AMERICAN REBELLION KEl'OBT OF THE SPEECHES REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER, DELIVKKED A. T PUBLIC MEETINGS MANCHESTER, GLASGOW, EDTN BURGH, LIVERPOOL, AND LONDON; AND AT THE FAREWELL BREAKFASTS IN LONDON, MANCHESTER, AND LIVERPOOL. E649 .B42 tflO N A N ! I E M ANC I PA T I N S 00 1 ET Y, \DILLY, MANCHESTER. [NRURGH: THOMA *S. DUBLIN : R. D. WEI BELFAST: JAMES MAOILL, I 1 ■ 1 804. & 0^ ISMMSI | b pLI" »? > V^5 » ■ £>%U*6*t4^'4w4n£<* J%??/:4zSy/ au* */yC07&/ui&&?K' 'W <&£& H^t^/^ jJ&r,^^' -c?fe^^^^^ /*???&?? &*<*&£Cfl cTm^^/^/^f'^' *£ CMJ'ftM** >1, PICCADILLY, MANCHESTER. AMERICAN REBELLION. REPORT OF THE SPEECHES or THE / REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER, DBLJVERED AT PUBLIC MEETINGS IN MANCHESTER, GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, LIVERPOOL, AND LONDON; AJSD AT THK FAREWELL BREAKFASTS IN LONDON, . MANCHESTER, AND LIVERPOOL. UNION AND EMANCIPATION SOCIETY, 51, PICCADILLY, MANCHESTER. LONDON : SAMPSON LOW & SON. EDINBURGH : THOMAS NELSON. GLASGOW : THOS. MURRAY & SONS. DUBLIN : R. D. WEBB & SON. BELFAST : JAMES MAGILL. LIVERPOOL: HENRY YOUNG. 1864. NOTE I have been asked to revise the speeches recently delivered by me in Great Britain, and to allow them to be published together. In compliance with that request, I have partially revised the speeches delivered in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, in the City Hall, Glasgow, and in the Free Church Assembly Hall, Edinburgh ; the others not at all. I must leave them with all the imperfections incidental to speeches delivered under circumstances, in several cases, not favourable to literary excellence or reportorial correctness. To avoid any mistake hereafter, I specify those speeches which, in addition to the above, I permit to be published ; and this I deem necessary on account of one of my morning addresses being so inaccurately reported, unintentionally I believe, as to misrepresent what I did say, and attribute to me that which I did not say. The speech in the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, I leave as a curiosity. It may relieve the reading of the others, to follow the course of a speech delivered under difficulties. The speeches delivered in Exeter Hall, and at the several Breakfast Meetings in London, Manchester, and Liverpool, must remain as they are published in the newspapers, only cautioning the reader that they are not verbatim reports. H. W. BEECHER. Liverpool, 30th Oct., 1863. MANCHESTER- OCTOBER 9, 1863. REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AT THE MEETING HELD AT THE FREE TRADE HALL. On Friday evening, October 9 th, a meeting was held in the Free Trade Hal], according to announcement, "to -welcome the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher on his public appearance in this country." The hall was* extremely crowded, and there were probably 6,000 persons present. It was supposed, from the paper war of placards for the previous fortnight, that the meeting might be disturbed by partisans of the Confederate cause. Arrangements had, therefore, been made for the prompt suppres- sion of disorder ; and notices to that effect were posted about the room. The chair was taken, at half-past six, by Mr. Francis Taylor. At the same time the entrance of Mr. Beecher, accompanied by Mr. Bazley, M.P., and some prominent members of the Union and Emancipation Society, was the signal for enthusiastic and repeated cheering. The following were among the gentlemen present : — Mr. Thomas Bazley, M.P. ; Rev. Dr. Parker, Manchester ; Rev. J. B. Paton, Sheffield ; Mr. Jacob Bright ; Mr. W. P. Roberts, Manchester; Mr. Councillor Williams, Salford ; Rev. Richard Jones, Manchester; Rev. J. Bertram, Manchester; Mr., Samuel Bennett, Manchester; Mr. W. Hey wood, Manchester ; Mr. James Gallo- way, Manchester; Mr. Frederick Cooper, Manchester; Mr. Councillor Clegg, Manchester; Mr. Joseph Spence, Manchester; Rev. P. Prout, Has- lingden ; Mr. A. Ireland, Mr. Joseph Leese, Mr. Charles Bury, Mr. H. Dunckley; Rev. G. M'Gregor, Farnworth ; Mr. R. Cooper, Manchester; Mr. J. R. Cooper, Manchester ; Rev. J. Dunckley, Heywood ; Rev. W. Duckins, Middlewich ; Rev. W. Hanson, Manchester ; Rev. J. Turner, Farnworth ; Rev. J. M'Pherson, Manchester ; Rev. R. Cliff, Bury ; Rev. W. Sykes, Rev. W. H. Davidson, Rev. R. Best, Bolton ; Rev. J. S. Hill, Pendleton ; Rev. J. P. Taylor, Darlington ; Rev. G. Robinson, Over Darwen ; Rev. G. Pywell, Stockport ; ' Mr. D. Mills, Bowdon ; Mr. S. P. Robinson, Manchester ; Rev. G. Waldon, Manchester ; Rev. J. Morgan, Bev. W. Shuttleworth, Manchester ; Rev. J. Taylor, Man- chester ; Rev. O. B. Beadwell, America ; Rev. T. G. Lee, Salford ; Professor ISTewth; Mr. Robert Smith, Manchester ; Mr. W. Boyd, Glos- sop ; Mr. T. Roberts, Manchester ; Mr. J. B. Whitehead, Rawtenstall ; 2 MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETENW. Mr. J. 0. Edwards, Manchester; Mr. T. R. Whitehead, Rawtenstall; Mr. E. O. Greening, Manchester ; Mr. S. Watts, jun., Manchester ; Mr. J. C. Dyer, Burnage ; Mr. Councillor T. Warburton, Manchester ; Mr. Councillor Butterworth, Mr. Councillor Hampson, Mr. T. H. Barker, Manchester ; Mr. J. H. Estcourt, Manchester ; and Mr. P. Sinclair, Manchester. Padre Gavazzi was in one of the reserved seats below the platform. The first row was occupied by forty of the students of the Lancashire Independent College. One of the hon. secretaries (Mr. Greening) stated that the following jetter had been addressed to his colleague, Mr. Edwards, and himself, Dy their president, from Scotland : — • Pitnacre, Dunkeld, October 8, 1863. Gentlemen, — I regret that I shall not be able to be with you on Friday to join in your welcome to the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, as I am suffering from the effects of severe influenza. I have firm faith that, purified from the plague spot of slavery, the republic will emerge in its integrity from this war with renewed life and vigour. I desire, however, most earnestly to impress upon the working men of Manchester that the struggle now going on in America is their own battle, for in the maintenance of the great republic in the West depends in a great degree the progress of popular institutions all over the world. This the enemies of freedom well know, and therefore imperial influences abroad, as well as selfish and oligarchical "sympathies at home, are brought to bear in favour of the slaveholding conspirators. Mr. Beecher will be able to tell his fellow-countrymen that, whoever else be against them, the hearts of the working men of England, and I believe throughout Europe, beat in unison with those who are fighting the battle of freedom on the other side of the Atlantic. — Yours, &c, (Signed) Thos. Batley Potter. The Hon. Secretaries of the Union and Emancipation Society. (Prolonged applause.) Letters also had been received from Mr. W. E. Forster, MP. for Bradford— (cheers), — and Mr. Bright, M.P. — (pro- longed cheering), — regretting their inability to be present. Mr. Bright said : "I am grieved to be away from home when Mr. Beecher is in the neighbourhood." (Loud cheers.) Mr. TAYLOR having taken the chair, spoke as follows : Ladies and gentlemen. — Your committee has done me the honour to place me in the chair this evening, and by your kind forbearance I shall endeavour to discharge the duties which devolve upon me to the best of my ability. One thing I will promise you : the preliminary proceedings shall be short. We are met together to-night to welcome the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher on his first public appearance in England, and I am glad to witness so large an audience notwithstanding the efforts which have been made, both in public and private, to deter persons from being present on this occasion. A recent number of the Saturday Review complains that the friends of the jSorth have restricted the discussion of the American question to the simple issue of slavery. If this were true, the simple issue of slavery is one well worthy the consideration of Englishmen. But who limited the question to the simple issue of slaveiy 1 Did not the Southern states in all their Secession ordinances declare that slavery, and slavery alone, was the question at issue '? ( Applause ) Did not the Hon. Alex. Stephens, the vice-president of the Confederacy, boast thatthey were seeking to found an empire on the " cor ner-stone of slavery ?" The fact is, the South has declared, over and over again, that slavery MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. 3 ia the top, and bottom, and middle of the whole question. (Applause.) But we do not limit the discussion of the question to the simple issue of slavery, and we are here to-night to declare from this platform to the editor of the Saturday Review, and all who think with him, that im- portant as that issue may be, there are others which, in our opinion, are equally important. The South had held the reins of government in its hands for a long series of years, until the election of Mr. Lincoln on the platform of the limitation of the area of slavery turned the scale. That election was the free and unrestricted voice of the people, and against it the South rebelled. It was therefore a rebellion against con- stitutional government — an armed resistance to a constitutional ruler ; and the issues involved in the struggle are the safety of constitutional liberty everywhere — the progress of liberal institutions everywhere — and the development of Anglo-Saxon civilisation everywhere, and therefore it is that we seek to preserve the great Republic from disruption. (Applause.) But, gentlemen, we live in strange times, and in the midst of strange occurrences. During the past week a new society has sprung up amongst us called the "Southern Independence Asso- ciation," and its birth has been heralded by an earthquake. (Laughter and applause.) Lord Wharncliffe is the president of this association, and he is supported by a number of highly respectable gentlemen as vice-chairmen. Now, I have not a word to say respecting these gentlemen personally, but I will tell you what a facetious friend said to me after comparing the two lists of officers which appeared in the papers the clay after the formation of this new society. He said, "Well, one thing is clear, the North has all the 'heads,' and the South has all the Hail?.'" But these gentlemen, highly respectable though they be, are the political descendants of the party which has always been opposed to progress. (Hear, hear.) Lord Wharncliffe knows perfectly well, and those who are associated with him know perfectly well, that the issues I have referred to are involved in this struggle, and therefore they support the South in its attempt to destroy the Republic. Some of us are old enough to remember when Lord Grey's ministry was defeated on the Reform Bill, and proposed to appeal to the country, Lord Wharncliffe — the grandfather of the present lord — rose in his place in the House of Lords, and moved an address to the King, praying His Majesty not to dissolve Parliament, as it would be dangerous to the institutions of the country. This was done in order, if possible, to scotch the Reform Bill. The present Lord Wharncliffe — true to the instincts of his house — proposes to recognise the South, and is even prepared for war with the North, in order, if possible, to scotch the new Reform Bill which he sees looming in the future. (Applause.) Let the question be thus plainly put before the country, and we have no fear of the result. At any rate, having thrown down the gauntlet and appealed to public opinion, we are prepared to abide the issue. I will not detain you longer with any remarks of mine, further than to ask you in case any disturbance should be attempted to leave the management of the meeting entirely to me, but call upon the secretary (Mr. Greening) to read the address to Mr. Beecher, which has been prepared by the society. 4 MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. Mr. GREENING read the following address :— Rev. and dear Sir. — As members of the Union and Emancipation Society, we avail ourselves of this, your first public appearance in England, after a tour under- taken for the purpose of relaxation, to welcome you, not only as a citizen of a great and free country, but as one who, for a long series of years, has been a prominent and successful pioneer in the cause of human progress. Though separated from you by the broad Atlantic, we have been earnest spectators of your fearless and per- sistent advocacy of the personal rights of the coloured race, amidst many perils and dangers, unmoved alike by the blandishments of office, or the threats of opponents ; and also of your consistent adherence to the principles of political and religious liberty. We deeply deplore the dreadful calamity which has come upon your native country ; but, believing as we do, that its sole cause is to be found in that sum of all villanies — human slavery — we recognise in it the hand of retributive justice work- ing out the inevitable punishment of wrong-doing, and overtaking not only the Southern slaveholder, whose hands are imbued with guilt, but our own country, from which you inherited this hideous institution, and the free States of America which have tolerated its existence. Living ourselves under a constitutional government, and having firm faith in representative institutions, we viewed with alarm the outbreak of a rebellion, which its promoters avowed to be an attempt to raise an empire on the " Corner stone of slavery," and which was essentially a rebellion against free constitutional government, and an appeal from the ballot-box to the rifle. The suc- cess of such a rebellion would place constitutional liberty in jeopardy everywhere, and we congratulate you and your countrymen on the determined stand you have made to maintain unimpaired the great Republic, which has been handed down to you by your forefathers, and thus to present to the world a noble spectacle of self-denying patriotism. We rejoice that your statesmen, whilst maintaining that the restoration of the Union is a sacred obligation, have been led, step by step, to the recognition of the rights of the negro ; thus vindicating the consistency of those who have laboured in the anti-slavery cause for a quarter of a century, in the midst of obloquy and misrepresentation, supported only by their firm faith in the eternal principles of right and justice ; and establishing for them a claim to the heartfelt gratitude of the lovers of freedom everywhere. In conclusion, we venture to hope that your visit may be the means of correcting some of the misrepresentations as to the position of this country in regard to the American struggle which have been assiduously spread by certain portions of the press, and of cementing the bonds of amity, which ought for ever to bind together in peace the two great representatives of the Anglo-Saxon race — England and America. The cordial alliance of these two powers may not be consistent with the designs of despotism, or be approved by the enemies of liberty here or elsewhere ; but, being one in race, language, religion, and love of freedom, they may thus lead the van of civilisation, and bid defiance to the shocks which jealousy or suspicion might bring upon them. In the firm hope that such a future may be in store for your country and ours, we bid you God speed in the enterprise in which you have been so long engaged and borne such a noble part. — Signed, on behalf of the Union and Emancipation Society, Thos. Bailey Potter, President, Mr. BAZLEY, M.P., on rising was received with loud cheers, He said that not ten months ago the people of Manchester assembled in that spacious hall in overwhelming numbers, as on the present occasion, to express their deep sympathy with constitutional government, with the integrity of empire, and their abhorrence of slavery. (Cheers.) Since then the horrors of civil war had raged in a country that had previously to the breaking out of the present conflict been only known as extensively prosperous, as exceedingly peaceful, and among the nations of the earth pre-eminently successful. But in the pride of the South — [interruption, and cries of "Turn him out." The Chairman; Do not put anyone out, please. If our friends would only be quiet there would be no interrup- tion, as the disorder is all caused by one man] — but in the pride of the South an attempt had been made to build up a nation on the chief MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. 5 covner-stone of slavery, and such an attempt had been alike offensive to the great people of the States of America and to the intelligence of the people of Europe. (Cheers.) The audacity of the South was only equalled by its unfortunate hypocrisy. (A. voice : " There has been hyp"bcrisy on both sides.") The South now complained that she could not be let alone and enjoy her assumed independence. Really after having struck the first blow, after having initiated the re bellion which had devastated the country, it was more than temperate reason could sustain to suppose that such a demand could either be maintained by the South or respected by those to whom the appeal had been made. (Cheers.) The South avowed a deep interest in the well- fare of the negro-race. It proclaimed to the world that the negro was better cared for and better taught than if left to his own management and to his native condition in Africa. He knew not that the South had an abstract right to determine what should be the state of a people or nation held in subjection. (Cheers.) If the latter were free, then we might compare facts with assumptions. The inconsistency of the South was clearly shown by its avowing that the negro had equal hope ol a future state with the whites. The truths of our common faith were said to be orally taught to the negroes. But see the manifest inconsistency of such doctrine, when the common rights of civilisation and of. education were denied to a people whose only doom was incessant labour. (Cheers.) The South having commenced the rebellion, must await the consequences of reclamation ; the North would contend for its territorial right, for the spread of civilisation, of just government, and of equal rights to all; and therefore the time might be coming, he hoped — and soon, too, — when the South, seeing that its attempt had been abortive, would be glad to see itself taken back into the Union. (Applause.) We ought never to forget that in the commencement of the struggle, the South proclaimed cotton to be King and endeavoured to coerce Europe; that rebellion might be respected and the nation, built upon the "corner stone of slavery," might be called into the midst of the nations of the earth. That had been happily prevented ; nothing could be more honest or hon'om*able than the conduct of the labouring classes in the manufacturing districts of England ; their comforts had been diminished, very important in- terests had been interfered with, and yet in their suffering they had been patient, and they desired not to be fed with the results of the labour of the slave. (Applause.) They wished as free men to have free coadjutors in every part of the globe. On that occasion he hoped he might be excused if he referred to his published opinions, of twelve years ago. He hoped his friends and constituents would not think he was actuated by any impulse to serve the passing moment. (Applause.) Twelve years ago he said, — "There is lamentably a dark spot upon the cultivation of American cotton, which the friends of progress and of hunianity would rejoice to see obliterated, not by violence — (applause) — but by rational amelioration — (applause) — and without interfering with the institutions of any country. The sires of the Anglo-Saxon race would well wish their trans-Atlantic descendants to extend the it and principles of freedom to the persons, homes, aud labours of G MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. eveiy colour and of every clime. (Cheers.) Can there be safety in the coercion of labour, and is the cotton planter of the United States secure from the casualties that arbitrary labours engender 1 (Applause.) May not an epidemic of disease or of revolt destroy the cultivation