[Extract]
Mr. Adams to Mr.
Seward.
No. 360.]
Legation of the United States,
London,
April 2, 1863.
Sir: * * * * * * * * * * * *
I transmit herewith resolutions which have come to hand since last week,
passed at meetings held in Woolwich, in Kent, and in Bingley, in
Yorkshire.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
Resolutions at Bingley, England.
To Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States
of America :
Mr. President: It gives us great pleasure
to inform you that at a public meeting held in the town of Bingley,
in the county of York, in the north of England, on the seventeenth
of March, in the year 1863, about six hundred persons attended the
meeting, when the following resolutions were carried
unanimously:
1. That it is the opinion of this meeting that President Lincoln and
the northern States are entitled to the generous sympathy and moral
support of England for their emancipation policy. Also, that the
present American rebellion originated in slavery, is continued for
its defence, and for its perpetuation; that slavery is in antagonism
to Christianity, to free institutions, a scourge, a blight, a curse
on the human race, and a stain on the civilization of the nineteenth
century.
2. That as the United States government has avowed an emancipation
policy, and this meeting abhors and detests slavery, deprecates the
efforts which have been made to induce her Majesty’s ministers to
transgress the policy of non-intervention
[Page 215]
on behalf of the slaveholders, who, by
rebellion and fighting for slavery, have brought incalculable misery
upon their own and this country.
3. That a copy of the foregoing resolutions be forwarded to his
excellency the Hon. C. F. Adams, with a request that he will remit
them to President Lincoln.
Signed on behalf of the meeting by the—
REV. E. S. HERON, Independent Minister and
Chairman of the Meeting.
[Untitled]
To the honorable Charles Francis
Adams, United States minister to England:
Honored Sir: You will greatly oblige the
Union and Anti-Slavery committee of Bingley by forwarding this
document to your respected President, A. Lincoln. Also, if you
should think it necessary to write to the committee, you can do so
by the following address: “Mr. John Bailey, clock and watch maker,
Chapel Lane, Bingley, York.”
We are yours, faithfully, for the committee,
Resolutions at Woolwich, England.
Charlton, S.
E., March 27,
1863.
Sir: It is my pleasurable duty to inform
you that at a full and public meeting convened by the townspeople of
Woolwich, and held in their largest assembly room, the Lecture Hall,
Nelson street, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted,
viz:
1. “That this meeting fully believing that freedom is the birthright
of every man, whatever may be his color, race, or creed; believing
that every man has a right to sell his labor in the best market he
can find for it, and to preserve his conjugal and parental relations
sacred and inviolate, desires to express its sympathy with the
anti-slavery movement in the United States, and its cordial approval
of the abolition and emancipatory policy of their present
government.
2. “That this meeting views with the utmost abhorrence the efforts
now being made by a section of the American people (unmindful of
their duties as freemen) to establish a
separate nation upon the basis of slavery, and express its
conviction that the government of the United States is doing its
duty in repressing their rebellion, and deserves the warmest
sympathy of every true lover of freedom.
3. “That this meeting expresses its concurrence in the principle of
non-intervention by the British government in this contest, and
earnestly desires that this principle may be strictly adhered to until the close of the war, and that
greater vigilance be exercised in enforcing the neutrality laws,
particularly as regards the fitting out of war vessels for the
confederates.”
I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant,
R. PADGHAM, Hon’y Sec’y to the Woolwich
Emancipation Society pro. tem.
Hon. Charles Francis Adams,
United States Minister in London.
