Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Second Session Thirty-eighth Congress, Part II
Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward.
Sir: In my despatch No. 787, of the 22d instant, sent last week, I referred to the extraordinary efforts making to procure signatures to an address to the people of the United States in favor of peace. I have since that time received such information as convinces me that it comes from the fruitful source of all similar movements—the rebel emissaries themselves.
I transmit herewith a printed copy of the paper, as it was originally prepared, (No. 1,) and likewise of the corrected proof, as it was finally issued, (No. 2.) Both bear, as well in the omissions as in the substitutions, decided ear-marks of their origin.
Our vigilant British friends in Manchester, needing no prompting whatever from American sources, promptly issued and circulated a paper in counteraction of the movement—a copy of which is also transmitted, (No. 3.)
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
[No. 1, first copy corrected proof.]
FOR PEACE IN AMERICA.
The people of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to the people of the United States, greeting :
We are of the same race, and many of you are our brothers. Can we not, therefore, come to you as peacemakers, and address you as friends? We would ask you, has there not been of strife and bloodshed, and misery and suffering, enough; and is it not time to cease the cruel war in which you are engaged? We believe there is not a Christian man or woman amongst us whose heart does not respond affirmatively to this question. With this conviction we wish to speak to you as plain men, using plain language. We have admired your free institutions, and have gladly witnessed your rise as a people to eminence in wealth and political power. (You are of the Saxon blood, and we hoped that you would make the New World renowned for true greatness.) [Page 314] You promised to become one mighty people and a great nation, famed for the liberties of its citizens, the triumphs of peace, and the conquests of its commerce. We felt that you were doing honor to the “mother country.” When, therefore, this unfortunate war began, our hearts were more inclined towards you than towards your sister States, because we believed with you that the action of the south was but the work of a faction. The events of the struggle, however, have convinced us that a more united people than those of the southern States never rose up in defence of their rights.
When you asserted that secession was the work of disappointed ambition, and promised to quell it within sixty days, we accepted your assurances in good faith, and looked for the speedy restoration of peace. We did not wish to see the American Union broken up.
But so far from this promise being fulfilled, (and your efforts to accomplish it have been great, ) peace and the restoration of the Union are apparently more remote than ever.
Surely there must be many now among you who share with us the conviction that it is utterly impossible to subdue the south, or to restore the American Union as it was in the past days of the republic.
You have tried sufficiently, and found the gulf between you and the seceded States to widen with the effort that is made to subdue them.
Is it not time, then, to pause, and after calmly reviewing all that you have accomplished, the distance which you have travelled from your well-known landmarks, and the difficulties and dangers that are yet before you, is it not time, we ask, that you should take counsel together as to the best means of restoring peace?
We cannot forget that the question of peace or war was never submitted to you for your serious consideration before hostilities had actually commenced— that they came upon you little by little—and that both government and people found themselves plunged into this fearful contest almost unawares; nor have you as yet had an opportunity of consulting together in general convention for the purpose of making known your opinions and wishes about the war, or any of the vast issues growing out of it.
The war has changed (for the present at least) the character of your government. What has become of the freedom of speech, your free press, and the inestimable right of habeas corpus ?
What, permit us to ask, are the southern people doing beyond following the precepts and example taught and practiced by your fathers and theirs, when they withdrew their allegiance from the mother country and asserted their right to establish a government of their own?
The Declaration of Independence, which you hallow and celebrate every fourth day of July, asserts, as self-evident, the right of the southern people to set up a government of their own.
But we would ask, suppose you should, at the end of another three years and a half, succeed in subduing the south and restoring the union by force of arms, might you not then find out, when it was too late, that those pillars upon which rests your form of government had been violently torn down, and that your own liberties had been buried in the ruins? If you will run the parallel between the south now and the colonies in 1776, and compare the course pursued by the north now and the mother country then, we think you will discover some striking resemblances; and among them, that with you now, as with the crown then, rests the privilege of giving peace to the American continent.
Why not, then, without further delay, recognize the duty which attaches to your high privilege? We appeal to you in the name of religion, humanity, justice, and civilization, and believe that we shall not appeal in vain.
Peace be unto you.
[No. 2, second corrected proof.]
FOR PEACE IN AMERICA.