of the Southern planters of America 1 " (Hear.) Whilst we recollected the difficulties and troubles of America, let us not forget that our own liberties had been built up out of national trials. Who would have believed in the restoration of our monarchy, when Charles I. paid the tribute of misgovernment, and a Commonwealth ruled in this country, and Cromwell (loud cheers) rendered "the name of England alike respected and feared? But the English people were essentially monarchical in their ideas and convictions; and if so great an alteration had taken place with us within a few years at that time, might not in our day the American mind be equally restored, so that before long we shoidd see those who were now misled seeking again the fold of the United States' Government ? (Cheers.) No policy, more beneficial, could be pursued by our government than that of non-intervention. Her Majesty's ministers, and Earl Russell in particular, deserved the thanks of their countrymen for having acted upon the wise principle of non-intervention. (Cheers.) His hearty desire was that this country might be just in her dealings, not only at home, .but abroad, — (heai*, hear) — that in our relations with America we might cling to constitutional government and the rights of freedom, — and he trusted that the alliance would be permanent and solid, with the cordial affections of both people on each side of the Atlantic. (Cheers.) His duty on the present occasion was to move that the address which had been read be presented to the distinguished gentle- man who was present. (Applause.) He need not I'ecommend it for adoption, for he felt convinced that it would be carried by overwhelming acclamation. (Loud cheers.) The rev. gentleman was received here as the messenger of peace and of good will (loud cheering and some hissing) to those Anglo-Saxon peoples that were destined, on each side of the Atlantic, to spread civilisation and justice throughout the world. (Loud applause.) Mr. ESTCOURT seconded the motion. He said he was very anxious that the rev. gentleman should occupy as much time as possible this evening, and his observations therefore would be very few. This great assemblage was convened to welcome the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, and to witness the presentation to him by the members of the Union and Emancipation Society, of the address which had been read by the honorary secretary, and the adoption of which had been so ably moved by our honourable member, Mr. Bazley. He (Mr. Estcourt) was re- minded by the peculiar sounds in different parts of the hall, that other than friends Avere in attendance, and as the city had been placarded with bills containing an invitation to the citizens to attend this meeting in large numbers 'and give our esteemed guest a "disgusting reception," he judged that the discordant noises were the acknowledgment of these publicly invited persons that they had responded to the call, and were prepared to shew the refinement of their manners by giving to a stranger to them, but a friend to humanity, the polite but novel reception, MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. 7 characterised by themselves as " disgusting ;" he trusted, however, that those gentlemen would see that it would be better to avoid giving that sort of reception. He had hopes that the Southern Independence Association, having now got some respectable names upon its calendar, would maintain for itself that respectability and gentlemanly behaviour that ought to mark the conducting of j^ublic affairs. (Laughter, and cheers.) As a member of the Union and Emancipation Society, he, for one, from the commencement of the rebellion till now, had sympathised with the Federal party in America for this reason, that slavery up to that time had only local sanction; but then it claimed to be national; and rather than that it should be national in America, they said "thus far shalt thou go and no further;" and because the South could get no further, the first gun at Sumter was fired. It would have been dis- creditable alike to the President of the .Republic, as well as to the people of that Republic, to have submitted to such an audacious insult to constitutional government. (Loud applause.) And he had no hesi- tation in saying that those on the other side of the Atlantic who were now fighting for constitutional government, and free speech, and personal, civil, social, political, and religious freedom, ought to have the moral support, and he believed they had, of every intelligent and well informed Englishman. (Loud applause.) He could not say how long it would take to convert and enlighten the unenlightened and uninformed portion of the community, who in establishing the Southern Slaveholding Association, had publicly acknowledged one of their objects to be to obtain "correct information;" but inasmuch as the Union and Emancipation Society was established for the very purpose of supplying such information, he promised to all applicants that which they sought, and hoped they would be diligent in the acquisition of knowledge, and he sincerely trusted that before the year was out this class of the community would be. sailing with them in one boat, in an intelligent English career, in favour of a liberty which was the undoubted right of every man. (Loud applause.) He had noticed a peculiarity in Manchester lately which was highly suggestive, at any rate, to intelligent men. A certain party had said that Mr. Beecher was too American, because, forsooth, he did not see things exactly as they saw them. But whereas in 1854 and 1857 that great and noble man, John Bright — (loud applause) — was blamed for being un- English with reference to the Crimean war, now the selfsame party blamed Mr. Beecher for being too American. All good and great men have been niisi-epresented, and thus it was such men were misunderstood. There were few men in the world who had the moral courage to act out their convictions, and to dare to express broad principles, independent of sect or party ; such men possessed an individuality that took them out of the groove wherein the masses of the people are placed. If Mr. Beecher, who had been consistent and persistent in his advocacy of the rights of freedom, had viewed from his standpoint in America certain things in England that to him did not appear to bear that friendship which he thought ought to have been borne, he had a perfect right to txpress his opinion in a frank and independent manner. (Applause,) 8 MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. The meeting was not asked to endorse every word Mr. Beecher Lad said, but to manifest by its welcome, that everything he had done in promoting the extension of the broad principles of liberty, had its hearty approval. (Applause.) The mode of doing this must be left to Mr. Beecher himself, and he (Mr. Estcourt) was quite sure there was not an Englishman in that crowded hall who did not sympathise and wholly approve of a manly, moral, good man, wherever he was found, whether he be an American, an Englishman, or the citizen of any other nation. (Applause.) He therefore, believing Mr. Beecher to be such a man, with the greatest pleasure seconded the adoption of the address. The CHAIRMAN then put the resolution, and thousands of hands were thrust up high above the heads of the dense audience. After an interval of loud cheers, the chairman put the contrary, and amidst peals of derisive laughter and cheers a few hands were held up. The CHAIRMAN : I declare the resolution carried by an over- whelming majority. (Enthusiastic cheering.) The chairman, in handing the address to Mr. Beecher, expressed a hope that the rev. gentleman would long live in health and strength to continue his career. The Rev. Mr. BEECHER then turned to the audience to speak, but for several minutes he was prevented by deafening cheers, followed by a few hisses, which only provoked a renewed outburst of applause. Mr. BEECHER then said : Mr. Chairman, ladies, and gentlemen, the address which you have kindly presented to me contains matters both personal and national. (Interruption.) My friends, we will have a whole night session but we will be heard. (Loud cheers.) I have not come to England to be surprised that those men whose cause cannot bear the light are afraid of free speech. (Cheers ) I have had practice of more than twenty-five years in the presence of tumultuous assemblies opposing those very men whose representatives now attempt to forestall free speech. (Hear.) Little by little, I doubt not, I shall be permitted to speak to-night. (Hear.) Little by little I have been permitted in my own country to speak, until at last the day has come there, when nothing but the utterance of speech for freedom is popular. (Cheers.) You have been pleased to speak of me as one connected with the great cause of civil and religious liberty. I covet no higher honour than to have my name joined to the list of that great company of noble Englishmen from whom we derived our doctrines of liberty. (Cheers.) For although there is some opposition to what are here called American ideas, what are these American ideas ] They are simply English ideas bearing fruit in America. We bring back American sheaves, but the secd-coi-n we got in England — (hear) ; and if, on a larger sphere, and under circumstances of unobstruction, we have reared mightier harvests, every sheaf contains the grain that has made Old England rich for a hundred years. (Great cheering.) I am also not a little gratified that my first appearance to speak on secular topics in England is in this goodly town of Manchester, for I had rather have praise from men who understand the quality praised, than from those who speak at hazard and with little knowledge of the thing praised. (Hear.) And where else, more than in these great central portions of England, and in what MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. 9 town more than Manchester have the doctrines of human rights been battled for, and where else have there been gained for them nobler victories than here 1 (Cheers.) It is not indiscriminate praise therefore : you know what you talk about. You have had practice in these doctrines yourselves, and to be praised by those who are illustrious is praise indeed. (Cheers.) Allusion has been made by one of the gentle- men — a cautionary allusion, a kind of deference evidently paid to some supposed feeling — an allusion has been made to words or deeds of mine that might be supposed to be offensive to Englishmen. (Hear.) I cannot say how that may be. I am sure that I have never thought, in the midst of this mighty struggle at home, which has taxed every power and energy of our people — ("Oh," and cheers) — I have never stopped to measure and to think whether my words spoken in truth and with fidelity to duty would be liked in this shape or in that shape by one or another person either in England or America. (Cheers.) I have had one simple, honest purpose, which I have pursued ever since I have been in public life, and that was with all the strength that God has given to me to maintain the cause of the poor and of the weak in my own country. (Cheers.) And if, in the height and heat of conflict, some words have been over sharp, and some positions have been taken heed- lessly, are you the men to call one to account 1 (Hear.) What if some exquisite dancing master, standing on the edge of a battle, where Richard Cceur de Lion swung his axe, criticised him by saying that "his gestures and postures violated the proprieties of polite life." (Laughter.) When dandies fight they think how they look, but when men fight they think only of deeds. (Cheers ) But I am not here either on trial or on defence. (Hear, hear.) It matters not what I have said on other occasions and under different circumstances. Here I am before you, walling to tell you what I think about England, . or any person in it. (Cheers.) Let me say one word, however, in regard to this meeting, and the peculiar gratification which I feel in it. The same agencies which have been at work to misrepresent good men in our country to you, have been at work to misrepresent to us good men here ; and when I say to my friends in America that I have attended such a meeting as this, received such an address, and beheld such enthusiasm, it will be a renewed pledge of amity. (Cheers.) I have never ceased to feel that war or even unkind feelings between two such great nations, would be one of the most unpardonable and atrocious offences that the world ever beheld — (cheers) — and I have regarded everything therefore, which needlessly led to those feelings out of which war comes, as being in itself wicked. (Cheers.) The same blood is in us. (Cheers.) We are your children, or the children of your fathers and ancestors. You and we hold the same substantial doctrines. We have the same mission amongst the nations of the earth. Never were mother and daughter set forth to do so queenly a thing in the kingdom of God's glory as England and America. (Cheers.) Do you ask why we are so sensitive, and why have we hewn England with our tongue as we have ] I will tell you why. There is no man who can offend you so deeply as the one you love most. (Loud cheers.) Men point to France and Napoleon, 10 MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. and say he has joined England in all that she has done, and why are the press of America silent against France, and why do they speak as they do against England? It is because we love England. (Cheers.) I well remember the bitterness left by the war of our Independence, and the outbreak of the flame of 1 8 12 from its embers. To hate England was in my boyhood almost the first lesson of patriotism ; but that result of conflict gradually died away as peace brought forth its proper fruits : interests, reciprocal visits, the interchanges of Christian sympathy, and co-operative labours in a common cause lessened and finally removed ill-feelings. In their place began to arise affection and admiration. For when we searched our principles, they all ran back to rights wrought out and established in England; when we looked at those institutions of which we were most proud, we beheld that the' very foundation stones, were taken from the quarry of your history ; when we looked for those men that had illustrated our own tongue, orators, or eloquent ministers of the gospel, they were English ; we borrowed nothing from France, but here a fashion and there a gesture or a custom : while what we had to dignify humanity — that made life worth having — were all brought from Old England. (Cheers.) And do you suppose that under such circum- stances, with this growing love, with this growing pride, with this gladness to feel that we were being associated in the historic glory of England, it was with feelings of indifference that we beheld in our midst the heir-apparent to the British throne % (Cheers.) There is not reigning on the globe a sovereign who commands our simple, unpretentious, and unaffected respect, as does your own beloved Queen. (Loud cheers.) I have heard multitudes of men say that it was their joy and their pleasure to pay respect to the Prince of Wales, even if he had not won personal sympathy, that his mother might know that through him the compliment was meant to her. (Loud cheers.) It was an unarranged and unexpected spontaneous and universal outbreak of popular enthusiasm ; it began in the colonies of Canada, the fire rolled across the border, all through New England, all through New York and Ohio, down through Pennsylvania and the adjacent states ; nor was the element quenched until it came to Richmond. I said, and many said — the past of enmity and prejudice is now rolled below the horizon of memory : a new era is come, and we have set our hand and voices as a sacred seal to our cordial affection and co-operation with England. (Cheers.) Now (whether we interpreted it aright or not, is not the question) when we thought England was seeking opportunity to go with the South against us of the North, it hurt us as no other nation's conduct could hurt us on the face of the globe ; and if we spoke some words of intem- perate heat, .we spoke them in the mortification of disappointed affection. (Cheers.) It has been supposed that I have aforetime urged or threatened war with Englaud. Never. This I have said — and this I re- peat now, and here — that the cause of constitutional government and of universal liberty as associated with it in our country was so dear, so sacred, that rather than betray it we would give the last child we had — that we would not relinquish this conflict though other States rose, and entered into a league with the South — and that, if it were necessary we MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. • 11 would maintain this great doctrine of representative government in America against the ai'med world — against England and France. (Great cheering, followed by some disturbance, in reference to which the chair- man rose and cautioned an individual under the gallery whom he had ob- served persisting in interruption.) Let me be permitted to say then, that it seems to me the darker days of embroilment between this country and America are past. (Cheers.) The speech of Earl Russell at Blair- gowrie, the stopping of those armed ships, and the present attitude of the British government — (renewed cheering) — will go far towards satisfying our people; Understand me ; we do not accept Earl Russell's doctrine of belligerent rights nor of neutrality, as applied to the action of the British government and nation at the beginning of our civil war, as right doctrine, but we accept it as an accomplished fact. We have drifted so far away from the time when it was profitable to discuss the questions of neutrality or belligerency, and circumstances with you and with us are so much changed by the progress of the war, that we now only ask of the government strict neutrality and of the liberty-loving people of England moral sympathy. Nothing more ! We ask no help, and no hindrance. (Resumed cheers.) If you do not send us a man, we do not ask for a man. If you do not send us another pound of powder, we are able to make our own powder. (Laughter.) If you do not send us another musket nor another cannon, we have cannon that will carry five miles already. (Laughter.) We do not ask for material help. We shall be grateful for moral sympathy — (cheers) — but if you cannot give us moral sympathy we shall still endeavour to do without it. All that we say is, let France keep away, let England keep hands off; if we cannot manage this rebellion by ourselves, then let it be not managed at all. (Cheers.) We do not allow ourselves to doubt the issue of this conflict. It is only a question of time. For such inestimable principles as are at stake, — of self-government, of representative government, of any government at all, of free institutions rejected because they inevitably will bring liberty to slaves unless subverted ; — of national honour, and fidelity to solemn national trusts, — for all these war is waged, and if by war these shall be secured, not one drop of blood will be wasted, not one life squandered. The suffering will have purchased a glorious future of inconceivable peace and happiness ! Nor do we deem the result doubtful. The population is in the North and West. The wealth is there. The popular intelligence of the country is there. There only is there an educated common people. (Cheers.) The right doctrines of civil govern- ment are with the North. (Cheers, and a voice, "Where's the justice V) It will not be long, before one thing more will be with the North — Victory. (Loud and enthusiastic rounds of cheers.) Men on this side are impatient at the long delay; but if we can bear it, can't you? (Laughter.) You are quite at ease — ("not yet"); we are not. You are not materially affected in any such degree as many parts of our own land are. (Cheers.) But if the day shall come in one year, in two years, or in ten years hence, when the old stars and stripes shall float over every state of America, — (loud cheers, and some disturbance from one or two) — oh, let liim (the chief disturber) have a chance. (Laughter.) 