“karl Blind to “ F. W. Chesson, December 16, 1864

Address to President Lincoln

DEPUTATION TO THE AMERICAN MINISTER.

A numerous and influential deputation from the Emancipation Society waited upon the Hon. C. F. Adams, the American minister, yesterday afternoon, at his residence in Portland Place, to present to his excellency, for transmission to the United States, an address congratulating President Lincoln on his re-election. The deputation consisted of the following gentlemen: Mr. William Evans, (chairman of the society,) Sir Charles Lyell, Bart., Mr. P. A. Taylor, M.P., Mr. Thomas Hughes, (of Lincoln’s inn, ) Mr. S. Lucas, Mr. J. M. Ludlow, Professor F. W. Newman, the Rev. Dr. Brock, the Hon. and Rev. Baptist W. Noel, M.A., Mr. B. Scott, chamberlain of London, M. Victor Schoelcher, (formerly under minister of marine in the French provisional government,) Mr. James M’Henry, Mr. Cunningham Borthwick, the Revs. J. W. Massie, D.D., J. Burns, D.D., J. W. Bayley, D.D., J. S. Jones, incumbent of Christ church, Liverpool, W. D. Corkren, (Brentford,) J. C. Gallaway, M.A., T. Jones, (Blackheath,) and Dawson Burns, Dr. Frederick Tomkins, (Temple,) Mr. W. T. Malleson, treasurer, and Mr. F. W. Chesson, hon. secretary of the society, Mr. H. J. Slack, F.G.S., Alderman Towle, (Oxford,) Mr. J. Cunnington, (Brentford,) and Messrs. J. A. Nicholay, John Gorrie, Mason Jones, C. H. Elt, W. Johnson, (Cambridge,) R. Hill, (Bedford,) George Newman, T. Cooke, (Leicester,) G. J. Holyoake, F. M. Edge, R. Hannah, E. Wainewright, G. Doinbusch, R. W. Biggs, (Devizes,) John Moore, W. Farmer, J. A. Horner, John Frost, F. Wright, W. E. Dawes, T. Hattersly, and many others.

Mr. William Evans, addressing Mr. Adams, said :

Sir: I have the honor, as chairman of the Emancipation Society, to request you to do us the favor of transmitting to President Lincoln an address which has been unanimously agreed to by the society, congratulating him on his election a second time as President of the United States. Perhaps it would not be proper for us, ordinarily, to interfere in a matter which has reference to the internal affairs of the United States, but there is a significance in Mr. Lincoln’s election which takes it out of the category of ordinary events. You are all aware that we have taken a zealous, active, and important part in the emancipation of the negro. By example, by enormous sacrifices, by diplomacy, and by every other means in our power, we have endeavored to rouse the sentiment of the world to the horrors of slavery. We believe that the example of this country has been the means of introducing, in your own countrymen what we consider a sound and wise view of this question, and has awakened the conscience of the north on this subject. The awakened feelings of the north on the subject has driven the slaveholders to rebellion, and that is really the whole cause of the war. (Hear, hear.) The election of Mr. Lincoln under such circumstances we regard as an indorsement by the people of the United States of that policy which we conceive to be so important. We have seen with the greatest satisfaction the re-election of Mr. Lincoln; we feel that it is a great step in the right direction. We sympathize deeply with the sufferings of the people of the United States. They are undergoing great trials which we believe to be in the world’s cause; but we feel confident that success will crown all their efforts. We have much pleasure in asking that this address may be transmitted through you, than whom a better friend to the two countries does not exist.(Cheers.)

Mr. F. W. Chesson, the honorable secretary, then read the following address adopted by the Emancipation Society for presentation to Mr. Lincoln :

“To his excellency Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America.

“Sir: We, the president and members of the Emancipation Society, with profound respect for your person and for your office, congratulate you upon your re-election as President of the United States of America.

“Your first election marked you out as the freely chosen leader of the people for the express and avowed purpose of resisting the encroachments of the slave power, and we rejoice that, after four years’ experience, your countrymen have again determined that you shall act as their Chief Magistrate for another term of office, in order that the hateful institution of slavery may be entirely abolished.

“We agree with those who elected you in their deductions that ‘slavery was the cause of the rebellion’ which it is your duty to quell; that it ‘must be hostile to the principles of republican government;’ and that both ‘justice and national safety demand its extirpation;’ and we at the same time feel confident that whilst vigorously conducting the remaining operations of the war, so as to accomplish this high purpose, your administration will be guided, as it has hitherto been, by an earnest desire to mitigate the sufferings inseparable from a condition of strife. We have noticed with peculiar satisfaction the sanction and aid given by your government to the voluntary efforts of the Sanitary Commission, whose agents have not confined their beneficent action to their own party in the struggle, but have bestowed the greatest care and attention upon the sick and wounded rebels who have fallen into your hands.

