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, since the date of my last, despatches from the department numbered from 467 to 472, both inclusive.
In relation to the subject referred to in your No. 467, of the 3d of February, I have to report that I have as yet made no change from the course marked out in my despatch (No. 327) of the 19th instant, as I prefer to wait for the answer to the great meeting at Exeter Hall on the 29th of last month.
In the mean time further manifestations of the popular feeling are coming to hand. I have the honor to transmit another address from Aberdane, in South Wales, together with resolutions passed at meetings held at Oldham and at Rawtenstall, in Lancashire, Luddenden Foot, Yorkshire, Paisley and Edinburgh, in Scotland, and Carlisle, in Cumberland, together with copies of newspapers containing full reports of the proceedings at several of these places.
I have appointed to-morrow, Friday, at 3 o’clock, as the time to receive a deputation from Birmingham, charged with an address signed by many thousand names, which, should it come in season for the bag, you will find accompanying the papers already mentioned.
With respect to the enclosures accompanying my No. 298, the absence of which you note in your No. 468, of the 3d of February, I find, on inquiry of Mr. Moran, my secretary, that they had been addressed to the President. Hence I infer that they must have taken their destination to him before they were identified at the department.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
[Enclosures and accompanying documents.]
1. Resolutions from second meeting at Aberdane, February 5, 1863.
2. Resolutions from second meeting at Oldham, February 18, 1863.
3. Resolutions from second meeting at Rawtenstall, February 18, 1863.
4. Resolutions from second meeting at Luddenden Foot, February 19, 1863.
5. Resolutions from second meeting at Paisley, Scotland, February 16, 1863.
6. Resolutions from second meeting at Edinburgh, February 19, 1863.
7. Resolutions from meeting at Carlisle, February 19, 1863.
8. Weekly Herald, February 21, 1863.
9. Burg. Times, Lancashire, February 21, 1863.
10. Carlisle Examiner, February 21, 1863.
11. Manchester Examiner and Times, February 25, 1863.
12. Address to President of 13,500 inhabitants of Birmingham.
13. Resolutions passed at Menthy Tedfil, February 2, 1863.
14. Address to President from same.
15. Memorandum with Birmingham address.
Resolutions at Edinburgh.
First. Resolution moved by Mr. George Lorimer, and seconded by Mr. Reid:
“That regarding American slavery in all its phases with the deepest abhorrence as a most iniquitous and indefensible system, this meeting hereby declares it has no sympathy with any slaveholding interest, either at home or abroad.”
Second. Resolution moved by Mr. David Lewis, and seconded by Mr. Sommerville:
“That remembering the anti-slavery opinions avowed by President Lincoln during his election contest, the manifest tendency of his present emancipation policy, his onerous, difficult, and critical position as President of the United States, this meeting accords to him its tribute of approbation, in the hope and belief that he will take advantage of every circumstance which may arise to carry out his expressed personal wish that freedom may be given to every slave throughout the entire Union.”
Third. Resolution moved by Mr. Thomas Menzies, and seconded by Mr. A. Keddie:
“That this meeting deprecates the idea that this country should ever be on terms of intimate alliance with the slaveholding confederacy of America, as was confidently anticipated by Mr. Mason, agent from the confederate administration at the late banquet of the lord mayor of London; and in the name of the working classes of Edinburgh protest against the statement of Mr. Mason, there made, that he had been received with honor and welcome by all classes of the British people.”
Fourth. Resolution moved by Mr. George C. Stewart, and seconded by Mr. Ker:
“That copies of these resolutions, subscribed by the chairman on behalf of the meeting, be transmitted to Earl Russell, and also to the American ambassador in London, to be forwarded by him to the President of the United States.”
Resolutions at Luddenden Foot.
At a crowded meeting of operatives and others in the school-room, Congregational church, Luddenden Foot, Halifax, under the pastorate of the Rev. Aikin Hall, after a lecture by the Rev. Newman Hall, on Thursday, February 19, 1863, it was proposed by Jonathan Monley and seconded by Nathan Culpan, and carried unanimously and with great enthusiasm—
That this meeting expresses their abhorrence of slavery; their hope that no empire expressly founded on slavery as its corner-stone will ever be recognized by this country; their cordial sympathy with President Lincoln and the friends of emancipation in America; and their willingness to continue to suffer privations arising from the short supply of cotton, rather than have again to rely on slave-grown produce.
Signed on behalf of the meeting.
[Memorandum accompanying the address from the inhabitants of Birmingham.]
The committee that waited on Mr. Adams consisted of Mr. Charles Sturge, mayor of Birmingham; Mr. Geo. Edmonds, clerk of the peace; Mr. Wm. Morgan, Mr. J. A. Partridge, and Mr. James Taylor, jr.
The address was signed by 13,500 persons, twenty-eight of them being members of the town council, and of these twenty-eight, eleven are aldermen and seven have filled the office of mayor. These facts were furnished by Mr. John Bright, M. P., who came with the delegation.