1 2 MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. I was saying, when interrupted by that soxmd from the other side of the hall, that if the clay shall come, in one or five or ten years, in which the old honoured and historic banner shall float again over every state of the South ; if the day shall come when that which was the accursed cause of this dire and atrocious war — slavery — shall be done away — (cheers) ; if the day shall have come, when through all the Gulf States there shall be liberty of speech, as there never has been — (cheers) — when there shall be liberty of the press, as there never has been; when men shall have common schools to send their children to, which they never have had in the South ; if the day shall come when the land shall not be parcelled into gigantic planta- tions, in the hands of a few rich oligarchs — (loud cheers) ; but shall be divided to honest farmers, every man owning his little — (renewed cheers) ; in short, if the day shall come when the simple ordin- ances, the fruition and privileges, of civil liberty, shall prevail in every part of the United States; — it will be worth all the dreadful blood, and tears, and woe. (Loud cheers.) You are impatient ; and yet God dwelleth in eternity, and has an infinite leisure to roll forward the affairs of men, not to suit the hot impatience of those who are but children of a day, and cannot wait or linger long, but according to the infinite circle on which He measures time and events ! He expedites or retards as it pleases him ; and yet if He heard our cries or prayers, not thrice would the months revolve but peace would come. But the strong crying and prayers of millions have nob brought peace, but only 'thickening war. We accept the Providence ; the duty is plain. (Cheers and interruption.) I repeat, the duty is plain. (Cheers.) So rooted is this English people in the faith of liberty, that it were an uttei'ly hopeless task for any minion or sympathiser of the South to sway the popular sympathy of England, if this English people believed that this was none other than a conflict between liberty and slavery. It is just that. (Loud cheers.) The conflict may be masked by our institutions. Every people must shape public action through their laws and institutions. We often cannot reach an evil directly, but only circuitously, through the channels of law and custom. It is none the less a contest for liberty and against slavery, because it is primarily a conflict for the Union. It is by that Union, vivid with liberty, that we have to scourge oppression and establish liberty. Union, in the future, means justice, liberty, popular rights. Only slavery has hitherto prevented Union from bearing such fruit. Slavery was introduced into our country at a time, and in a manner, when neither England nor America knew well what were the results of that atrocious system. It was ignorantly received and propagated on our side ; little by little it spread through all the thirteen states that then were : for slavery in the beginning was in New England, as really as now it is in the Southern States. But when the great struggle for our independence came on, the study of the doctrines of human rights had made such progress, that the whole public mind began to think it was wrong to wage war to defend our rights, while we were holding men in slavery, depriving them of theirs. It is an historical fact, that all the great MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. 13 and renowned men that flourished at the period of our revolution were abolitionists. Washington was ; so was Benjamin Franklin ; so was Thomas Jefferson ; so was James Munroe ; so were the principal Virginian and Southern statesmen, and the first abolition society ever founded in America was founded not in the North, but in the middle and a poi-tion of the Southern States. Before the War of Independence, slavery was decaying in the North, from moral and physical causes combined. It ceased in New England with the adoption of our constitution. It has been unjustly said that they sold their slaves, and preached a cheap emancipation to the South. Slavery ceased in Massachusetts as follows : When suit was brought for the services of a slave, the Chief Justice laid down as law, that our Declaration of Independence, which pro- nounced all men " equal," and equally entitled to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," was itself a bill of emancipation, and he refused to yield up that slave for service. At a later period New York passed an Emancipation Act. It has been said that she sold her slaves. No slander was ever greater. The most careful provision was made against sale. No man travelling out of the State of New York after the passing of the Emancipation Act was permitted to have any slave with him, unless he gave bonds for his re-appearance with him. As a matter of fact the slaves were emancipated without compensation on the sj:iot, to take effect gradually class by class. But after a trial of half a score of years the people found this gradual emancipation was intolerable. (Hear, hear.) It was like gradual amputation. They therefore, by another act of legislation, declared immediate emancipation — (hear) — and that took effect ; and so slavery perished in the state of New York. (Cheers.) Substantially so it was in New Jersey, and in Pennsylvania ; never was there an example of States that emancipated slaves more purely from moral conviction of the wrong of slavery. I know that it is said that Northern capital and Northern ships were employed in the slave trade. To an extent it was so. But is there any community that lives, in which there are not miscreants who violate the public conscience 1 (Cheers.) Then and since, the man who dared to use his capital and his ships in this infamous traffic hid himself, and did by agents what he was ashamed to be known to have done himself. (Hear.) Any man in the North who notoriously had part or lot in a trade so detested, would have been branded with the mark of Cain. (Cheers.) It is true that the port of New York has been employed in this infernal traffic, but it was because it was under the influence either of that "democratic" party that was then unfortunately in alliance with the Southern slavery — (hear, hear) — or because it was under the dark political control of the South itself. For when the South could appoint our marshals, — could, through the national administration, control the appointment of every Federal officer, our collectors, and every customhouse officer, — how could it but be that slavery flourished in our harbours ? For years together New York has been as much controlled by the South in matters relating to slavery, as Mobile or New Orleans ! But, even so, the slave trade was clandestine. It abhorred the light : it crept in and out of the harbour stealthily, despised and hated by the whole community. Is New York to be blamed 14 MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. for demoniac acts done by her limbs while yet under possession of the devil ? she is now clothed, and in her right mind. (Cheers.) There was one Judas; is Christianity therefore a hoax ] (Hear.) There are hissing men in this audience — are you not respectable 1 (Cheers and laughter.) The folly of the few is that light which God casts to irradiate the wisdom of the many. (Hear.) And let me say one word here about the constitution of America. It recognises slavery as a, fact; but it does not recognise the doctrine of slavery in any way whatever ; it was a fact ; it lay before the ship of state, as a rock lies in the channel of the ship as, she goes into harbour ; and because a ship steers round a rock, does it follow that that rock is in the ship % (Hear, heai\) And because tho constitution of the United States made some circuits to steer round that great fact, does it follow that therefore slaveiy is recognised in the con- stitution as a right or a system? (No.) See how carefully that immortal document worded itself. In the slave laws the slave is declared to be — what 1 expressly, and by the most repetitious phraseology, he is denuded of all the attributes and characteristics of manhood, and is pronounced a "chattel." (Shame.) Now, you have just that same word in your farming language with the h left out, " cattle." (Hear, hear.) And the difference between cattle and chattel is the difference between quadruped and biped. (Laughter.) So far as animate property is concerned, and so far as inanimate property is concerned, it is just the difference between locomotive property and stationary property. (Hear, hear.) The laws in all the slave states stand on the radical principle that a slave is not for purposes of law any longer to be ranked in the category of human beings, but that he is a piece of property, and is to be treated to all intents and purposes as a piece of property; and the law did not blush, nor do the judges blush now-a-days who interpret that law. (Hear.) But how does the Constitution of the United States, when it speaks of these same slaves, name them? Does it call them chattels or slaves ] Nay, it refused even the softer words serf and servitude. Conscientiously aware of the dignity of man, and that service is not opposed to the grandeur of his nature, it alludes to the slaves barely as, persons (not chattels) held to service (not servitude). (Hear and cheers.) Go to South Carolina, and ask what she calls slaves, and her laws reply "they are things:" but the old capitol at Washington sullenly reverberates, "No, persons /" (Cheers.) Go to Mississippi, the State of Jefferson Davis, and her fundamental law pronounces the slave to be only a- "thing f and again, the Federal Constitution sounds back, "Persons." Go to Louisiana and its constitution, and still that doctrine of devils is enunciated — it is "chattel," it is "thing." Looking upon those for whom Christ felt mortal anguish in Gethsemane, and stretched him- self out for death on Calvary, their laws call them "things" and " chattels ;" and still in tones of thunder the Constitution of the United States says "Persons." The slave states, by a definition, annihilate manhood ; the Constitution, by a word, brings back the slave to the human family. (Cheers.) What was it then, when the country had advanced so far towards universal emancipation in the period of our national formation, that stopped this onward tide 1 Two things, commercial and political. MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. 15 First, the wonderful demand for cotton throughout the world, precisely when, from the invention of the cotton gin, it became easy to turn it to service. Slaves that before had been worth from 300 to 400 dollars, began to be worth 600 dollars. That knocked away one-third of adhe- rence to the moral law. Then they became worth 700 dollars, and half the law went — (cheers and laughter); then 800 or 900 dollars, and then there was no such thing as moral law — (cheers and laughter); then 1,000 or 1,200 dollars, and slavery became one of the beatitudes. (Cheers and laughter.) The other cause, which checked the progress of eman- cipation that had already so auspiciously begun, was political. It is very singular, that, in what are called the "compromises" of the constitu- tion, the North, while attempting to prevent advantage to slavery, gave to the slave power the peculiar advantage which it has had ever since. In Congress the question early arose, How should the revenue be raised in the United States 1 For a long time it was proposed, and there was an endeavour, to raise it by a tax upon all the cultivated land in the different states. When this was found unjust and unequal, the next proposal was, to raise taxes on the "polls," or heads of the voters, in the different states. That was to be the basis of the calculation upon which taxes should be apportioned. Now when that question came up, it was said that it was not right to levy Federal taxes upon the Indians in Georgia, who paid no taxes to the Geoi'gian state exchequer. So the North consented : but in making up the list of men to be taxed, and excluding the Indians, it insisted that the slaves should, neverthe- less, be included. That is to say, if Georgia was to pay to the Federal exchequer in proportion to her population, it was the interest of the North that her population should be swelled by counting all her slaves. There was a long debate on this subject; and not to detain you with all the turns on this matter, the two things were coupled together at last — representation and taxation. (Hear.) Their eyes being fixed solely upon the assessment of taxes, it was agreed that five slaves should count as three men, and that it was supposed would give some advantage to the North against slavery. But in a very few years the government ceased to raise taxation by "poll," and raised it by tariff. Thenceforward, as representatives had to be chosen in the same way, and as five slaves counted as three white men, the South has had the advantage ; and it has come to this point, that while in the North representatives repre- sent men, in the South the representatives stand for men and property together. I want to drop a word as an egg for you to brood over. It will illustrate the policy of the South. The proposition to make a government undeniably National, as distinct from a mere Confederacy, came from Virginia and South Carolina. The North, having more individuality, was jealous of yielding up the rights of the separate states ; but the South, with the love of power characteristic of the Normans, wanted to have a National government in distinction to a Union of several states. In result, when the national government was established, the South came into power ; and for fifty years everything that the South said should be done has been done, and whatever she said should not be done, has not been done. The institutions of America 16 MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. wore shaped by the North ; but the policy of her government, for half a hundred years, by the South. All the aggression and fillibustering, all the threats to England and tauntings of Europe, all the bluster of war which our government has assumed, have been under the in- spiration and under the almost monarchical sway of the Southern oligarchy. (Loud cheering.) And now, since Britain has been snubbed by the Southerners, and threatened by the Southerners, and domineered over by the Southerners — ("No") — yet now Great Britain has thrown her arms of love around the Southerners and turns from the Northerners. ("No.") She dont 1 (Cheers.) I have only to say that she has been caught in very suspicious circumstances. (Laughter.) I so speak, per- haps as much as anything else, for this very sake — to bring out from you this expression — to let you know what we know, that all the hostility felt in my country towards Great Britain has been sudden, and from supposing that you sided with the South, and sought the breaking up of our country ; and I want you to say to me, and through me to my countrymen, that those irritations against the North, and those likings for the South, that have been expressed in your papers, are not the feelings of the great mass of your nation. (Great cheering, the audience rising.) Those cheers already sound in my ears as the coming acclamations of friendly nations — those waving handkerchiefs are the white banners that symbolize peace for all countries. (Cheers.) Join with us then, Britons. (Cheers.) From you we learnt the doctrine of what a man was worth ; from you we learnt to detest all oppressions ; from you we learnt that it was the noblest thing a man could do to die for A eight principle. (Cheers.) And now, when we are set in that very course, and are giving our best blood for the most sacred principles, let the world understand that the common people of Great Britain support us. (Cheers.) You have been pleased to say in this address that 1 have been one of the "pioneers." No. I am only one of their eldest sons. The Birneys, the Baileys, the Rankins, the Dickeys, the Thorns of the West, the Garrisons, the Quincys, the Slades, the Welds, the Stewarts, the Smiths, the Tappans, the Goodalls of the East, and unnamed hundreds more, these were indeed pioneers. I unloosed the shoe-latchets of the pioneers, and that is all : I was but little more than a boy : I bear witness, that the hardest blows and the most cruel sufferings were endured by men, before I was thrust far enough into public life to take any particular share; and I do not consider myself entitled to rank amongst the pioneers. They were better men than I. Those noble men did resist this downward tendency of the North. They were rejected hj society. To be called an abolitionist excluded a man from respectable society in those days. To be called an abolitionist blighted any man's prospects in political life. To be called an abolitionist marked a man's store, — his very customers avoided him as if he had the plague. To be called an abolitionist in those days shut up the doors of confidence from him in the church; where he was regarded as a disturber of the peace. Nevertheless, the witnesses for liberty maintained their testimony. (Loud cheers.) Little by little, they reached the conscience, — they gained the understanding. And as, when old Luther spoke, ' MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. 