“We deplore the loss of valuable life in the protracted conflict which the slaveholders have forced upon your country; but it is an honor to you and to your fellow-citizens that no prisoners have been put to death for the mere fact of being taken in arms against your government, and we have faith that you will continue to show all possible mercy and forbearance to the enemies of your republic, and thus leave to your contemporaries and to posterity the grateful task of placing you moderation in noble contrast with the deplorable and sanguinary ferocity exhibited by European despots towards those whom their cruelty has driven to revolt.

“That your exertions may shorten the duration of the war, and that your country, thoroughly purged and purified from the crime and curse of slavery, and with every citizen, without regard to race or color, standing in perfect equality before the law, may enjoy internal happiness, and exert a useful and wide-spread influence for the advancement of liberty and the general good of mankind, is the wish and prayer of your sincere friends.

“WILLIAM EVANS, Chairman.

“P. A. TAYLOR,

“W. T. MALLESON, Treasurers.

“F. W. CHESSON, Hon. Secretary.

“London, December, 1864.”

Mr. P. A. Taylor, M. P., the treasurer of the society, then said: I am glad to be allowed to add one word in addition to the address to President Lincoln, and to the observations of the chairman. We are certainly here to-day under somewhat exceptional circumstances. Under ordinary circumstances, if we took the course of presenting such an address to the President we might be open to the criticism of taking an unusual if not an impertinent step; and we might almost as well expect to hear the merchants of New York meeting and waiting upon Lord Lyons to congratulate him upon the success or failure of one of our great parties— of Lord Derby or Lord Palmerston. But we take it that these are no ordinary circumstances, and that it is no ordinary crisis through which America has been passing. A struggle of so tremendous a nature that modern history does not afford its parallel cannot be carried on without causing a wave of sadness and distress all over the world. We think we are in harmony with large numbers of our own countrymen, and with the best and truest of your countrymen, in rejoicing over the re-election of President Lincoln. We think we see in that reelection, first, a forecast of the entire reconstitution of the great republic; secondly, the promotion of the abolition of that system of slavery which has been the spot of disgrace upon your countrymen; and, thirdly,and as arising out of these two, we think we see in the future relations of England and America, based as those relations will be on ties of mutual esteem and respect, and on the natural sympathies of two nations looking back to a common origin, and animated by common aspirations, a state of things which will tend towards the realization of peace, progress, and civilization.(Cheers.)

The Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel said: I am very glad to express the feeling of great gratification with which I, in common with the gentlemen here, heard of the re-election of Mr. Lincoln as a tribute from the American nation to his wisdom, to his patriotism, to his honesty, and to his firmness. (Cheers.) It also, I think, expressed their thorough conviction that, while they were putting into his hands the powers that were necessary to bring the great rebellion to a close, they were quite confident that their domestic liberties were safe in his hands. (Hear, hear.) Their choice seems to me to be as creditable to the intelligence of the nation as it was to his virtue. It must surely exercise a powerful influence upon the counsels of the south, because the nation has taught those who are in rebellion—the leaders of that rebellion—that it is as firm and resolute to maintain its own rights as they are ardent to secure the triumph of their lawlessness. That being the case, the leaders of the rebellion—especially if the magnanimous, generous, and Christian-like proposal of General Butler to include them in an amnesty from which they would have excluded him, were adopted—would have no further grounds to sustain this struggle except the resolute determination to commit two crimes—the crime of causeless rebellion and the crime of cruel slaveholding. I cannot but hope that the leaders themselves, when they see the equal firmness and generosity of the north, may yield to wise feelings; and, at any rate, it is satisfactory to observe repeated and growing evidence that the non-slaveholding population of the south is not so reluctant to return to the Union, where they may enjoy liberty, fraternity, and equality, under the folds, of the old flag. (Hear, hear.) Whatever may be the case in the south, it appears to us here that, by the result of that election, the nation has expressed its determination, unmoved by any advice from any quarter, by the weight of taxation and debt, by the miseries and horrors which war may engender, by any treason at home, or by any temporary military reverse, not to abandon their resolution to extinguish the rebellion—the only source by which, as it seems to many others, the cruelties of the slaveholding system can be brought to an end, and your nation seoure a permanent and honorable peace to itself.(Cheers.)

Sir Charles Lyell, Bart. I did not expect to be called upon to make any remark; but I may say that having visited the United States several times, I feel thoroughly convinced that this is a struggle betweed a higher and a lower civilization. (Cheers.) I have felt intense interest in the contest, and, although I have been greatly surprised at the amount of resistance which the south has been able to show, I have never felt a doubt of the issue. Much as I deplore the suffering, the loss of life, and the bloodshed caused by the war, I feel satisfied that had the north been able more readily and immediately to put down that rebellion, we should not have attained that result which this society so earnestly desires—the emancipation of the negroes in the south. I believe that result would not have been so effectively brought about as it will be in consequence of the great resistance which the south has been able to make.(Cheers.)

