journals have been careful to conceal the truth. They have exposed every blunder; blazoned every pro-slavery act of general or officer in the army; have republished the harsh criticisms of Abolition speakers, and, above all, the repeated declarations of members of the Republican party, that the war was not for the abolition of slavery. None know better than you and I how much the Northern people themselves have done to furnish occasion to the adversary, and to justify the taunts and reproaches he has hurled against them. You can understand the difficulty of my position during the first year of the war, when so many ugly facts came out illustrating the pro-slavery tendencies of your public men. You know how many plagues it has needed to bring the North to hear the command,— which is not even yet obeyed,-" Let my people go!" You know how impossible it is at this moment to vindicate, as one would wish, the course of Mr. Lincoln. In no one of his utterances is there an assertion of a great principle no appeal to right or justice. In everything he does and says, affecting the slave, there is the alloy of expediency. The slave may be free - if it should be necessary," or "convenient," or "agreeable to his master." What we want to see him do is, to take his stand upon the doctrine of human equality, and man's inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. All else is paltering with conscience and with truth. . . . I firmly believe that Mr. Lincoln might, if he would, extirpate, root and branch, the accursed system; and that both God and man would support him in the deed. Oh, that he would do it and thereby secure the peace of his soul, the blessing of the slave, the applause of mankind, the verdict of posterity, and the approbation of Heaven! S CHAPTER III. THE PROCLAMATION.-1863. PECIAL preparations had been made in Boston to celebrate the promised edict of freedom on the first of January. The impressive watch-meetings held in the colored churches on New Year's eve were followed by meetings in Tremont Temple extending through the day and evening, and a grand jubilee concert in Music Hall was announced for the afternoon. It was confidently expected that the President's Proclamation would reach the city by noon, but as the day wore on without tidings of its issue, fears arose lest it might not, after all, be forthcoming, and the celebrations proceeded under a shadow of doubt and unrest. The Music Hall concert had been hastily but admirably arranged, and audience and musicians seemed alike animated by the occasion. Nothing could have been more uplifting than the fine orchestral and choral rendering of Mendelssohn's Hymn of Praise, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, and Händel's Hallelujah Chorus, alternated with the reading, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, of his "Boston Hymn," written for the occasion, and the singing of Dr. O. W. Holmes's "Army Hymn";1 but the painful uncertainty about the President's action marred the otherwise perfect enjoyment of the great audience until a gentleman announced from the floor that the Proclama 1 The verse in Mr. Emerson's poem which won loudest applause was that on compensation: "Pay ransom to the owner, And fill the bag to the brim. Who is the owner? The slave is owner, And ever was. Pay him!" CHAP. III. 1863. CHAP. III. 1863. tion had been issued and was coming over the wires. The storm of applause which followed, and relieved the pent-up feelings of the listeners, culminated in nine rousing cheers for Abraham Lincoln, followed by three more for Mr. Garrison, who occupied a seat in the gallery, and the concert then proceeded to its triumphant finish. Surpassing even this scene was that at the evening meeting at Tremont Temple, to which a copy of the Proclamation was unexpectedly brought, just prior to adjournment, and read with thrilling effect by Charles W. Slack. As he concluded amid a wild outburst of cheering, Frederick Douglass stepped forward and led the multitude in singing, "Blow ye the trumpet, blow!" with the chorus, never more fitting than then, "The year of jubilee has come!" Mr. Garrison unhappily missed this, as he had gone to Medford with Mr. Phillips, Mr. Emerson, and other friends to witness the unveiling of a marble bust of John Brown, at the residence of George L. Stearns; but in the Liberator of the following day (which was held back from the press that it might contain Lib. 33:3. the Proclamation), he uttered his "Glory, Hallelujah!" and hailed the "great historic event, sublime in its magnitude, momentous and beneficent in its far-reaching consequences, and eminently just and right alike to the oppressor and the oppressed."1 From that hour a dishonorable compromise became impossible. The Government was irrevocably committed to the emancipation policy, 1"Freedom's first champion in our fettered land! Nor politician nor base citizen Could gibbet thee, nor silence, nor withstand. The patriot Lincoln snatched with steady hand, 'Freedom henceforth throughout the land for all,'— And sealed the instrument with his own blood, Bowing his mighty strength for slavery's fall; Whilst thou, staunch friend of largest liberty, Survived, its ruin and our peace to see."-A. B. Alcott to W. L. G. |