Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the First Session Thirty-eighth Congress, Part I
Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward.
Sir: I have received another address to the President of the United States, together with a copy of resolutions adopted at a public meeting held at Sheffield on the 31st ultimo, which I have the honor to transmit herewith.
I find the following circular in the newspapers of yesterday morning. It is not without significance just at this crisis.
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“Dear Sir: We respectfully invite your co-operation in the formation of a branch emancipation society in this city, to second the efforts of the association in London, whose address we enclose you.
“The committee of that society have offered to send a deputation to address public meetings throughout the manufacturing districts, provided the local arrangements for such meetings be undertaken by a branch organization, such as the one to which we ask your adhesion.
“Recent events have unmistakably demonstrated that, amongst working-men especially, true views on the American question generally prevail, and that there is in Lancashire a much stronger sympathy for the anti-slavery administration of the north than was anticipated.
“The visit of a deputation from the London Emancipation Society would not only give a valuable opportunity for the expression of these opinions. but would cause the important issue of freedom vs. slavery, involved in the American war, to be better understood.
“At the close of the labors of the London deputation, it is proposed to hold an influential meeting in Manchester, at which some of the leading liberal members of Parliament and representative politicians of Lancashire are expected to attend.
“As it is of importance that the work in hand should be commenced at once, we venture to hope for an early and favorable reply.
“We are, dear sir, yours very truly,
“THOMAS B. POTTER, Chairman.
“Ed. Owen Greening, Hon. Sec.”
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
[Enclosures.]
1. Address to President, Sheffield, December 31, 1862.
2. Resolutions of same meeting.
3. Resolutions of Sheffield meeting, January 10, 1863.
4. Copy of Mr. Clegg to Mr. Adams, January 15, 1863.
No. 2.
At a public meeting of the inhabitants of Sheffield, in the county of York held on Wednesday, the 31st December, 1862, Alderman George Lemon Saunders, esq., in the chair, it was proposed by Mr. Councillor Ironside, seconded by Mr. Councillor Woodcock, and—
“Resolved, That civil war in any country is an unmitigated evil, more especially in America, whose career of prosperity and liberty has been unprecedented; and as the institution of slavery has been the most prominent and influential cause of the war, this meeting is of opinion that the present is a favorable crisis for slavery to be terminated, and thus not only end the war, but give a promising [Page 61] and hopeful prospect to the future of peace and prosperity both to America and England.”
Proposed by Mr. Councillor Skelton, seconded by Mr. William J. Clegg, and—
“Resolved, That, in the opinion of this meeting, it is the duty of England, as the recognized enemy of slavery, to give her sympathy and moral influence to the northern States, to disapprove of the origin and continuance of the slaveowners’ rebellion, and by all peaceable means to try to cement a closer and stronger union between this country and the people and government of America.”
It was further unanimously resolved that the address now read be signed by the chairman, on behalf of the meeting, and forwarded through the proper authorities to his excellency the President of the United States.
No. 3.
At a meeting held in the Temperance Hall, Townhead street, in Sheffield, in England, on the evening of Friday, January 10, 1863, (attended by upwards of one thousand five hundred persons, the greater proportion of whom consisted of workingmen now suffering from the depression of trade consequent on the slaveowners’ rebellion against the United States government,) the Rev. Francis Bishop in the chair.
After an interesting address from Mr. W. A. Jackson, the late coachman and slave of Mr. Jefferson Davis, it was proposed by Mr. W. J. Clegg, seconded by the Rev. J. Pattinson, and enthusiastically and unanimously—
Resolved, That this meeting being convinced that slavery is the cause of the tremendous struggle now going on in the American States, and that the object of the leaders of the rebellion is the perpetuation of the unchristian and inhuman system of chattel slavery, earnestly prays that the rebellion may be crushed, and its wicked object defeated, and that the federal government may be strengthened to pursue its emancipation policy till not a slave be left on the American soil.
That a copy of the last resolution be sent to his excellency the Hon. C. F. Adams, the American ambassador to the court of St. James, with a request to him to have the kindness to forward it to the President of the United States.
Mr. Clegg to the President of the United States.
Your Excellency: We, the inhabitants of the town of Sheffield, in the county of York, England, in public meeting assembled, ask permission to express towards your excellency, and the free and noble country over which you have been elected to preside, the sentiments of sincere and fraternal sympathy by which we are animated.
We have witnessed the career of the great republic of the United States under its wise and beneficent Constitution with feelings of profound admiration, and with a lively hope that the union of your States would not only be prosperous but permanent. In all your efforts to preserve and extend the blessings of national liberty we have heartily wished you success. We have been accustomed [Page 62] to look to your free and glorious country as to a beacon for the peoples and nations of the world—a country in which the sons of labor were honored, and all whose institutions were the result of the exercise of the spontaneous will of enlightened and patriotic citizens. We have seen, however, with unfeigned sorrow, that slavery, always a curse to the nation by which it is tolerated, has exerted its pestilential influence, has darkened for a time your political atmosphere, and has at length produced disorder, rebellion, and civil war. In the midst of the conflict, caused by the existence of this evil, we have witnessed with growing satisfaction the courage, devotion, and perseverance in the cause of freedom of the great majority of the States of your union, their attachment to your Constitution, their fidelity to the lofty and humane principles on which your republic was founded, and their determination to effect the extirpation of slavery, if necessary, to preserve the integrity of your vast and powerful empire. In this great struggle you have had from the beginning, and have still more at the present time, our earnest sympathy, and we pray that its issue may be not only the reintegration of your union, but the disenthralment of the entire colored population throughout your widely-extended land; thus will you prove yourselves not merely patriots, but benefactors of the human race. The recent acts of your government and Congress have called forth our warmest applause; you have purged your national District from the crime and reproach of slavery; you have recognized the negro republics of Hayti and Liberia; you have forever excluded slavery from your territories; you have entered into treaty engagements with England for the suppression of the African slave trade; you declared freedom to the slaves of rebel masters, and you have initiated a scheme of compensated emancipation in all other cases; for these things we greatly honor you, and fervently wish you God speed in the endeavor to consummate the great and good work of freedom and union. We deeply regret that any of our countrymen should have displayed a feeling of sympathy with those in America who are fighting to establish an oligarchical government on the basis of the enslavement of a weak and defenceless race, and who seek to make slavery the chief corner stone of a new national edifice. Accept our assurance that such degenerate Englishmen do not represent the great body of the British people; some of our aristocratic and mercantile classes may wish success to treason and slavery, but the masses of England are with the loyal and the true amongst your citizens.
We beg your excellency to receive the expression of our heartfelt desire that the war which now desolates your beloved country may soon terminate, and that returning peace may witness the reconstruction of your union upon the enduring basis of equal and universal liberty.
Signed on behalf of the meeting,
His Excellency Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, &c.