17 thundering in the ears of Europe the long buried treasures of the Bible, there were hosts against him, yet the elect few gathered little by little, and became no longer few ; just so did many a Luther among ourselves thunder forth a long buried truth from God, the essential right of human liberty ; and these were followed for half a score of years, until they began to be numerous enough to be an influential party in the state elections. (Cheers.) In 1848, I think it was, that the Buffalo platform was laid. It was the first endeavour in the Northern States to form a platform that should carry rebuke to the slave-holding ideas in the North. Before this, however, I can say that, under God, the South itself had unintentionally done more than we, to bring on this work of emancipa- tion. (Hear, hear.) First they began to declare, after the days of Mr. Calhoun, that they accepted slaveiy no longer as a misfortune, but as a divine blessing. Mr. Calhoun advanced the doctrine, which is now the marrow of secession, that it was the duty of the general government not merely to protect the local States from interference- but to make slavery equally national with liberty! In effect, the government was to see to it, that slavery received equivalents for every loss and disadvantage, which, by the laws of nature, it must sustain in a race against free institutions. (Cheers.) These monstrous doctrines began to be the development of future ambitions. The South, having the control 0/ government, knew from the inherent weakness of their system, that, if it were confined, it was like huge herds feeding on small pastures, that soon gnaw the grass to the roots, and must have other pasture or die. (Cheers.) Slavery is of such a nature, that, if you do not give it con- tinual change of feeding ground, it perishes. (Renewed cheering.) And then came one after another from the South assertions of rights never before unearned of. From them came the Mexican, war for territory ; from them came the annexation of Texas and its entrance as a slave state ; from them came that organised rowdyism in Congress that brow- beat every Northern man who had not sworn fealty to slavery ; that filled all the courts of Europe with ministers holding slave doctrines ; that gave the majority of the seats on the bench to slave-owning judges; and that gave, in fact, all our chief offices of trust either to slave-owners, or to men who licked the feet of slave-owners. (Loud cheers.) Then came that ever-memorable period when, for the very purpose of humbling the North, and making it drink the bitter cup of humiliation, and showing to its people that the South was their natural lord, was passed the Fugitive Slave Bill. (Loud hisses.) There was no need of that. There was already existing just as good an instrument for so infernal a purpose as any fiend could have wished. Against that infamy my soul revolted, and these lips protested, and I defied the government to its face and told them " I wdl execute none of your unrighteous laws ; send to me a fugitive who is fleeing from his master, and I will step between him and his pursuer." (Loud and prolonged cheers.) Not once, nor twice, have my doors been shut between oppression and the oppressed ; and the church itself over which I minister has been the unknown refuge of many and many a one. (Cheers.) But whom the devil entices he cheats. Our promised "peace" with the South, which, was the thirty pieces of B 18 MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. silver paid to us, turned into fire and burnt the hands that took it. For, how long was it after this promised peace that the Missouri compromise was abolished in an infamous disregard of solemn compact 1 (Loud cheers.) It never ought to have been made ; but having been made, it ought never to have been broken by the South. (Cheers.) And with no other pretence than the robber's pretence that might makes right, they did destroy it, that they might carry slavery far North. That sufficed. That alone was needed to arouse the long reluctant patriotism of the North. (Cheers.) In hope that time would curb and destroy slavery,, that forbearance would lead to like forbearance, the North had suffered insult, wrong, political treachery, and risk to her very institutions of liberty. By the abolition of this compromise another slave state was immediately to have been brought into the Union to balance the ever growing free territories of the North- West. Then arose a majesty of self- sacrifice that had no parallel before. Instead of merely protesting, young men and maidens, labouring men, farmers, mechanics, sped with a sacred desire to rescue free territory from the toils of slavery; and emigrated in thousands, not to better their own condition, but in order that, when this territory should vote, it should vote as a free state. (Loud cheers.) Never was a worse system of cheating practised than the perjury, intimidation, and prostituted iise of the United States army, by which the South sought to force a vile institution upon the men who had voted almost unanimously for liberty and against slavery in Kansas. (Hear.) But at last the day of utter darkness had passed, and the gray twilight was on the morning horizon. At length (for the first time, I believe, in the whole conflict between the South and the North), the victory went to the North, and Kansas became a free state. (Cheers.) Now I call you to witness that, in a period of twenty-five or thirty years of constant conflicts with the South, at every single step they gained the political advantage, with the single exception of Kansas. "What was the conduct of the North 1 Did it take any steps for seces- sion ] Did it threaten violence ? So sure were the men of the North of the ultimate triumph of that which was Right, provided free speech was left to combat error and Wrong, that they patiently bided their time. By this time the North was cured alike of love for slavery and of indifference. By this time a new conscience had been formed in the North, and a vast majority of all the Northern men at length stood fair and square on anti-slavery doctrine. (Cheers.) We next had to flounder through the quicksands of four infamous years under President Buchanan, in which senators, sworn to the constitution, were plotting to destroy that constitution ; — in which the members of the cabinet, who drew their pay month by month, used their official position, by breach of public trust and oath of allegiance, to steal arms, to prepare fortifications, and make ready disruption and war. The most astounding spectacle that the world ever saw was then witnessed — a great people paying men to sit in the places of power and office to betray them. (Hear, hear.) During all those four years what did we 1 We protested and waited, and said : " God shall give us the victory. It is God's truth that we wield, and in his own good time, He will give us the victory." MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. 19 (Great cheering.) In all this time we never made an inroad on the lights of the South. (Cheers.) We never asked for retaliatory law. We never taxed their commerce, or touched it with our little finger. We envied them none of their manufactures ; but sought to promote them. We did not attempt to abate, by one ounce, their material prosperity; we longed for their prosperity. (Cheers.) Slaveiy we always hated; the Southern men never. (Cheers.) They were wrong. And in our conflicts with them we have felt as all men in conflict feel. We were jealous, and so were they. We were in the right cause ; they in the wrong. We were right, or liberty is a delusion ; they were wrong, or slavery is a blessing. (Cheers.) We never envied them their territory ; and it was the faith of the whole North, that, in seeking for the abate - ment of slavery, and its final abolition, we were conferring upon the South itself the greatest boon which one nation — or part of a nation — could confer upon another. That she was to pass through difficulties in her transition to free labour, I had no doubt ; but it was not in our heart to humble her, but rather to help and sympathise with her. I defy time and history to point to a more honourable conduct than that of the free North towards the South during all these days. In 1860, Mr. Lincoln was elected. (Cheers.) I ask you to take notice of the conduct of the two sides at this point. For thirty years we had been experiencing sectional defeats at the hands of the Southerners. For thirty years and more we had seen our sons proscribed because loyal to liberty, or worse than proscribed — suborned and made subservient to slavery. (Cheers.) We had seen our judges corrupt, our ministers apostate, our merchants running headlong after gold against principle ; but we maintained fealty to the law and to the constitution, and had faith in victory by legitimate means. But when, by the means pointed out in the constitution, and sanctified by the usage of three-quarters of a century, Mr. Lincoln, in fail* open field, was elected President of the United States, did the South submit ] (Cries of "No," and cheers.) No offence had been committed — none threatened; but the allegation was, that the election of a man known to be pledged against the extension of slavery was not compatible with the safety of slavery as it existed. On that ground they took steps for secession. Every honest mode to prevent it, all patience on the part of the North, all pusillanimity on the part of Mr. Buchanan, were anxiously employed. Before his successor came into office, he left nothing undone to make matters worse, did nothing to make things better. The North was patient then, the South impatient. Soon came the issue. The cpiestion was put to the South, and with the exception of South Carolina, every State in the South gave a popular vote against secession; and yet, such was the jugglery of political leaders, that before a few months had passed, they had precipitated every state into secession. That never could have occurred had thex-e been in the Southern States an educated common people. But the slave power cheats the poor whites of intelligence, in order to rob the poor blacks. This is important testimony to the nature and tendency of the Union and Government of the United States ; and reveals clearly, by the judgment of the very men who of all others best know, that to maintain the Union is, in the end, to destroy slavery. It 20 MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. justifies the North against the slanders of those who declare that she is not fighting for liberty, hut only for the Union — as if that were not the very way to destroy slavery and establish freedom ! The government of the United States is such that, if it be administered equitably, in the long run it will destroy slavery ; and it was the foresight of this which led the South to its precipitate secession. (Cheers.) Against all these facts, it is attempted to make England believe that slavery has had nothing to do with this war. You might as well have attempted to persuade Noah that the clouds had nothing to do with the flood ; it is the most monstrous absurdity ever born in the womb of folly. (Cheers.) Nothing to do with slavery 1 ? It had to do with nothing else. (Cheers.) Against this withering fact — against this damning allegation — what is their escape ? They reply — the North is just as bad as the South. Now we are coining to the marrow of it. If the North is as bad as the South, why did not the South find it out before you did ] If the North had been in favour of oppressing the black man, and just as much in favour of slavery as the South, how is it that the South has gone to war against the North because of their belief to the contrary '? Gentlemen, I hold in my hand a published report of the speech of the amiable, intelligent, and credulous President, I believe, of the Society for Southern Independence. (Laughter.) There are some curiosities in it. (Laughter.) That you may know that Southerners are not all dead yet, I will read a paragraph : — The South had laboured hitherto under the imputation, and it had constantly been thrown in the teeth of all who supported that straggling nation, that they by their proceedings were tending to support the existence of slavery. This was an impression which he thought they ought carefully to endeavour to remove — (cheers and laughter) — because it was one which was injurious to their cause — (cheers) — not only among those who had the feeling of all Englishmen — of a horror of slavery — but, also, because strong religious bodies in this country made a point' of it, and felt it very strongly indeed. (Cheers.) I never like to speak behind a man's back — I like to speak to men's faces what I have to say — and I could wish that the happiness had been accorded to me to-night to have Lord Wharncliffe present, that I might address to him a few simple Christian inquiries. (Cheers.) Lor there can be no question that there is a strong impression that the South has "supported the existence of slavery." (Cheers.) Indeed, on oui side of the water there are many persons that affirm it. (Laughter and cheers.) And, as his lordship thinks that it is the peculiar duty of the new association to do away with that sad error, I beg to submit to it, that in the first place it ought to do away with four million slaves in the South ; for there are uncharitable men living who think that a nation that has four million slaves, has at least some "tendency" to support slaveiy. (Cheers.) And when his lordship's association has done that, it might be pertinent to suggest to him, instantly to revise the new " Montgomery" constitution of the South, which is changed from the old Federal constitution in only one or two points. The most essential point is, that it for the first time introduces and legalises slavery as a national institution, and makes it unconstitutional ever to do it away. Now, I submit, that this wants polishing a little. (Cheers.) Then I would also respectfully lay at his lordship's feet — more beautifully MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. 21 embossed, if I could, than is this address to me — the speech of Vice- President Stephens — (hear, hear) — in which he declares that all nations have been mistaken, and that to trample on the manhood of an inferior race is the only proper way to maintain the liberty of a superior ; in which he lays down to Calvary a new lesson ; in which he gives the lie to the Saviour himself, who came to teach us, that by as much as a man is stronger than another, he owes himself to that other. (Loud cheers.) Not alone are Christ's blood-drops our salvation, but those word-drops of sacred truth, which cleanse the heart and conscience by precious principles, these also are to us salvation ; and if there be in the truths of Christ one more eminent than another, it is, " He that would be chief, let him be the servant of all." But this audacious hierarch. of an anti-Christian gospel, Mr. Stephens, — in the face of God, and to the ears of all mankind, in this day of all but universal Christian sentiment, pronounces that for a nation to have manhood, it must crush out the liberty of an inferior and weaker race. And he declares ostentatiously and boastingly that the foundation of the Southern republic is on that cornerstone. (Loud cheers, " No, no," and renewed cheers.) When next Lord Wharncliffe speaks for the edification of this English people — (laughter) — I beg leave to submit that this speech of Mr. Stephens's requires more than a little polishing ; in fact, a little scouring, cleansing, and flooding. (Applause,) And if all the other crimson evidences that the South is upholding slavery are to be washed pure by the new asso- ciation, not Hercules in the Augean stable had such a task before him as they have got. (Loud cheers.) Lord Wharncliffe may bid farewell to the sweets of domestic leisure and to the interests of state. All his amusement hereafter must be derived from the endeavour to purge the Southern cause of the universal conviction that, "by their proceedings, they are tending to support the existence of slavery." (Loud cheers.) But there is another paragraph that I will read : — He believed that the strongest supporters of slavery were the merchants of New York and Boston. He always understood, and had never seen the statement con- tradicted, that the whole of the ships fitted out for the transport of slaves from Africa to Cuba were owned by Northerners. His lordship, if he will do me the honour to read my speech, shall hear it contradicted in the most explicit terms. There have been enough Northern ships engaged, but not by any means all, nor the most. Baltimore has a pre-eminence in that matter ; Charleston, and New Orleans, and Mobile, all of them. And those ships fitted out in New York were just as much despised, and loathed^ and hissed by the honour- able merchants of that great metropolis, as if they had put up the black flag of piracy. (Loud cheers.) Does it conduce to good feeling between two nations to utter slanders such as these ? His lordship goes on to say- That in the Northern States the slave is placed in even a worse position than in the South. He spoke from experience, having visited the country twice. I am most surprised, and yet gratified, to learn that Lord Wharncliffe speaks of the suffering of the slave from experience. (Laughter and cheers.) I never was aware that he had been put in that unhappy 22 MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. situation. Has he toiled on the sugar plantation ? Has he taken the night for his friend, avoiding the day 1 Has he sped through cane brakes, hunted by hounds, suffering hunger, and heat, and cold by turns, until he has made his way to the far Northern States ? (Cheers.) Has he had this experience ? It is the word experience I call attention to. If his lordship says that it is his observation, I will accept the correction. I continue : — In railway carriages and hotels, the negroes were treated as pariahs and outcasts and never looked upon as men and brothers, but rather as dogs. (Cheers.) In all railway cars where Southerners travel, in all hotels where Southerners' money was the chief support, this is true. But I concede most frankly, that there has been occasion for such a statement : there has been a vicious prejudice in the North against the negro. It has been a part of my duty for the last sixteen years to protest against it. No decently dressed and well-behaved coloured man has ever had moles- tation or question on entering my church, and taking any seat he pleases ; not because I had influence with my people to prevent it, but because God gave me a people whose own good sense and conscience led them aright without me. But from this vantage ground it has been my duty to mark out the unrighteous prejudice from which the coloured people have suffered in the North ; and it is a part of the great moral revolution which is going on, that the prejudices have been in a great measure vanquished, and are now well nigh trodden down. In the city of New York there is one street railroad where coloured people cannot ride, but in the others they may, and in all the railroads of New England there is not one in which a coloured man would be questioned. I believe that the coloured man may start from the line of the British dominions in the North and traverse all New England and New York till he touches the waters of the Western lakes and never be molested or questioned, passing on as any decent white man would pass. But let me ask you how came there to be these prejudices 1 They did not exist before the War of Independence. How did they grow up 1 As one of the accursed offshoots of slavery. Where you make a race contemptible by oppression, all that belong to that race will participate in the odium, whether they ba free or slave. The South itself, by maintaining the oppressive insti- tution, is the guilty cause of whatever insult the free African has had to endure in the North. How next did that prejudice grow strong ? It was on account of the multitude of Irishmen who came to the States. (Cheers and interruption.) I declare my admiration for the Irish people, who have illustrated the page of history in every department of society. It is part of the fruit of ignorance, and, as they allege, of the oppi-ession which they have suffered — that it has made them oppressors. I bear witness that there is no class of people in America, who are so bitter against the coloured people, and so eager for slavery, as the ignorant, the poor, uninstructed Irishmen. ("Oh," and "hear," and "Three cheers for old Ireland.") But although there have been wrongs done to them in the North, the condition of the free coloured people in the North is unspeakably better than in the South. They own their wive? and children. (Hear, hear.) They have the right to select their place MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. 