Rev. Dr. Massie next spoke and said he had mcuh pleasure in living expression to a sentiment which had grown in his mind since his visit to America as the deputation of the anti-slavery conference, which adopted and sent an address to the ministers of all denominations in the United States. That sentiment was, that the English and Americans were one people though two nations. Their sympathies, their literature, their religion, and most of their laws have the same origin and the same tendency, and their union as one people, though two nations, would be of advantage to liberty not only in their own countries but all over the world. (Hear, hear. ) He was sorry to say that from certain very ostentatious” displays of literary advocacy and the sympathy which had been given to the south, there was a danger of an unkindly feeling being engendered in the minds of their friends across the Atlantic; but those parties and the people who followed them did not represent the middle and working classes, the backbone and sinew of the nation. (Hear, hear.) He had lately visited the leading towns in the north of England and in Scotland as a deputation from the Freedmen’s Aid Society, and he had found in all the meetings which he had held that the sympathies of the people were unanimously with the north. They had hailed the re-election of Mr. Lincoln with cordial, unanimous, and indeed enthusiastic feelings as a great blessing, not only to America, but to the world.(Hear, hear.)

Mr. Thomas Hughes. I am delighted to take this opportunity, or any other, of testifying my deep and intense sympathy with the cause of law, of freedom, and of righteousness, which I believe to be the cause of the north. I have also great pleasure in taking this and any other occasion of testifying my hearty admiration of the noble simplicity and grand steadfastness of purpose of President Lincoln.

Rev. Dr. Brock said that the moral spectacle presented by the election of Mr. Lincoln would be for admiration throughout all generations. When they recollected the prognostications that he would certainly be beaten—when they saw the efforts that were made to defeat him—his triumph was significant and complete; and when they recollected that everything was done in a peaceful and constitutional manner, and that upon Mr. Lincoln’s election there did not rest a blot such as there did upon some elections with which they were familiar —(hear, hear)—they had reason to thank God and take courage.(Hear, hear.)

Dr. Frederick Tomkins said he had accompanied Dr. Massie as the deputation of the Freedmen’s Aid Society, and he could bear out his statement as to the universal sympathy of the working classes in the places they had visited with the cause of the north and abolition.

Rev. Mr. Jones, who represented the Liverpool Emancipation Society, said that that society had to fight one of the hardest battles and moral campaigns in which they had ever been engaged in this country, and the result of which he ventured to say was highly satisfactory. He believed that nowhere more than in Liverpool would the election of Mr. Lincoln have a marvellous effect. He believed that Liverpool society was rapidly developing into two classes—those who had always had a latent sympathy with slavery, and with whom morally they had nothing to do; and those who had always had a latent sympathy with freedom, of whom, the great majority, if not the whole, will soon be convinced that the cause of freedom was identified with the cause of union. (Cheers.) Mr. Lincoln’s re-election had exercised a powerful effect on the public mind, and in the future relations of Liverpool and the United States it would be found that nowhere more than there was the conviction rooted that the cause of freedom and cause of union were one.

Mr. Mason Jones said he could confirm the observations of preceding speakers as to the feelings of the working classes on this question. He had addressed meetings in Manchester, Liverpool, and other towns, and he had found without exception that the working classes were in favor of the north. He regretted to say, however, that while the hearts were generally on the side of the north, the pockets were generally on the side of the south; the men with the fustian jackets were in favor of liberty, and those with black coats were generally in favor of slavery. (A laugh.) He hoped that in the further construction of the Union there would be no compromise with the slave power; that the conservative party in the north would not be allowed to dictate to Mr. Lincoln; that slavery would not only be abolished, but that the negro would be invested with full political freedom; that there would be through-out the Union one indivisible liberty for all, of whatever race and color.

Dr. Burns wished to point out that the President had been elected under different circumstances this time to what he was formerly. Then he was elected to be Chief Magistrate to both north and south, but this time he was not tied by political bonds to act otherwise than as his noble head and his large heart might direct him.

Mr. J. A. Nicholay, as one largely familiar with the opinions of large masses of the working classes, wished to add his testimony to their universal feeling in favor of the cause of the Union and emancipation. He expressed his belief that the expression of public feeling which was inaugurated by the great Exeter Hall meeting, and followed by the St. James’s Hall and other meetings, had had a very powerful effect, and had preserved the country from serious complications.