Address from Aberdane.
To the honorable Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States:
Honorable Sir: The following resolution was unanimously and most enthusiastically carried at a very large and crowded public meeting held on the 5th instant at Ebenezer Independent Chapel, Aberdane, South Wales, presided over by the Rev. W. Edwards, minister of the place, with a request that it be signed by the chairman on the behalf of the meeting, and forwarded to your honor through your agent in London:
Resolved, That this meeting heartily unite in the general joy and thanksgiving which has been called forth by the proclamation issued by the President of the United States on the 1st of January, 1863, by which more than three millions of slaves in the United States were declared thenceforward and forever free; and are of opinion that the promulgation of that decree, founded not less on justice than on the undeniable right of the slaves, entitles Mr. Lincoln to the sympathy, encouragement, and moral support of all the friends of freedom throughout the world; and they further wish to express their admiration of the wisdom and the courage which characterizes his administration since he has been conducted to the presidential office, and their prayer is for the preservation of the Union and total emancipation of the slaves, which, alone, in their opinion, is the political salvation of the United States.
Signed on behalf of the meeting by
[Untitled]
To the honorable C. F. Adams, ambassador of the United States:
Sir: Allow me to intrust the above resolution of sympathy with the President of the United States to your care, and beg of you to forward the same to his honor. There is a very great and general sympathy in the principality of Wales with the United States in their present difficulty; and, indeed, a very great rejoicing at the President’s proclamation to emancipate the slaves. There may be here and there in Wales some few, very few indeed, sympathizers with the south, but a national sympathy with the north.
Your honor’s most humble servant, &c.,
Resolutions at Oldham, County of Lancaster, England.
To the honorable Charles Francis Adams, American ambassador, London:
1st resolution, That this meeting is of opinion that the great aim and object of the leaders of the southern rebellion is to perpetuate and extend the curse of slavery, and thereby retard the course of human progress; while the Lincoln government, as by the prohibition of slavery in the Territories, the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, the recognition of the rights of citizenship of the black man, and, more than all, by the emancipation proclamation, show to the world that its object is to sustain the cause of freedom and free labor. Therefore,
Resolved, That our sympathies are due, and are hereby freely given, to President Lincoln and his government in their efforts to suppress this wicked and unjustifiable rebellion.
2d resolution, That this meeting desires to express its grateful appreciation of the noble conduct of the people of the United States, who, whilst themselves suffering the evils resulting from the terrible ordeal through which their country is passing, have generously manifested their sympathy with our distress by sending the noble ship the George Griswold freighted with a full cargo of food for free distribution amongst our suffering population, thus showing that the heart of the people of both countries is still moved by sympathy and mutual good will.
Resolved, That a copy of the foregoing resolutions be transmitted to the American ambassador at London.
Signed on behalf of the chairman,
Resolution at Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales.
Negro emancipation.
At a large and influential meeting, held at the Tabernacle chapel, Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, on the above subject, on Monday, the 2d day of February, [Page 145] 1863, the following resolution was proposed by the Rev. Ginesyn Jones, and seconded by Mr. Henry Thomas, and carried unanimously:
“That this meeting, being convinced that slavery is the cause of the tremendous struggle now going on in the American States, and being further convinced that the object of the southern States is to found a government to perpetuate, strengthen, and extend chattel slavery within their territory, earnestly prays that such object may be frustrated, and that the emancipation policy of the President may be carried out till not a slave be left on the American soil, and that a copy of this resolution be sent to his excellency the President of the United States.”
Address at Merthyr Tydfil.
Negro emancipation.
[From a public meeting held at Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorganshire, South Wales]
To his excellency Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States:
Sir: It is in no corporate capacity, but simply as an assembly of Englishmen, that we venture to address to you a few words of sympathy and fraternal regard. We deeply deplore the calamity which has fallen upon your country, and earnestly desire to see a stop put to the fearful struggle now raging in America, sincerely hoping that the system of slavery, which has been the chief cause of the war, may be buried with it.
We are bound to confess that there has ever been a misgiving in our minds when we remember that there was an inconsistency or incongruity between your avowed principle of liberty and the existence among you of the worst form of human despotism, and that we have ever believed that such dreadful injustice in the course of Providence would be avenged.
We would assure you of our full appreciation of the heavy burden of responsibility now resting upon you, and of our sympathy with you in all measures which have for their object the extinction of slavery, and rejoice to believe that, in spite of all that has been said or written, there exists between the United States and Great Britain a sound basis of cordial amity which will be cemented and extended by the success of those measures in erasing this injurious blot from your Constitution.
Praying that you may be carried through the fiery trial to which you are subjected, and that you may be spared to reap the harvest of freedom and peace, we trust that, in the triumph of right and justice, your sorrowing widows and bereaved mothers and sisters may find an alleviation of their woes.