23 and their kind of labour ; their rights of property are protected just as much as ours are. The right of education is accorded to them. There is in the city of New York more than ten million dollars of property owned by free coloured people. (Hear.) They have their own schools ; they have their own churches ; their own orators, and there is no more gifted man, and no man whose superb eloquence more deserves to be listened to than Frederick Douglass. (Loud cheers.) Further : after the breaking out of this war, the good conduct of the slaves at the South and of the free coloured people at the North, has increased the kind feelings of the whites towards them ; and since they have begun to fight for their rights of manhood, a popular enthusiasm for them is arising. (Loud cheers.) I will venture to say, that there is no place on the earth where millions of coloured people stand in a position so auspicious for the future, as the free coloured men of the North and the freed slaves of the South. (Cheers.) I meant to have said a good deal more to you than I have, or than I shall have time to say. ("Go on.") I have endeavoured to place before you some of the facts which show that slavery was the real cause of this war, and that if it had to be legally decided whether North or South were guilty in this matter, there could be no question before any honourable tribunal, any jury, any deliberative body, that the South, from beginning to end, for the sake of slavery, has been aggressive, and the North patient. Since the war broke out, the North has been more and more coming upon the high ground of moral prin- ciple, until at length the government has decreed emancipation. It has been said very often in my hearing, and I have read it oftener since I have been in England — the last reading I had of it was from the pen of Lord Brougham — that the North is fighting for the Union, and not for the emancipation of the African. Why are we fighting for the Union, but because we believe that the Union and its government, administered now by Northern men, will work out the emancipation of every living being on the continent of America. (Loud cheering.) If it be meant that the North went into this war with the immediate object of the emancipation of the slaves, I answer that it never professed to do it; but it went into war for the Union, with the distinct and expressed conviction on both sides, that, if the Union were maintained, slavery could not live long. (Cheers.) Do you suppose that it is wise to separate the interest of the slave from the interest of the other people on the continent, and to inaugurate a policy which takes in him alone % He must stand or fall with all of us — (hear, hear), — and the only sound policy for the North is that which shall benefit the North, the South, the blacks and the whites. (Cheers.) "We hold that the maintenance of the Union as expounded in its fundamental principles by the decla- ration of independence and the constitution, is the very best way to secure to the African ultimately his rights and his best estate. The North was like a ship carrying passengers, tempest tossed, and while the sailors were labouring, and the captain and officers directing, some grumblers came up from amongst the passengers and said, " Yoti «re all the time working to save the ship, but you don't care to save the pas- sengers." I should like to know how you would save the passengers so well as bv takina: care of the ship. 24 MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. [At this point the Chairman read to the meeting a telegram relative to the seizure of the rams at Liverpool. The effect was startling. The audience rose to their feet, while cheer after cheer was given.] Allow me to say this of the coloured people, our citizens (for in New York coloured people vote, as they do also in Massachusetts and in several other Northern States ; — Lord Wharncliffe notwithstanding) : — it is a subject of universal remark, that no men on either side have carried themselves more gallantly, more bravely, than the coloured regi- ments that have been fighting for their government and their liberty. My own youngest brother is colonel of one of those regiments, and from him I learn many most interesting facts concerning them. The son of one of the most estimable and endeared of my friends in my congrega- tion was the colonel of the regiment which scaled the rampart of Fort "Wagner. Colonel Shaw fell at the head of his men — hundreds fell — and when inquest was made for his body, it was reported by the Southern men in the fort that he had been "buried with his niggers ;" and on his gravestone yet it shall be written, " The man that dared to lead the poor and the oppressed out of their oppression, died with them and for them, and was buried with them." (Cheers.) On the Mississippi the conduct of the coloured regiments is so good, that, although many of the officers who command them are Southern men, and until recently had the strongest Southern prejudices, those prejudices are almost entirely broken down, and there is no difficulty whatever in finding officers, Northern or Southern, to take command of just as many of these regiments as can be raised. It is an honourable testimony to the good conduct and courage of these long-abused men, whom God is now bringing by the Red Sea of war out of the land of Egypt and into the land of promise. (Cheers.) I have said that it would give me great pleasure to answer any courteous questions that might be proposed to me. If I cannot answer them I will do the next best thing, — tell you so. (Hear.) The length to which this meeting has been protracted, and the very great conviction that I seem to have wrought by my remarks on this Pentecostal occasion in yonder Gentile crowd — (loud laughter) — admonish me that we had better open some kind of "meeting of inquiry." (Renewed laughter.) It will give me great pleasure, as a gentleman, to receive questions from any gentleman — (hear, heai'), — and to give such reply as is in my power. The rev. gentleman remained standing for a few moments, as if to give the opportunity of interrogation, but no one rising to question him, he sat down amidst great cheers. The speech lasted nearly two- and-a-quarter hours. The CHAIRMAN then declared the business of the meeting to be at an end, and expressed his thanks for the good order which had been maintained, contrary to certain illnatured predictions. (Cheers and laughter.) The chair having been taken by Mr. Bazley, a vote of thanks to Mr. Taylor for having presided was moved by Mr. BEECHER, seconded by Mr. S. "WATTS, jun., and passed by acclamation. Mr. TAYLOR, in returning thanks, said that it was a subject of MANCHESTER — PUBLIC MEETING. 25 congratulation that the enemies to their cause would now- be prevented from saying, as they had falsely said before, that the meeting had broken up in confusion. (Loud cheers.) The National Anthem was then played on the organ, and the audience dispersed, several hundreds previously pressing round Mr. Beecher, to shake hands with him. GLASGOW- OCTOBEE 13, 1863. REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AT THE MEETING HELD AT THE CITY HALL. The public meeting "announced to be held in tbe City Hall, to hear an address on " The American Crisis," by the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, took place last night. The hour appointed for the opening of proceedings was seven o'clock, and long before that time the Hall was filled to excess by a crowd that waited in silence till the entrance of the speaker of the evening on the platform, accompanied by Bailie Govan and a number of clergymen and city councillors. Bailie GOYAN, on taking the chair, read the advertisement calling the meeting ; after which he said — It is not my intention, ladies and gentlemen, to detain you on this occasion bv any observations of mine on the tremendous conflict on the other side of the Atlantic. With the convictions which I hold in reference to the origin and nature of the struggle, I dare not, standing here, utter one word in favour of the South. (Cheers, hisses, and renewed applause.) And I am quite willing, on this occasion, to leave the advocacy of the North to our distinguished friend who is this evening to address us. (Cheers.) I have no doubt that he has come here to-night fully prepared to plead the cause of his country with all that eloquence of which he is the master. He comes among us because of the admiration, and respect, and love that he feels for the British nation. (Hear, and applause.) He has not been an abolitionist only since South Carolina voted secession ; he has not been an emancipationist only because he felt that emancipation was necessary to carry to success the objects of the Union ; but ever since he entered into public life his voice has been raised and his energies have been devoted, in troublous times as in j^eaceful times, in times of danger to himself as well as in times of security and safety, in behalf of the down-trodden humanity of the South. (Cheers.) I have no doubt that when he rises to address you he will speak out of the fulness of the love that flows within his heart towards the British people, and he would desire to have from you such a reciprocation of that feeling as will make him feel, and make his friends on the other side of the Atlantic feel, that peace and amity between Great Britain and the American Republic must be eternal. (Applause.) I will not longer occupy your time, but beg to introduce to the meeting the Rev. Dr. Anderson. GLASGOW — PUBLIC MEETING. 27 Dr. ANDERSON, who was received with great applause, said — There are two things which would be exceedingly preposterous were I to attempt to perpetrate them. The first is, were I to attempt to engage your attention for more than five minutes, if even so many. The second is, if I were to execute the commission which friends have, I think very foolishly, entrusted to me, to introduce Mr. Ward Beecher. Introduce him to you ! I intend to introduce you to him. (Laughter and applause.) You are all already, to a very great extent, familiar with him. All that you need, friends, to make you more familiar with him is that you should see his countenance and hear his living voice. (Hear, hear.) The Rev. HENRY WARD BEECHER, who, after the applause with which he was greeted when he rose had subsided, said — Mr. Chair- man, ladies, and gentlemen : No one who has been born and reared in Scotland can know the feeling with which, for the first time, such a one as I have visited this land, classic in song and in history. I have been reared in a country whose history is brief. So vast is it, that one might travel night and day for all the week, and yet scarcely touch historic ground. Its history is yet to be written; it is yet to be acted. But I come to this land, which, though small, is as full of memories as the heaven is of stars, and almost as bright. (Applause.) There is not the most insignificant piece of water that does not make my heart thrill with some story of heroism, or some remembered poem ; for not only has Scotland had the good fortune to have had men that knew how to make heroic history, but she has reared those bards who have known how to sing her histories. (Applause.) And every steep and every valley, and almost every single league on which my feet have trod, have made me feel as if I was walking in a dream. I never expected to feel my eyes ovex v flow with teal's of gladness, that 1 had been permitted in the prime of life to look upon dear old Scotland. (Applause.) For your historians have taught us history, your poets have been the charm of our firesides, your theologians have enriched our libraries: from your philosophers — Reid, Brown, and Stewart — we have derived the elements of our philosophy, and your scientific researches have greatly stimulated the study of science in our land. I come to Scotland, almost as a pilgrim would go to Jerusalem, to see those scenes whose story had stirred my imagination from my earliest youth ; and I can pay no higher compliment than to say that having seen some pari of Scotland 1 am satisfied, and permit me to say that if, when you know me, you are a thousandth part as satisfied with me as I am with you, we shall get along very well together. (Applause.) And yet, although I am not of a yielding mood — (a laugh) — nor easily daunted, I have some embarrassment in speaking to you to-night. I know very well that there are not a few things which prevent me doing a good work among you. I differ greatly from many of you. I respect, although I will not adopt, your opinions. I can only ask as much from you for myself. I am aware that a personal prejudice has been diligently excited against me. There is also the vastness of the subject on which I am about to speak, and the dissimilar institutions of the two countries which stand in my way. There are also those perplexities which arise from conflicting 28 GLASGOW — PUBLIC MEETING. statements made to you. There is also a supposed antagonism between British and American interests. Now I shall not consider any of these points to-night except the first. It is not a pleasant avenue to a speech for a man to walk through himself. (Laughter.) But since every pains is taken to misrepresent me, let me once for all deal with that matter. In my own land I have been the subject of misrepresenta- tion and abuse so long, that when I did not receive it, I felt as though something was wanting in the atmosphere. (Laughter and applause.) I have been the object of misrepresentation at home, simply and only because I have been arrayed ever since I had a voice to speak and a heart to feel — body and soul, I have been arrayed, without regard to consequences and to my own reputation or my own ease, against that which I consider the damning sin of my country and the shame of human nature — slavery. (Great applause.) I thought I had a right, when I came to Great Britain, to expect a different reception ; but I found that the insidious correspondence of men in America had poisoned the British mind, and that representations had been made which predisposed men to receive me with dislike. And, principally, the representations were that I had indulged in the most offensive language, and had threatened all sorts of things, against Great Britain. Now allow me to say that, having examined that interesting literature, so far as I have seen it pub- lished in British newspapers, I here declare that ninety-nine out of one hundred parts of those things that I am charged with saying I never said and never thought — they are falsehoods wholly, and in particular. (Great applause.) Allow me next to say that I have been accustomed freely, and at all times, at home to speak what I thought to be sober truth both of blame and of praise of Great Britain, and if you do not want to hear a man express his honest sentiments fearlessly, then I do not want to speak to you. (Applause.) If I never spared my own country — (hear, hear) — if I never spared the American church, nor the government, nor my own party, nor my personal friends, did you expect I would treat you better than I did those of my own country 1 (Applause.) For I have felt from the first that I hold a higher allegiance than any I owe to man — to God, and to that truth which is God's ordinance in human affairs, and for the sake of that higher truth, I have loved my country, but I have loved truth more than my country. (Applause.) I have heard the voice of my Master, saying, " If any man come unto me and hate not father, and mother, and brother, and sister, yea, and his own life also, he is not worthy of me." When therefore the cause of truth and justice is put in the scale against my own country, I would disown country for the sake of truth ; and when the cause of truth and justice is put in the scale against Great Britain, I would disown her rather than betray what I understood to be the truth. (Applause.) We are bound to establish liberty, regulated Christian liberty, as the law of the American Continent. This is our destiny, this is that towards which the education of the rising generation has been more and more assidu- ously directed as the peculiar glory of America — to destroy slavery, and root it out of our land, and to establish in its place a discreet, intelligent, constitutional, regulated, Christian liberty. We have accepted this GLASGOW — PUBLIC MEETING. 29 destiny and this task : and if in accomplishing this a part of our own people opposes us, we shall go right against our people to that destiny. (Applause.) If France undertakes to interfere, and to say "You shall not," much as we would regret to be at war with any nation on the globe, or with France in particular, who befriended us in our eai'ly struggles and trials; still the cause of liberty is dearer to us than any foreign alliance, and we shall certainly say " Stand off, this is our work, and must not be hindered." If they bring war to us, they shall have war. For no foreign nation shall meddle with impunity with our domestic struggle. If Great Britain herself, tied to us by so many interests, endeared by so many historic associations, — to whom we can never pay the debt of love we owe her for those men who wrought out, in fire and blood, those very principles of civil liberty for which we are now contending, — yet, if even Britain shall openly or secretly seek the establishment on our national territory of an Independent slaveholding empire, we will denounce her word and deed ;— and, terrible and cruel as will be the necessity, we will, if we must, oppose arms to arms. If Great Britain is for slavery, I am against Great Britain. (Cheers.) If Great Britain is true to her instincts, and the interests of her illustrious history, and to her own documents, laws, and institutions ; if she is yet in favour of liberty, as she has always been here and everywhere in the world, I am for Great Britain ; and shall be proud of my blood and boast that I have a share in your ancestral glory. My prayer shall be that Great Britain and America, joined in religion and in liberty, may march shoulder to shoulder in the grand enterprise of bearing the bless- ings of religion and liberty around the globe. (Cheers.) The Slave States may be divided into two classes — the Fai'mirig States and the Plantation States. The farming States are Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, and parts of Tennessee and North Carolina. The lands there are devoted to a mixed husbandry, such as of corn, or maize, wheat, oats, grass, tobacco, and the grazing of herds of cattle. The farms generally are not large. In those States slave labour is not profitable, and cannot be so. Slave-breeding is profitable, but not the labour of slaves. The plantation States are South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas — eight. These States do not pursue a mixed husbandry. They raise principally cotton, sugar, rice, and tobacco, but chiefly the two great staples — cotton and sugar. They buy the principal part of their food, and almost all manu- factured products. The pails they carry their water in are made in New England ; their broom handles, their pins, glass, stone, iron, and tinware, and all their household furniture, are the manufacture of the North. There are some local exceptions, but what I state is sub- stantially true of the slave-States of the extreme South. Now, consider some facts. The labour of slaves in the farming States does not pay. Why 1 Because mixed farming requires much more skill than slaves have. Slave labour must always be applied to the production of rude and raw material. You cannot go much farther than that. Slave labour is rarely ever skilled labour ; that would require too much brain, and its development is not consistent with the condition of the slave. SO GLASGOW — PUBLIC MEETING. Moreover, slaves are too costly. In the farming States they are better off, and therefore tbey are more expensive; for a man is expensive just in proportion as he rises in the scale of civilisation, as I shall show you more at length in a moment. The object of slavery therefore in the Northern slave States is not the production of tobacco, or corn, or maize, or wheat, or cattle, or dairy products ; — the whole profit of slavery in tbe Northern slave States is in breeding slaves. (Hear, hear, and sensation.) Virginia has raised as much as $-24,000,000 a year for slaves sold South. (Hear, hear.) I will read you the testimony of a gentleman from the slave States. The editor of the Virginia Times, in 1836, made a calculation that 150,000 slaves went out of the State during the year, that 80,000 of them went with their owners who re- moved, leaving 40,000 who were sold, at an average price of $600, amounting to $'24,000,000. You can not understand anything about slavery until you are admitted into the secrets of raising slaves as colts and calves are raised for market, and begin to see the inside of this, the most detestable and infernal system that the sun ever shone upon. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) But you may say that this is so only in Virginia. I ask your attention to the words of Henry Clay. In 1829 he said before the Colonization Society, "It is believed that nowhere in the farming portions of the United States would slave labour be generally employed if the proprietors were not tempted to raise slaves by the high prices of the Southern market." That is Mr. Clay's testimony, a Kentuckian, a slaveholder, and certainly he ought to know. Political reasons also help to keep up slavery in these States, and some personal reasons of which I shall not speak. These Northern slave States would emancipate their slaves if it were not that the cotton States give them a market. Gentlemen, you abhor the African slave trade. Let me tell you that the domestic slave trade of America is unspeakably worse. Bred amidst churches, refinements, and compara- tive civilization, they are capable of a thousand pangs more of suffering at ruthless separations than if they were yet but savages. I call your attention to a few propositions then, in reference to slavery as it exists in the extreme Southern States. And first, the system of slavery re- quires ignorance in the slave, and not alone intellectual but moral and social ignorance. Anybody who is a slaveholder will find that there are reasons which will compel him to keep slaves in ignorance, if he is going to keep them at all. Not because intelligence is more difficult to govern ; for with an intelligent people government is easier. The more you develop a man's intellect, the niore you make him capable of self-government; and the more you keep him in ignorance, the more is he the subject of arbitrary government. Virtue and intelligence compel leniency of government ; but ignorance and vice compel tyranny in government. (Hear, hear.) These things follow a natural law. The slave would not be less easily governed, if he were educated. If the slaveholder taught him to read and write, if he made him to know what he ought to know as one of God's dear children, the South would not be so much endangered by insurrection as she is now. There is nothing so terrible as explosive ignorance. Men without an GLASGOW — PUBLIC MEETING. 