The people of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to the people of the United States of America:
We are of the same race, and many of you are our brothers. We, therefore, come to you as peacemakers, and address you in plain language as friends and as fellow-men. We ask you, has there not been enough of strife and bloodshed, of misery and suffering; and is it not time to cease the cruel war in which you are engaged? There is not a Christian man or woman amongst us whose heart does not respond affirmatively to this question. We have admired your free institutions, and have gladly witnessed your rise as a people to eminence in wealth and political power. You promised to become one mighty nation, famed for the liberties of its citizens, the triumphs of peace, and the conquests of commerce. When this unfortunate war began, our hearts were more inclined towards you than towards your sister States, because we believed with you that the action of the south was but the work of a faction.
When you asserted that secession was the work of disappointed ambition, and promised to quell it within sixty days, we accepted your assurances in good faith, looking for the speedy restoration of peace, for we did not wish to see the American Union broken up.
But so far from this promise being fulfilled, (and your efforts to accomplish it have been unprecedented in the annals of history, ) peace and the restoration of the Union are apparently as distant as ever.
The events of the struggle have convinced us that a more united people never rose up in defence of their rights than those of the southern States. Surely there must be many now among you who share with us the conviction that it has become utterly impossible to subdue the south, or to restore the American Union as it existed in the past days of the republic.
You have tried sufficiently, and found the gulf between you and the seceded States to widen with each effort that is made to subdue them.
We believe that it is now time for you to pause, and after calmly reviewing all that you have accomplished, the distance which you have travelled from your well-known landmarks, and the difficulties and dangers that are certainly before you, to take counsel together as to the best means of restoring peace.
We cannot forget that the question of peace or war was never submitted for your consideration before hostilities had actually commenced; that they came upon you little by little; that both government and people found themselves plunged into this fearful contest almost unawares, and that you have never been permitted as yet an opportunity of consulting together in general convention, for the purpose of making known your opinions and wishes about the war, or any of the vast issues growing out of it.
We believe that the war has changed (for the present at least) the character of your government. It has swept away your freedom of speech, your free press, and the inestimable right of habeas corpus.
We believe that the southern people are only following the precepts and example taught and practiced by your fathers and theirs, when they withdrew their allegiance from the mother country, and that the Declaration of Independence, which you hallow and celebrate every fourth day of July, asserts, as self-evident, the right of the southern people to set up a government of their own.
We believe that should you, at the end of another three and a half years’ war, succeed in subduing the south and restoring the union by force of arms, you will find out, when it is too late, that those pillars upon [Page 316] which rests your republican form of government have been violently torn down, and that your own liberties have been buried in the ruins. We ask you to compare the course pursued by the south now and the colonies in 1776, with that adopted by the north now and the mother country then, and we think you will discover many striking resemblances.
It is in your hands to give peace to the American continent. The southern States have appealed to you for peace, and to be let alone.
We appeal to you to recognize the duty which attaches to your high privilege, and to make peace with the southern States; and we make this appeal in the name of religion, humanity, civilization, and common justice.
Will you kindly assist to promote peace in America ?
NAME.
ADDRESS.
[Please return the Petition to the address of Mr. T. B. Kershaw, Manchester.]
No. 3.
THE PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS OF THE GREAT STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM IN AMERICA.
To the People of Great Britain and Ireland:
Fellow-countrymen: Untruthful statements and unscrupulous efforts are still being put forth by the enemies of free government, free labor, and free education, to deceive and mislead you as to the facts and merits of that great struggle for freedom now going on between the loyal people of the United States and the rebellious slaveholders’ confederacy.
In your name, but without your authority, the friends of the slavemongers in this country, united under the banner of southern independence associations, have recently issued a peace manifesto addressed to the people of the United States.
In that document it is audaciously asserted that “peace and the restoration of the Union are apparently more remote than ever;” and on the strength of this and similar baseless assumptions you are made to call upon the people of the free and loyal States to pause and give up the struggle for freedom; that is, to recognize and sanction a new slave empire!
This appeal is made for you in the name of “religion, humanity, justice, and civilization,” without one word of protest against that irreligious, inhuman, iniquitous, and barbarous system of slavery which was the sole cause of the unholy war the southern slaveholders have forced upon the federal government and the loyal people of America!
We feel sure that your sanction will never be given to any proposition, even in the holy name of peace, that seeks to bolster up and sustain an infamous slave power, whose only claim to nationality is based on a system of legalized lust and oppression that outrages alike the claims of “religion, humanity, justice, and civilization.”