His excellency Mr. Adams made the following reply:

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: I receive the address which you are pleased to commit to my care with great satisfaction. Coming, as it does, from an association of such respectability in this kingdom, it cannot fail to be regarded in America as a strong proof of the friendly interest taken by a considerable portion of the English people in the welfare of the United States whilst passing through their great perils. This will do great good; for I cannot disguise from myself or from you the painful fact that an opposite disposition has been manifested here in very influential circles, and that the knowledge of this has given rise to a general impression among my countrymen that the whole British nation really desires the disruption and consequent downfall of the power of the United States. Hence has sprung up a corresponding degree of ill-will which bids fair, if not counteracted, only to increase with time. If such passions be permitted a full indulgence between two nations, it needs little sagacity to foretell that in the long run the end is war. Very fortunately for us all in the present case, the demonstrations already made by yourselves, and many other associations whose friendly communications from various portions of the kingdom I am now continually receiving for transmission to America, will enable those who value the blessings of peace and international amity to prove that, whatever may be the hostility of some, it is by no means shared by the greater number of the British people, and ought not to be presumed to be a national impression. (Cheers.) Permit me, gentlemen, further to observe that the election to which you refer in your address has drawn out as full and general an expression of the opinion of the whole people of the region in which it has taken place as has ever been the case in the most peaceful times. Never was a canvass more perfectly free, nor more latitude taken in the discussion of public questions and of the characters of public men. Under these circumstances it is needless to point to you how mistaken have been the notions of some that any essential variation has taken place in the general operation of free institutions in all that portion of the United States (constituting much the greatest part) not immediately the theatre of the war, [Cheers.] I would further beg leave to call your attention to two points which the history of the late election appears clearly to establish. The first is the practical impossibility of making any effective separation of the personal and political interests of the two sections of America now involved in this deplorable struggle. This is indubitably shown by the fact, that at no time in our history has so direct and persistent an effort at interference to control the event of the election of President been made by the people of the insurgent States as upon this last occasion, whilst they profess—and doubtless honestly—their desire to separate themselves wholly from it. The notorious projects devised by some of their agents at Niagara Falls in the autumn, followed as they were by the nomination at Chicago of a candidate for the presidency committed to a policy dictated by that portion of the people well known to be most in sympathy, if not in absolute communication with them, furnish evidence enough of this truth, if the same were not confirmed by the regrets unequivocally expressed since by certain prominent leaders in the southern States, at the failure of their expectations from that nomination. This shows that whatever might be the sincerity with which either portion of the country might act in the supposition that it should consent to pledge itself to a complete separation, the fact that the political interest of the two are inextricably intertwined will, under every possible circumstance, render all such promises in practice futile and void. The second point to which I would advert is naturally suggested by the first. It is this—that the only real question of difference between the two parties in the election was that which directly involved the interests of the slaveholding insurgents much more than those of the loyal States. (Cheers. ) The nomination at Chicago rested on an implied, if not an express, engagement to protect domestic slavery so far as not to make it a question in any plan of pacification and restoration of the Union. (Hear, hear. ) The policy of the government, on the other hand, was well understood to be a restoration of the Union as a primary object, but the settlement of the slave question as a necessary preliminary to a durable re-establishment of peace. If this be a correct statement of the issue, it can be no cause of surprise to find the insurgents straining every nerve to bring about a result favorable to their interests. It was then the fate of slavery that made. the turning point in the great decision to be made by the people of the United States on this occasion. If this be so, the result is one in which we may be permitted all to rejoice in common. It has continued a government which had already done much towards’ emancipation in the progress of the war, and which might be depended upon to go on doing more, in proportion as matters should approach more nearly the great end of its perfect work. (Hear, hear.) I will conclude, then, with the expression of a hope that without regard to national distinction all good men may have cause to rejoice in the termination of this melancholy struggle, if that end be at once the confirmation of a free government in America, and the eradication of the most formidable evil with which its progress has been heretofore cursed. (Loud cheers.)

Three cheers were then given for Mr. Lincoln, and the deputation withdrew.

The following letter has been received from Mr. Karl Blind:

London, December 15.

“Dear Sir: Though unable to take part in the presentation to which your honoring letter invites me, I am with all my sympathies on the side of the Union and emancipation cause.

“Had the secret favorers of the south carried the election, the onward course of the republican armies would have been checked by treacherous intrigue; and the result would probably have been a renewed compromise with principles which, from their very nature, ought forever to be placed out of the pale of humanity.

“The sound sense and energetic will of the American people have nipped the intrigue in the bud. All true freemen throughout Europe rejoice that free government, free popular education, free labor, have carried the day. The representatives of millions of Germans in the United States have voted in this sense. A hundred thousand Germans have fought for the same cause on the transatlantic battle-fields. Our native country at this moment rings with joy at the triumph of civilization and liberty over barbarism and aristocratic assumption. It trusts that the victory of the American republic will prove an auspicious event for the emancipation of European nations.

“Let us hope that the powerful decision of November 8 will imbue the American leaders with a resolution not to cease in their exertions until the very base of southern society be changed by free colonization, and “State rights,” that last line of defence of the oligarchs, be replaced by the superior rights of humanity.

“Yours, faithfully,