31 idea, striking blindly and passionately, are the men to "be feared. Even if the slaves were educated, they would be better slaves. What is the reason then that slaves must be kept in ignorance 1 The real reason is one of expense. In order to make slave labour profitable, you must reduce the cost of the slave ; for the difference between the profit and the loss tiirns upon the halfpenny per pound. If the price of slaves goes up, and cotton goes down a shade in price, in ordinary times the planters lose. The rule is therefore, to reduce the cost of the man ; and the slave to be profitable must be simply a working creature. What does a man cost that is a slave ? Just a little meal and a little pork, a small measure of the coarsest cloth and leather, that is all he costs. Because that is all he needs — the lowest fare and the scantiest clothing. He is a man with two hands and two feet, and a belly. That is all there is of a profitable slave. But every new development within him which religion shall make — the sense of fatherhood, the wish for a home, the desire to rear his children well, the wish to honour and comfort his wife, every taste, every sentiment, every aspiration, will demand some external thing to satisfy it. His being augments. He demands more time. He strives to organize that little kingdom in which every human being has a right to be king, in which love is crowned, — the family ! It is this that makes an educated slave too expensive for profit. Profitable slaveholding requires only so much intelligence as will work well, and only so much religion as will make men patient under suffering and abuse. More than that — more conscience, more ambition, more divine ideas of human nature, of men's dignity, of house- hold virtue, of Christian refinement, only make the slave too costly in his tastes. Not only does the degradation of the slave pass over to his work, but it affects all labour, even when performed by free white men. Throughout the South' there is the most marked public disesteem of honest homely industry. It is true that in the mountainous portions of the South-west, North Carolina, Northern Georgian, Eastern Tennessee, and Western Virginia, where slaves are few, and where a hardy people for the most part perform their own agricultural labours, there is less disci'edit attached to homely toil than in the rich alluvial districts where sugar and cotton culture demand exclusive slave labour. But even in the most favoured portions of iue South, manual labour is but barely redeemed from the taint of being a slave's business, and no- where is it honoured as it is in the great and free North. Whereas, in the richer and more influential portions of the South, labour is so degraded that men are ashamed of it. It is a badge of dishonour. The poor and shiftless whites, unable to own slaves, unwilling to work them- selves, live in a precarious and wretched manner, but a little removed from barbarism, relying upon the chase for much of their subsistence, and affording a melancholy spectacle of the condition into which the reflex influence of slavery throws the neighbouring poor whites. Having turned their own industry over to slaves, and established the province and duties of a gentleman to consist in indolence and politics, it is not strange that they hold the people of the North in great con- tempt. The North is a vast hive of universal industry. Idleness there 32 GLASGOW— PUBLIC MEETINO, is as disreputable as is labour iu the South. The child's earliest lesson is faithful industry. The boy works) the man works. Every- where through all the North men earn their own living by their own industry and ingenuity. They scorn to be dependent. They revolt at the dishonour of living upon the unrequited labour of others. Honest labour is that highway along which the whole body of the Northern people travel towards wealth and usefulness. From Northern looms the South is clothed. From their anvils come all Southern implements of labour. From their lathes all modern ware. From their lasts Southern shoes. The North is growing rich by its own industry. The small class of slaveholders in the South have precarious wealth, but at the expense of the vast body of poor whites, who live from hand to mouth all their days. No wonder then, that Southerners have been wont to deride the free workmen of the North. Governor Hammond only gave ex- pression to the universal contempt of Southern slaveholders for work and workmen, when he called the Northern labourer the " mudsill of society" and stigmatized the artizan, as the " greasy mechanic." The North and the South alike live by work; the North by their own work, the South by that of their slaves ! Which is the more honourable P I have a right to demand of the workmen of Glasgow that they should refuse their sympathy to the South, and should give their hearty sympathy to those who are, like themselves, seeking to make work honourable, and to give to the workman his true place in society. Disguise it as they will, distract your attention from it as they may, it cannot be concealed, that the American question is the working mans question, all over the world ! The slave master's doctrine is that capital should own labour — that the employers should own the employed. This is Southern doctrine and Southern practice. Northern doctrine and Northern practice is that the labourer should be free, intelligent, clothed with full citizen's rights, with a share of the political duties and honours. The North has from the beginning crowned labour with honour. No where else on earth is it so honourable. The free States of the North and West, in America, are the paradise of labourers. One of the pre- disposing causes of the present conflict, was the extraordinary contrast of the riches of the North and the unthriftiness of the South, resulting from their respective doctrines of labour and the labourer ! It would seem as if Providence had demonstrated the wastefulness and mischiefs of every kind of despotism in church and in state, save one — despotism of work. For a grand and final contrast between the sin and guilt of labour-oppression, and the peace and glory of free-labour, he set apart the Western continent. That the trial might be above all suspicion, to the right he gave the meagre soil, the austere climate, short summers, long and rigorous winters. To the wrong he gave fair skies, abundant soils, vallej s of the tropics teeming with almost spontaneous abundance. The Christian doctrine of work has made New England a garden, while Virginia is a wilderness. The free North is abundantly rich, the South bankrupt ! Every element of prosperous society abounds in the North, and is lacking in the South. There is more real wealth in the simple little State of Massachusetts than in any ten Southern States. In the GLASGOW — PUBLIC MEETING. 33 free States every thing flourishes, in the slave States everything languishes. I point to the North and say, behold the testimony of Providence for free labour ! I point to the South, and say, behold the legitimate results of slave labour ! Oppression is as accursed in the field as it is upon the throne. It is as odious before God, under the slavedriver's hat, as under the prince's crown, or the priest's mitre. All the world over, slavery is detestable, and bears the curse of God everywhere ! The South has complained bitterly of this indisputable sxiperiority of the North in the elements of national wealth and general prosperity. It has been charged to class-legislation, to Yankee shrewd- ness at the expense of honesty, and to downright advantage taken by Northern commerce. The- facts, are, however, that the legislation of the country has been controlled for fifty years by Southern influence. No class-legislation was possible except in her own favour. The North, so far from cheating the South, has itself been obliged largely to make up the wastes and squanderings of the improvident slave system. Southern bankruptcies have every ten years carried home to Northern creditors the penalty of complicity with slave labour. Besides this, the South has contributed less, and received more from the Federal Govern- ment, than the North. The peculiar nature of society under such industry and institutions made the functions of Government oppressive and expensive. Yet, with every partiality and favour of Government, and with the North for fifty years almost submissive to her will in public matters, the statesmen of the South beheld with dismay the mighty growth of the free States and the relative weakness of the slave States. To maintain equipollence, new territory must be acquired, and new States brought into the Union, that the fatal weakness resulting from slavery in the older States, might be compensated by the extent of the South, and by the number of votes in the Congress, — controlling legislation in their interest. Out of this radical conflict of free labour and slave labour, have sprung naturally the elements of this war. In the race, slavery has crippled itself. It therefore seeks to escape from institu- tions and influences that expose its folly, that reveal its degradation and poverty, and would inevitably, in due time, revolutionize and destroy it. Nol only is it true that the working men of England have an intei'est in this conflict, as a political struggle; but, as a conflict between the two grand systems — Slave labour and Free labour — it addresses it- self to every labouring man on the globe. If the North succeed and slavery be crushed, labouring men, all the world over, will be benefited. The American conflict is but one form of that contest which is going on in all nations. Men that live by the sweat of their brow are aspiring to more education, to a larger sphere of influence, to some share of political power, to some joint fruition of that wealth which they help to create. They ought to know their fellows. They ought to recognize in every land who are striving for them and who against. It is monstrous that British workmen should help Southern slaveholders to degrade labour. Are there not enough already to crush the poor and helpless labourers of the world, without English working men, too, joining the rebel gang of oppressors 1 Every word for the South is a blow against the slave ! o 84 GLASGOW — PUBLIC MEETING. Every stroke aimed at the slave rebounds upon the European labourer ! Join the slaveowner in making labour compulsory and dishonourable, and the slaveowner will unite with European extortioners in grinding the poor operatives here ! The North is truly fighting the battle of the labourer everywhere. The North honours work. When the labourer is educated, all doors are open to him, and it depends on his own powers and disposition whether he shall be a drudge or an honoured citizen. It will be a burning shame for British workmen to side against their own friends ! Consider now, for a moment, what were our respective divisions when this war broke out which has fused all parties into one in the North and one in the South. We are not to expect parties formed methodically to suit any philosophical or ethical theory. Such arrangements never happen in a land so large, so diverse in population, so free in the operation of opinions, and swayed by so many motives. Slavery had long exerted a grave influence upon the condition of the country before it was recog- nized in politics. Indeed, the first sign of the entrance of this vexed question into active politics was seen in the anxious endeavours of all parties to exclude it. The early anti-slavery men found themselves shut out from all parties, from ecclesiastical bodies, from every organization of society. They gathered adherents outside of all moral and civil in- stitutions. But nothing could long keep out a topic which was forced upon the North by the unwise and arrogant legislation of the South. At length the subject took complete possession of politics, and divided the whole public into parties. But I shall consider the division of opinions, rather than of parties, which are seldom homogeneous. There were three degrees of opinion. At the close of the war for independence the term abolitionist was applied to such men as Franklin, John Jay, &c, who united in societies for promoting the abolition of slavery. These societies died out, and the name was almost forgotten, till revived about 1830, and applied, then and since, exclusively to Mr. Garrison and his school. They regarded slavery as so established, and the institu- tions of the country as so controlled by its advocates, that all remedy was hopeless, and they urged an utter separation jrovi the South, as the only way of freeing the North from the guilt and contamination of slavery. There was no political difference between Mr. Garrison's disunion and Mr. Davis's secession. But the moral difference was world wide. The disunionists of the Garrison and Wendell Phillips school were seeking to promote liberty and to weaken slavery. Mr. Davis and his followers are seeking to strengthen slavery and to restrict liberty. But the abolitionists, though a heroic band, sought a right thing by a wrong method. Their joarty was never large, but their direct and indirect influence was great. Another section was repre- sented by the great body of moral and intelligent men in the North who held that slavery should be limited to its present territory : that, since it existed by State laws and not by national laws, it should be restricted to those States in which it was found de facto : that congress should leave it where it was, but defend the territories from its incursions ; that the government should be put into the hands of men who loved liberty more than slavery; that our courts should be purged of judges appointed to GLASGOW — PUBLIC MEETING. 35 •serve Southern interests. It was believed, and I was of this faith my- self, that, were slavery rigorously confined to existing bounds, and the institutions of the nation arrayed on the side of liberty, gradually natural laws, with commercial changes, and the exigencies of political economy, would work out a system of emancipation. These views were held by the North both in a latent and an active form, by men who were widely different in politics, and who sought different and even conflicting methods of enforcing them. The third section was represented by that class of men which exists in every land without moral convictions in public affairs, who regard politics as a game, and who look only at interest as the end of parties. To such were added vast numbers of ignorant emigrants. With a partial and honourable exception in favour of the Germans, it must be said that the great body of emigrants flying from foreign hardships and oppression joined the pro-slavery party in America, and arranged themselves against the negro. This has been the peculiar and chief difficulty of the North in political efforts. We owe to Europe, but chiefly to Great Britain, those hindrances that so long paralyzed political effort, and divided the action of the North. It will be seen by this brief view, that the Northern movement pro- posed no violence nor any precipitate action. We relied on the inherent superiority of free-labour to develope our embryo territories, and hoped that, with time and patience, moral influences, following the operation of great natural laws, would waste away slavery, without violence or revolution, and with benefit to both the bond and the free. The key- note of Northern policy was No moke Slave States — No moke legisla- tion in favour of slavery. Let it die by its own inherent diseases ! — Now let me speak of the South. What have been the divisions of the South ? There have been two tendencies there ; a more moderate and a more extreme party. The former attempted to maintain the South on the basis of slavery; by the multiplication of new States; by the acquisition of territories, and so directing the Government as to fortify slavery till it should stretch across the continent from ocean to ocean. That has been the object of the earlier and main party of the South. The second was the South Carolina party, who date from Mr. Calhoun's time. This party meant to break off from the Union as soon as they were strong enough. Just as long as anything was to be gained by staying, so long they meant to stay ; but as soon as nothing more was to be gained, they meant to go. They included the former plan, but more also. They designed, first, separate national existence as the ultimate aim of the Southern States ; and secondly, the inclusion of the tropics of America in a gigantic cotton-growing slave empire. They meant, ere long, to seize Mexico and central America ; to include the vast central American tropical oceanica, and spread slavery over all. They proudly said — Cotton is king ! and if we have cotton and the means of raising it, we can control the destiny of the globe ! They meant also to re-open the African slave trade for the purpose of cheapening negi'oes, who are the most expensive item of labour. In South Carolina this scheme was unblushingly and openly advocated ; and if I had lived in the South and been a slaveholder, I 36 GLASGOW — PUBLIC MEETING. should have heen of that party. What! an advocate of the African slave trade 1 Yes, I should ! The day that I make up my mind to keep slaves, I shall have to keep them ignorant ; and if I live in the cotton States, I am not likely to pay Virginia, under a home-tariff, a thousand dollars for a slave that I can import from Africa for three hundred dollars. The fact is, the law that makes the foreign slave trade piracy is nothing but a high tariff in favour of the slave breeding States : and the States that do not breed slaves, say, — That tariff must be taken off; if Africa can produce the material cheaper than Virginia, we must have the advantage of it. I declare too, that the inter- State slave trade of America is in many most important respects more cruel than the roughest part of the African slave trade. To bring up men under the gospel ; to bring up women with some of the tender susceptibilities of womanhood, and more than half their blood white blood, — to rear them in your household, and then, — if bankruptcy threatens, or exigencies press, . to call out your valuable slaves from a Virginian plantation and sell them to the slave master, to manacle them, — to drive in gangs men reared under the sound of the bell of the Christian Church, — who have acquired something of refinement in their masters' families — to carry them down South in droves of fifties and hundreds, as is done on every great street and road of the middle States, — is I say, more infernal, more wicked, by as much as these northern -bred slaves are more tender, susceptible and intelligent, than . the poor half-imbruted African. If God sends one bolt at the ship that brings slaves from Africa, double-shotted thunders are aimed at every gang master that drives them from the Northern slave States, to the Southern. (Applause.) It was perfectly natural that South Carolina should include in its project of aggrandizement the opening of the African slave trade ; and every freeman in Great Britain that goes for the South, really goes for the opening of that trade. (Cheers and hisses.) When you put a drunken engineer to drive a train, you may not mean to come to any harm, but when you are in that train you cannot help yourselves. It is just the same here. You do not mean the slave trade, but they do ; and all that they ask of you is — "to be blind." (Laughter and applause.) This Southern plan thus includes the opening of the slave trade for the sake of cheapening negroes, and the secession threw the control of the whole South into the hands of these extremists. You may not be aware that when Secession was projitosed, after the election of Lincoln every State by its popular vote, went against secession, except South Carolina. Well, that might have seemed a fatal obstacle. Not at all. The leaders of this extreme party immediately began to work upon the legislatures either to call conventions or to act as conventions, and pass secession acts. The States were carried out of the Union into secession notwithstanding the vote of the people not many months before. How was it that Tennessee was carried out? — how was even such a state as Georgia carried out 1 — how was Alabama carried out against such a man as Mr. Stephens, the vice-president of the Confi d 'racy — a man who, though on the wrong side, is the best man, I think, in the whole GLASGOW — PUBLIC MEETING. 