Remember that up to Mr. Lincoln’s election every Congress had a dominant party devoted to the interests of the slave power; and that this southern oligarchy had so moulded the policy and directed the legislation of the nation as to strengthen its political influence abroad and increase the territorial area for the extension of slavery at home. The first President and cabinet especially identified with the advance of freedom have only held office since the 4th of March, 1861; and the following is a record of the progress of liberty during their administration:
[Page 317]1. Emancipation in western Virginia.
2. Emancipation in Missouri.
3. Emancipation in the District of Columbia.
4. Emancipation in Maryland.
5. Slavery forever prohibited in all the Territories.
6. Kansas admitted as a free State.
7. Colorado, Nebraska, and Nevada provisionally organized as free States.
8. Idaho, Montano, Dakota, and Arizona organized as free Territories.
9. Hayti and Liberia (colored people) recognized as independent republics.
10. Three millions of slaves declared forever free by proclamation of the President, 1st January, 1863.
11. All fugitive slave laws utterly abrogated.
12. The inter-States’ slave trade abolished.
13. Negroes admitted to equal rights in the United States courts.
14. Equality of the negro recognized in the public conveyances of the District of Columbia.
15. All rebel States prohibited from returning to the Union with slavery.
16. Free labor established on numerous plantations in South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas.
17. Free schools for the education of freed slaves in South Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee, and in eastern Virginia.
18. The wives and children of all slaves employed as freed men in military and other service of the United States declared free.
19. Negroes, whether previously bond or free, enrolled as part of the military force of the nation.
20. The loyal people of Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Florida (rebel States) seeking a return to the Union on the basis of freedom to all.
21. An amendment of the Constitution to prohibit slavery everywhere and forever passed in the Senate by two-thirds majority, and only failed of the requisite two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives by a few votes.
22. The republican national convention at Baltimore, June 8, 1864, declared unanimously for the re-election of Abraham Lincoln, and for an amendment of the Constitution to prohibit slavery forever.
23. The federal government forbidden by Congress to employ any man as a slave in any capacity.
24. One hundred and fifty thousand negroes, mostly freed slaves, in the pay and uniform of the federal government as soldiers of freedom fighting for the Union.
25. A new international treaty by the federal government with this kingdom for the suppression of the slave trade.
26. The passing of the homestead bill, whereby the free and landless may become freeholders on the free soil of the Territories.
The foregoing is only an inadeqate summary of the facts that demonstrate the vast progress that has been made in the abolition of slavery since Mr. Lincoln’s inauguration in March, 1861.
The military progress of the federal arms is equally astonishing, and proves, to every impartial mind, that the southern cause is as hopeless of ultimate success as it is infamous in its basis and arrogant in its aims.
The following facts will illustrate the military situation :
1. At the commencement of the war thirteen States were claimed by the leaders of the rebellion, and sought to be disrupted from the federal government.
2. Nearly half of these States have either declared their loyalty, or have been rescued from the military grasp of the confederate armies.
3. The federal power has gaiued a firm military footing, or a naval base of operations, in each of the rebellious States.
[Page 318]4. It has securely grasped the great Mississippi river, and established a powerful blockade over the few southern ports still held by the rebels.
5. So obvious is it that the southern confederacy must ultimately succumb to the just power and irrepressible spirit of the free north that no government has dared to recognize the would-be slave empire in the south.
Bearing in mind these indisputable facts, we ask you, the free and liberty-loving people of the United Kingdom, not to be led away by crafty appeals in the name of peace in favor of a cause that excludes the possibility of all peaceful and righteous government, and that embodies all the crimes and cruelties that offend heaven and desolate earth.
The following words of President Lincoln, in an address on the 18th of August last, clearly indicate the principle involved in the present struggle: “I wish it might be more generally and universally understood what the country is now engaged in. We have, as all will agree, a free government where every man has a right to be equal with every other man. In this great struggle this form of government, and every form of human right, is endangered if our enemies succeed. There is more involved in the contest than is realized by every one; there is involved in this struggle the question whether your children and my children shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed.”
Not until slavery is annihilated throughout the United States can come the longed-for era of peace—a true, holy, and lasting peace—founded on union, freedom, justice, and humanity.
Offices of the Union and Emancipation Society, 51 Piccadilly, Manchester.