Be assured, also, that we deeply deplore any apparent complicity with the southern States in the clandestine equipment of war ships for their use in our waters, and that we fully appreciate the considerate feeling of the north, evinced by the shipment of gratuitous supplies for our distressed operatives.
We are, with much respect, yours, &c.,
Resolutions from Paisley, Scotland.
To his excellency Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States:
Sir: At a public meeting of the inhabitants of Paisley, Scotland, upon the sixteenth day of February, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, in the United Presbyterian church, Abbey Close, David Campbell, esq., chief magistrate of the town, in the chair, the following resolutions were adopted:
I. Moved by the Rev. Mr. Hutton, and seconded by William Colquhoun, esq.: “That the southern States having, by their revolt against the federal government, kindled the flames of civil war without any cause to justify revolution, and having organized themselves into a confederacy based on the denial of human rights to the colored race and the determination to perpetuate and extend the system of slavery, this meeting desires to express its abhorrence of a rebellion which thus violates the first principles of political justice and institutions framed in defiance of the moral sense of mankind and the clearest dictates of the Christian faith.”
II. Moved by Mr. Robert Cochrane, and seconded by Bailie Gillespie: “That, deprecating the policy of compromise with slavery, and presuming to urge the duty of aiming at its complete eradication from the political system of the States, this meeting rejoices to recognize, in the election of President Lincoln and in the principal fruits of his administration, the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia; its prohibition in the Territories; the recognition of the republics of Hayti and Liberia; the concession of the right of search for the suppression of the slave trade; the scheme of compensated emancipation; the proclamation which inaugurated the new year; as well as the act for substituting free for slave labor, adopted in the State of Missouri; successive triumphs of anti-slavery sentiments in the United States, and the prospect of accelerated liberation to the enslaved; and its desire to express cordial approval of all wise measures tending to promote the final abolition of slavery, and the assurance of heartfelt sympathy with the government and people of the Union in their honorable struggle to prevent the establishment of, on their soil, that most portentous of despotisms—an irresponsible and retrograde slave power.”
III. Moved by the Rev. William Park, and seconded by ex-Bailie Brown: “That this meeting warmly appreciates the generous feeling which has prompted American citizens to despatch supplies for the relief of the distress in Lancashire; and, in common, it believes, with the great mass of the British people, highly values the friendship of the American nation and the continuance of those amicable relations which, it confidently trusts, the license of an abusive press on either side of the Atlantic shall entirely fail to disturb. Further, requests the chairman to transmit a copy of the above resolutions to the American minister at London for transmission to his excellency the President of the United States.”
Resolutions from Carlisle, England.
To Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America:
The following resolutions, adopted at a public meeting of the citizens of Carlisle, in the county of Cumberland, England, are respectfully addressed:
1. That this meeting, while approving of the principle of non-intervention adopted by her Majesty’s government, yet, believing that the present deplorable conflict in America is entirely owing to the attempts of the southern slaveholders [Page 147] to extend and perpetuate their system of human bondage, recognizes it as the duty of Englishmen to give a moral support to the President and government of the United States in their efforts to defeat the designs of the confederate slaveholders.
2. That, in the opinion of this meeting, the policy of emancipation which has been inaugurated by the government of President Lincoln is entitled to the hearty approval of the people of England and the “considerate judgment of mankind.”
3. That a copy of the foregoing resolutions be sent to the United States minister in London to be forwarded to the President of the United States.
Resolutions from Rawtenstall, England.
At a public meeting duly convened, of the inhabitants of Rawtenstall, in the county of Lancaster, on the American question, held in Holly Mount School, Peter Ormerod Whitehead, esq., in the chair, the following resolutions were moved, seconded, and adopted, viz:
Resolved, First, that this meeting tenders its hearty thanks to the merchants of New York and other citizens of the United States of America for their generous and unsolicited contributions towards the alleviation of the unavoidable distress now so widely spread in the manufacturing districts of this country, and values the beneficent supplies sent by the George Griswold and other ships the more, as they evince, in unqualified contradiction to the unscrupulous and malignant slanders of the “London Times,” and other partisans of slavery, that the people of the United States are animated by the principles of Christian feeling and brotherly love for the fatherland.
Second, that this meeting considers that the governor and people that can institute and carry out the following noble measures, viz: the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, the prohibition of slavery in the Territories of the United States, the recognition of the republics of Hayti and Liberia, the concession of the right of search for the suppression of the slave trade, the scheme of compensated emancipation, and the proclamation of freedom which will make forever memorable the first of January, 1863, deserve the highest admiration and earnest support of every man professing to be a Briton, and proud of his boast that a slave cannot exist on British territory. Further, this meeting tenders its deep and fervent sympathy to the government and people of the loyal States in their arduous and noble struggle for the conservatism of the American Union, with freedom secured to every man of every color within its vast dominion; and prays that the friendly relation existing between America and England may long continue and grow stronger.
Third, that a copy of the above resolutions, signed by the chairman, be forwarded to the honorable Charles Francis Adams, the American minister in London.