87 Southern States of America — (applause) — and — if it were not for the accursed surrounding of slavery — is as true and far sighted a states- man as we have ever had in America. How did they carry ont these States by their legislatures 1 They said to the members of the legisla- tures throughout the South, " the North never stood in a fair stand-up fight. It was always anxious about its mills and stores and its money. They will rouse up at first, but whenever it comes to the last, and we threaten fire and bloodshed, they always knuckle under." Well, I am ashamed to say there was too much truth in this. Commercial interest on one side, and a desire for peace and love of the Union on the other, had always led the North to yield to Southern threats. But that was ended. A new spirit had arisen. The North now for the first time thoroughly believed that the South aimed to nationalize slavery. The North never had believed that it was worth while to agitate the controversy, until the outrageous conduct of the South in Kansas brought the North to its consciousness. Since then it has been true as steel. Well, the South said, "the North will not willingly see us go out of the Union — that is a mere ruse on our part : we will go out by ' secession,' and say, we will come back if you give us new guarantees. Even if they will not do that, there will be no war ; for the North will not fight us." With these arguments the legislatures were won, and the secession was accomplished in the greater number of the slave States. The upper classes thought, that secession was only a political trick, through which they were to go back into a reconstructed Union, with guarantees inserted for the nationalization of slavery and for its extension all over the continent. But at this time there happened to be more or less of conference between friends in the North and friends in the South, and it seemed as if the consummation would be prevented. Virginia had refused persistently to pass the secession ordinance. The convention that was by the popular vote elected in Virginia was known to be immensely in favour of remaining in the Union. It was necessary that something should be done to prevent Virginia standing out with the North, and it was done. The gang of slave drivers in Richmond intimidated the members of the convention. When the history shall be written, the fact will appear, that numbers of convention-men were made afraid for their lives. They were told almost in so many words, " You shall never leave Richmond alive, if you fail to vote secession." It was voted, but secretly, and it was not known in Virginia for weeks. I was myself a fellow passenger with one man, who was making a circuitous journey throughout the North to get home alive to his farm in the Western part of Virginia, because he had been true, and refused to vote for secession, even secretly. It was to commit the South, to fire the wavering, and arouse the sectional blood, that orders were sent by telegraph from Washington by the Southern conspirators who were lurking there — " Open your batteries on Fort Sumter." And they fired at that glorious old tlag, which had carried the honour of the American name round the globe, in order that they might take Virginia out of the Union, and compel the North to submit either to a degrading compromise, or to 38 GLASGOW — PUBLIC MEETING. the independence of the South. That is the history of the matter. (Applause.) Now let me speak of the North. Oh how I wish you could have seen the North ! I have stood on the summit of the noblest moun- tains in Switzerland : I have seen whatever that country had to show me of mountain peak, of more than royal mountains of clouds of glaciers : I have seen the beauties of Northern Italy : I have seen the glories of the ocean : I have seen whatever Nature has to show of her sublimity on land and on sea : but the grandeur of the uprising of the Northern people, when the thunder of the first cannon rolled through their valleys and over their hills, was something beyond all these ; nor do I expect, till the judgment day fills me with wondering awe, to see such a sight again. There had been a secret agreement with a portion of the democratic leaders in the North, that they were to side with the South, and paralyze Northern resistance. But with stern unanimity the public mutterings denounced complicity with the South as a treason worthy of death. The astounding outburst of patriotic feeling terri- fied even such men as the two Woods, and they made haste to join the rolling tide. No rainbow was ever so decked with colour as was Broadway with flags. Bunting went up in the market. (Laughter.) High and low, rich and poor, democratic and republican, men that had been for the South, and men that had been for the North, found themselves in company. It is said that misery makes one acquainted with strange bedfellows, but patriotism makes even stranger trans- formations. I found men that were ready to mob me yesterday for my anti-slavery agitations, were ready to denounce me to-day because I was not anti-slavery enough. Propelled by this universal feeling, the Government of the United States began — to do what 1 To defend the laws and the constitution. If they had failed to do this, if when the Government and the country was threatened by this rebellion, they had faltered, not Judas, not the meanest traitor that has ever been execrated through all time, would have surpassed them in ignominy. (Cheers.) I have been asked, would it not have been better to negotiate 1 What ! with cannon balls firing right into your midst ! (Bear, hear.) The other side was using powder and balls, and you propose to us wad and paper ! The day for talking was gone by for ever. They had talked too much already. It was then the day for action. (Cheers.) Men in England, Scotland, or Ireland, ask me, why did you not consent to let them go, since the whole Southern economy is so opposed to Northern 1 Only on the single matter of slavery is there any antagonism. If that were to be an increasing and perpetual evil, many men would assent to separation who now do not. But we believe it to be a removable evil. The nature of our institutions is against it. The laws of nature are against it. The conscience of the nation, the public sentiment of Christendom, are against it. The real and general interest of the South itself is opposed to it. Free labour in place of slave labour would be the greatest boon that could be conferred upon the Southern States. Men that profit by slavery are but a handful ; all the rest suffer from its deadly, wasting nature. If then a limit can be placed to its growth, and it can be subjected to the unobstructed influences of GLASGOW — PUBLIC MEETING. 39 natural, moral, and civil laws, it will quickly begin to decay and give place to a healthier system. Already the tendency had in many sections been established ; and, as it was this fervent hope of a peaceful ending of slavery that disinclined thousands of conscientious men in the North to meddle with it, so now it is the same wish to see slavery ended that leads them to refuse their consent to a separation, which not only dismembers the nation, but gives a new lease of life to slavery, and opens for it a dark empire full of sorrow and, tears and blood within, of quarrels and wars without, an empire of belligerent mischiefs to all. When I am asked, Why not let the South go ? I return for an answer a question. Be pleased to tell me what part of the British Islands you are willing to let go from under the crown when its inhabitants secede and set up for independence ? If you say ten or fifteen States, with twelve millions of inhabitants, are not to be compared to the county of Kent. I say, they are to be compared to Kent. For that county bears a greater proportion to the square miles of the British Islands than the rebellious States do to the whole territory of the Union. But the right or wrong of such rebellions are not questions in arithmetic. Numbers do not change civil obligations. Secession was an appeal from the ballot to the bullet. It was not a noble minority defying usurpation or despotism in the assertion of fundamental rights. It was a despotism, which, when put to shame by the will of a free people, expressed through the ballot-box, rushed into rebellion as the means of perpetuating slavery. Northern sentiment, and great natural laws, were preparing the way for the emancipation of four million of slaves : thereupon eight million whites broke allegiance and withdrew from a free government in order to maintain this slave system ; and that is praised, in Great Britain, as a heroic struggle for independence ! Whose independence, the white man's or the black man's ? Unreflecting men are deceived by the instances of colonies in the past, such as the American colonies, breaking off from the parent Government, and asserting their independence. A remote colony, an outlying and separate territory, whose autonomy is already practically established, and whose connection with the home government is not intimate, territo- rial, adjacent, but only political, — is not to be compared with home- territory, geographically touching the country along its whole line. This is not cutting off a foot, or a hand. It is cutting across the body right under the heart. The line of fracture proposed by the South, is not a stone's throw from the national capital. France might consent to let Algiers go, but would she let a north and south line be run touching the city of Paris, on the east, and separating all the territory east from her dominions ? Great Britain might suffer the Canadas to secede from the crown ; but would she suffer an east and west line to be run along the edge of London, and all the territory south of it, to pass into hostile hands 1 Yet this is the very case of America. Secession accomplished will leave Washington toppling on the edge of the Southern abyss, in whose lurid future loom the elements of quarrel, collision, and terrific war. In asserting the integrity of our territory under the national Government, we shut that door, through which 40 GLASGOW — PUBLIC MEETING. threaten to come just such, storms as have for hundreds of years past deluged Europe with blood. Better a single gigantic struggle now than a hundred years of intermittent wars, ending in treacherous truces, and breaking out again at every decade in fierce conflict. I shall now refer to the astonishing pretence that this war has nothing to do with slavery ! Never has the South asserted this. The interest of slavery was the very ground alleged for rebellion, and the justification put in for it. Slavery having been adopted as the central principle of Southern political economy, — her politics having for thirty years avowedly and indis- putably moved around that centre, — all her quarrels with the North having been about slavery, directly or indirectly, — the issues of the last Presidential election Laving been issues made upon this very question of slavery, — all her principal statesmen having made interferences with slavery wrongs at the hands of the North — wrongs in the past or feared in the future — the very reason of rebellion, — the whole interior history of America for seventy years having been wound up on this spool, — what amazing impudence do they manifest, who, calculating on the ignorance of the British public, dare to affii-m, that slavery has nothing to do loith this war ! Slavery has been the very alphabet of the war. Every letter of its history has been taken from the fount of slavery. The whole black literature of the war has been drawn from slavery ! To be sure there is a division of opinion in America, whether the five States of the South, or the Abolitionists of the North, are most to blame for making slavery the occasion of the war ; but not a sane man on our whole continent can be found denying that slavery is the root of it ! You can- not point to a war either in ancient or modern times, that has turned so much upon fundamental principles as this one between the North and the South. There is the South with her gigantic system of slavery, and there is the North with her freedom, her free soil, free labour, free speech, and her free press ; and the question is, which oj these two shall govern the American continent? (Applause.) The North preferred to settle .this question by discussion, by moral influence, by legal and con- stitutional means ; but the South threw down the gauntlet, refused a convention, and fired on the old flag ; and now her minions are whining and crying in England because the North will make war ! If they did not like blows, why did they strike them ? I will admit that the South is as gallant a people as ever lived ; I will admit that when they shall come back to the Union, as they will — (applause, and cries of " never," and waving of handkerchiefs) — they will come back — (a voice, "never.") — Perhaps you will not, but — (laughter) — they will. ("Never;" a voice, " they are Anglo-Saxon and will never come back.") Why, if I thought that this thing was to be fought out here, I would say it over and over again till daylight broke ; but not your breath denying or mine affirming will alter the issue. The Grants, the Bosecranzes, the Bankses inhst do that. (Hisses.) But when the South shall come back into the Union — ("never") — we shall honour them more than ever we did for their good management and courage. (Applause.) There are some things that men may pay too much to find out ; but if the South, by paying the blood of thrice ten thousand of her sons, finds out that liberty is GLASGOW — PUBLIC MEETING. 41 better than slavery, she will not have paid a drop too much. (Applause.) The triumph of the North in this conflict will be the triumph of free institutions, even if the Northern people and Government could be proved to have been delinquent, in every individual and in every public officer. Large as is our country, independent in opinions, and hitherto divided in sentiment about slavery, — never was any people so sincere, so religiously earnest, as is now the North. But, what if its people were insincere, its president a trickster, his emancipation proclamation a hollow pretence ? What if the North were as cruel to coloured people as slavery is 1 All that would not change the inevitable fact, that the triumph of the North carries with it her free institutions all over the continent ! It is a war of Principles and of Institutions. The victory will be a victory of Principles and of Institutions. This is avowed by the South as well as by us. If the North prevails, she carries over the continent her pride of honest work, her free public schools, her home- stead law, which gives to every man who will occupy it a hundred and sixty acres of land ; her free press, her love and habit of free speech, her untmDg industry, her thrift, frugality, and morality, and above all her democratic ideas of human rights, and her Old English notions of a commonwealth, transmitted to her from Sydney, Hampden, Yane, Milton ; and not least, her free churches with their vast train of charities and beneficences ! These results do not depend upon the will of in- dividuals. They go with the society, the civilization, the ineradicable nature of those Northern democratic institutions which are in conflict with Southern despotic institutions. If then any one says, I cannot give my sympathy to the Northern cause, because the people of the North are just as bad as the people of the South, I first utterly deny the fact, but next, for the sake of argument, I for a moment yield it, and reply that the institutions of the North are not so bad as the institutions of the South, even if the people are. This is a war of institutions, not simply of races. It is not necessary to look into the motives of her individual citizens. Look into the spirit and structure of Northern society. Look at her history and see in the vast Western States what is the result of the ascendancy of her ideas. Look into those great natural laws which have generated and controlled her civilization ! But I return to the shameless and impudent assertion that the North is not sincere in this conflict. True, the North has her own ways of managing her own affairs. She is guided by the genius of her own institutions, and not by the whims of unsympathizing critics three thousand miles off, ignorant of her ideas, history, institutions, emergencies, and difficulties. But there has never before, since time began, been a spectacle like that in America. A million men have been on foot in the army and navy, every man a volunteer, the best blood of the North, her workmen, her farmers and artizans, her educated sons, lawyers, doctors, ministers of the gospel, young men of wealth and refinement, side by side with the modest sons of tod, and every man a volunteer ! They have come, not like the Goths and Huns from a wandering life or inclement skies, to seek fairer skies and richer soil; but from homes of luxury, from cultivated farms, from busy workshops, from literary labours, from the bar, the pulpit, and the 42 GLASGOW — PUBLIC MEETING. exchange, thronging around the old national flag that had symbolized liberty to mankind, all moved by a profound love of country, and firmly, fiercely determined that the mother land shall not be divided, especially not in order that slavery may scoop out for itself a den of refuge from Northern civilization, and an empire to domineer over all the American tropics ! It is this sublime patriotism which, on every side, I hear stigmatized as the mad rush of national ambition ! Has then the love of country run so low in Great Britain, that the rising of a nation to defend its territory, its government, its flag, and all the institutions over which it has waved, is a theme for cold aversion in the pulpit, and sneers in the pew 1 Is generosity dead in England, that she will not admire in her children those very qualities which have made the children proud of the memories of their common English ancestors ? But, it is asked, since the South is so utterly discordant with the North, why not let them go, and have peace ? Go ? It is to stay that they are fighting. If the white population would but go and leave to us and to the negroes a peaceful territory, we might be willing. But it is a rebellious population asking leave to organize political inde- pendence on United States territory, for the sake of threatening the peace of the whole future ! Our trouble is, that they will stay if we give them leave to go. (Laughter.) No mountains divide the North from the South — they run the other way. No cross rivers divide them — they run the other way. No latitudes or climates divide the one from the other. Don't you know that God has affianced the torrid and the temperate zones in America one to the other, and that they are always running into each other's arms ] The Gulf-streams of popula- tion are constantly interchanging in such a continent as ours. There is no division-line that yoii can make, except a merely arbitrary one. There is a line of 1,200 miles, east and west, which you propose in your division to make the fiery line of a slave empire. Do you ask us to such a bequest of peace as that ? A Southern boundary of 1,200 miles long, charged with the flames and thunder of war, ready to explode on any occasion 1 Well, may be — may be — you could lie down on a powder magazine, with a thousand tons of powder in it, and a fire raging Avithin an inch of it, but / could not ! Will so much as one cause of quarrel be taken out of the way 1 Will there be anything that will stop slaves running across, and the South being irritated because we harbour them 1 ? Of course we should harbour them, as you do in Canada. No law could stop it then. (Cheers.) The only thing that ever gave to the fugitive slave-law a shadow, a vestige of power, was that for the sake of peace many in the North consented, somehow or other, to get rid of their consciences. I never did. (Applause.) I hated the law. I trod it under- foot ; and I declared, to the face of the magistrates and the government, that I would break it in every way I could. And I did. (Cheers.) Now say, if it were so, when there were motives of patriotism to maintain such an obnoxious law, what would it be when the sections were rent asunder? If separated, would the contrast of free labour and slave labour be less exciting 1 Would our press be less bold in its procla- mation of doctrines of liberty? Would not parties in secret league with GLASGOW — PUBLIC MEETING. 43 Southern parties torment the border States with new divisions, and make that peace impossible by which we are to be bribed to cease this war 1 Cruel as the war is, yet to stop it until slavery has its death-wound, would be even more cruel ! When the surgeon has cut half the cancer out, is that man the friend of the patient, who, seeing the blood and hearing the groans, should persuade him to leave the operation half per- formed, and bind up the cancered limb 1 But, you ask, How long shall we carry violence into the South 1 I will ask you a question in reply. If in the purlieus of vice in old Glasgow, there should be a ward of which a confederation of burglars and thieves had taken possession, how long would you invade it with your police 1 (Laughter.) Woitld Glasgow give up to them or woidd they have to give up to Glasgow 1 We may now understand what Southern rebellion means. There seems a need of information on this point in high places. Earl Russell, in replying to Mr. Sumner's arguments upon rebellion, reproached him with incon- sistency in such a horror of rebellion, America being the child of two rebellions ! "Were they rebellious against liberty to more despotism 1 or against oppression to more freedom ] The English rebellion and the American rebellion were both toward greater freedom of all classes of men. This rebellion is for the sake of holding four million slaves with greater security, and less annoyance from free institutions ! And now observe ! The South, expressly in order to hold fast her four million slaves, makes war against what the Confederate vice-president, Mr. Stephens, in dissuading secession, pronounced to be " the best, freest, justest, most lenient Government that the sun ever shone upon." He declared that the South had no grievances ; and since secession, he has glorified the new Confederation, as established with "slavery as its corner-stone." On this is written in lurid letters of infernal light, " The only foundation of our liberty is to own the labourer and to oppress the slave." — When such a body of insurgents comes to ask you to recognize its independence, do you think it just and humane — is it according to the instinct — is it according to the conscience of Great Britain to say "that nation ought to have an independence 1 ?" And now let me say one word more ; for I am emboldened by your courtesy. You now see what it means to give your aid and succour to the South. (Cheers.) Why were you in favour of giving the Hungarians their liberty 1 Because they said the yoke of Austria is heavier than we can bear, and you sympathized with them because it was a step towards larger liberty. When Greece complained, why did the nations interfere 1 It was to give her more liberty, not less. When Italy asked help, why did France — then guided by her better genius — give her armies to beat back the Austrians and give Italy her sway in the Northern part of that beautiful peninsula 1 It was because Italy sighed for the sweets of liberty — that which is the right of every people on the globe. Why to-day does every man wish that the Czar may be baflied, that he may be sent back to the frozen fastnesses of the North, and that Poland may stand erect in her nationality 1 (Cheers.) Why ? It is because Poland is under a des- potism and is struggling for independence and liberty. (Applause.) 44. GLASGOW — PUBLIC MEETING. You know now what I think about sending clothes, arms, powder, ships, and all the muniments of war, or supplies of any kind, to the South. I do not stop to discuss whether it is legal or illegal. I do not discuss this as a question of technical law at all I lift it up and put it on the ground of moral law. Between two parties, one of whom is labouring for the integrity and sanctity of labour, and the other is for robbery, the degradation of labour, and the integrity of slavery, — I say that the man that gives his aid to the Slave Power is allied to it, and is making his money by building up tyranny. (Hear, and cheers.) Every man that strikes a blow on the iron that is put into those ships for the South, is striking a blow and forging a manacle for the hand of the slave. ( Applause and hisses. ) Every free labourer in old Glasgow that is labouring to rear up iron ships for the South, is labouring to establish on sea and on land the doctrine that capital has a right to own "labour." (Cheers and hisses.) You are false to your own principles, to your own interests, to mankind, and to the great working classes. You have no right, for the sake of poor pitiful pelf, to go against the great toiling multitudes of Europe that are lifting up their hands for more education and more liberty. You have no right to betray that cause by allying yourselves with despots who, in holding slaves, establish the doctrine that might makes right. (Applause.) It is not in anger that I speak, it is not in pettishness or in vehemence. It is the day-of-judg- ment view of the matter. ! I would rather than all the crowns and thrones of earth to have the sweet, assuring smile of Jesus when he says, " Come, welcome, inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these ye did unto me." And I would rather face the thunderbolt than stand before Him when he says on that terrible day, " inasmuch as ye did it not unto the least of these my little ones, ye did it not unto me." Ye strike God in the face when you work for slaveholders. Your money so got and quickly earned will be badly kept, and you will be poor before you can raise your children, and dying you will leave a memory that will rise against you at the day of judgment. By the solemnity of that judgment — by the sanctity of conscience — by the love you bear to humanity — by your old hereditary love of liberty ; — in the name of God and of mankind, I charge you to come out from among them, to have nothing to do with the unclean and filthy lucre made by pandering to slavery. One word more. I protest, in the name of all that there is in kindred blood, against Great Britain putting herself in such a position that she cannot be in cordial and ever-during alliance with the free republic in America. (Applause.) I declare to you that it is a monstrous severance of your only natural alliance, for Great Britain to turn aside from free America and seek close relations with despotism ! You owe yourselves to us, and we owe ourselves to you. You ought to live at peace with France — you ought to study their reciprocal interest and they yours. But after all, while you should be in Christian peace with France, I tell you it is unnatural for England to be in closer alliance with France than America. (Hear and disapprobation.) Nevertheless, like it or dislike it, so it is ! On the other hand, it is truly unnatural for America, when she would GLASGOW — PUBLIC MEETING. 45 go into a foreign alliance to seek her alliance with Russia. ^Hear and applause.) Oh, why don't you hiss now? (Laughter.) I declare that America should study the prosperity of Kussia, as of every nation of the globe ; but when she gives her heart and band in alliance, she owes it to Great Britain. (Apj)lause.) So ! you want to hear that. And when Great Britain turns to find one that she can lean on — can go to with all her heart — one of her own — we are her eldest-born, strongest — to us she must come. (Applause.) A war between England and America would be like murder in the family — unnatural — monstrous beyond words to depict. Now, then, if that be so, it is our duty to avoid all cause and occasion of offence. (Hear, hear.) But remember — remember — remember — we are carrying out our dead. Our sons, brothers' sons, our sisters' children — they are in this great war of liberty and of principle. We are taxing all our energies : you are at peace, and if in the flounderings of this gigantic conflict we accidentally tread on your feet, are we or you to have most patience ? When the widowed mother sits watching the shortening breath of her child, hovering between life and death, — it may be that the rent has not been paid, — it may be that her fuel has not yet been settled for ; but what would you think of that landlord or of that pro- vision dealer that would send a warrant of distress when the funeral was going out of the door, and arrest her when she was walking to the grave with her firstborn son. Even a brute would say, "Wait — wait !" Yet it was in the hour of our mortal anguish, that when, by an unauthorised act, one of the captains of our navy seized a British ship for which our government instantly offered all reparation, that a British army was hurried to Canada. I do not undertake to teach the law that governs the question : but this I do undertake to say, and I will carry every generous man in this audience with me, when I affirm that if between America, bent double with the anguish of this bloody war, and Great Britain, who sits at peace, there is to be forbearance on either side, it is on your side. (Applause.) Here then I rest my cause to-night, asking everyone of you to unite with me in praying, that God, the arbiter of the fates of nations, would so guide the issue, that those who struggle for liberty shall be victorious ; and that God, who sways the hearts of nations, may so sway the hearts of Great Britain and America, that not to the remotest period of time shall there be dissension, but golden concord between them for their own sakes and for the good of the whole world. (Great cheering.) Several questions having been put and answered, the Bev. Dr. George Jeffrey moved and Councillor Alexander seconded a resolution expres- sive of approbation of Mr. Beecher's able and uncompromising advocacy of the rights of the slave to freedom, and thanking him for the very admirable and eloquent address delivered that evening, which was carried amid great and prolonged cheering. EBINBUEGH.-OCTOEER 14, 1863. GREAT MEETING IN THE FREE CHURCH ASSEMBLY HALL. Last night, one of the most crowded meetings that ever took place in this city, was held in the Free Church Assembly Hall, in order to hear the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. Long before the hour fixed for the meeting, all the entrances to the Hall were besieged by large masses of people ; and the rush for places was so great that a few minutes after the opening of the doors every available seat was taken possession of. Crowds of people still continued to pour into the Hall, and the passages became crammed. As the time arrived for the entrance of the chairman and Mr. Beecher, it became a serious question how they were to gain admission to the Hall. All doubt was set at rest on the matter by loud cries arising from the east doorway that Mr. Beecher could not obtain an entrance. A great effort was made to gain a passage for the rev. gentleman, who, after some time, managed to reach the chair, and was received with loud and prolonged cheers. Some of the gentlemen for whom seats had been reserved on the platlorm also gained admission — some by the passage, and others by climbing to the Moderator's gallery and walking along the ledge — but it was discovered that the chairman, Mr. Duncan M'Laren, was still amissing. After the lapse of a few minutes, however, Mr. M'Laren and four French gentlemen, including M. Gamier Fages, also got in ; and the proceedings of the meeting com- menced. Amongst those on the platform and that could be noticed in the dense crowd in the Hall, wei*e Professor Rogers, Glasgow University ; Revs. W. Arnot, Dr. W. L. Alexander, and G. D. Cullen ; Thos. Nelson, Esq., G H. Stott, Esq., Thos. Ireland, Esq., Dr. Grosvenor, New York; Revs. Dr. Andrew Thomson, Mr. Ogilvie, Mr. Henderson, Mr. Graham, Newhaven, Dr. Liddell, Lochmaben, and John Hutchison, Dunfermline; Hugh Brown Esq., Stephen Bourne, Esq., David M'Laren, Esq., Pro- fessor Anderson, United States. America ; Mons. Dasmarest, Mons. Gamier Pages, Henry Martin, Esq., Wm. Duncan, Esq., Jas. Gulland, Esq., Dr. H. Stephenson, D. Williamson, Esq., of Beechwood ; J. Carmen t, S.S.C. | Professor Joseph Henry M'Chesney, M.A., American Consul at Newcastle-on-Tyne ; James Robie, Esq., Rev. Dr. Johnston, R*ev. Dr. Goold, Mi. Adam, Leith ; Mr. George Laing, Rev. W. Pulsford, Wm. Nelson, Esq., R. S. Grieve, Esq., James Balfour, Esq., W.S. ; John EDINBURGH — PUBLIC MEETING. 47 M'Laren, Esq., F. W. Brown, Esq., Jas. Robertson, Esq., Wm. Duncan, Esq., W.S., John Pender, Esq., M.P., Totness ; J. H. Paper, Esq., Robt. Heywood, Esq., C. B. Darbyshire, Esq., Thos. Hare, Esq., London; John Smith, Esq., Glasgow; D. Lewis, Esq., Councillor Mawson, Newcastle; Jas. Webb, Esq., Dublin; Jas. Haughton, Esq., Dublin; Max Ivyllman, Esq., Manchester; L. L. Hyatt, Esq., J. Douglas, Esq. The CHAIRMAN said — Ladies and Gentlemen, — May I entreat as a great favour that the utmost quietness be preserved, because I have often observed that it is those in a large meeting who, with the best intentions in the world, cry " Peace," that practically make all the noise. (Laughter.) Since I have been made Chairman, every one, I have no doubt, will be quite disposed to give up a little of his personal liberty to my dictation to-night. (Applause.) You know what the meeting is about. The advertisement tells you honestly what the object is in calling you together, and therefore there is no person here present who has any right to take offence at anything that is said within the four quarters of the hall. ("Oh, oh," applause and hisses.) The objects of the meeting are twofold — the first is to hear the Rev. Mr. Henry Ward Beecher. (Loud and prolonged applause.) That means that we are to hear him express his own opinions — (cheers) — and whether or no these opinions may be in unison with your opinions or with mine, that is a matter of which the meeting has, I apprehend, no right to com- plain. (" Oh, oh," and applause.) We are greatly indebted to him, T think, for responding to the call. He has been toiling night and day, I may say, in Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, and other towns ; and he has come here on a very short notice, and your anxiety to hear him has been such that you almost excluded him. The Rev. Dr. Candlish has sent an apology for not being here. There is less cause for regret, because he was the author of the beautiful answer that recently appeared in the newspapers from the ministers of Scotland to the address of the ministers of the United States. As the document met with such universal acceptance, the committee who had charge of making the arrangements for this meeting thought that, in place of originating any resolution of their own, they would just extract a small j)ortion from that admirable paper, convert it into a resolution, and ask you to con- demn slavery in the terms in which it is condemed in the address prepared by Dr. Candlish and other distinguished men. That will be tha only resolution which will be submitted to you, except the usual formal votes which take place at all meetings. The document to which I have referred has already received the signatures of about a thousand ministers, and they are coming in by scores every day, expressing the opinion of all parts of Scotland. So much for the origin and nature of the meeting. I feel that in this question, which has been so keenly contested in this country, there may be great difference of opinion on the part of the persons who are here present. I entreat that whatever difference of opinion may exist, every one may be heard fairly and courteously — (loud applause) — and if the resolution which is proposed to the meeting be disapproved of, and any gentleman comes forward to the platform to move an amendment. I will do as much to give him a 48 EDINBURGH — PUBLIC MEETING. hearing for his speech, if within the scope of the resolution, as I would do to any other gentleman. (Loud cheers.) I am most anxious that everything should be done in such a straightforward manner as will commend itself to all lovers of fair play. (Cheers.) I may just state. in addition, this one fact, that from other circumstances we have been honoured in this city with the presence of many distinguished foreigners, and among these three or four gentlemen who were to have gone by the six o'clock train to-night in order to get to Paris to-morrow morning. They kindly agreed to testify their detestation of slavery by attending at this meeting, in order to say a few words in unison with what I have no doubt will be said by Mr. Beecher. These are M. Gamier Pages — ■ (loud cheers) — M. Desmarest, and M. Henri Martyn, the distinguished historian of France (Applause.) I have now concluded all that is proper to the business of this meeting. I will, in two sentences, make what is in some respects a personal explanation, but which applies equally to other members here present of the Social Science Association. We who hold anti-slavery opinions have been blamed by many, because, at the meetings which wei'e held, we did not give vent to our opinions in opposition to those that were expressed by our distinguished Chair- man ; and a paper was prepared and handed about privately for the purpose of entering a protest against the terms in which that distin- guished man spoke about the North. I did everything in my power to prevent such a paper being signed, and told the parties to show their opinion by coming here to-night. I have no doubt that, as Chairman of this meeting, I have said things, and will say things, which are distasteful to many here present ; but in that respect the Chairman is a privi- leged person — (laughter) — because he has no liberty of replying. Mr. M'Laren concluded by introducing Mr. Beecher to the meeting. Mr. BEECHER, on coming forward, was received with loud and prolonged cheers and some hissing. When silence had been restored, he said : — I should regret to have my associations of this, the most picturesque city of the world, disturbed as they would be, if I thought that you needed so much preparatory pleading to persuade you to hear me. (Loud applause and laughter.) I have lived in a very stormy time in my own land, where men who did not believe in my sentiments had pecuniary and political interests in disturbing meetings, but neither in East, nor West, nor in all the Middle States, have I thought it necessary to ask an audience to hear me — not even in America, the country, as we have lately been informed, of mobs ! (Loud cheers and laughter.) I am not to-night a partizan seeking for proselytes. I have no other interests to serve but those which are common to all good men — the interests of truth, of justice, of liberty, and of good morals. If I differ with you in the way in which they are to be promoted, what then 1 Cannot you hear opinions that you do not believe 1 I am so firm in my convictions that I can^bear to hear their opposites. (Cheers.) It is not then so much to persuade you to my views, though I should be glad to do that, as it is to give a full and frank expression of them, supposing that there are many here that would be interested in a state- ment of affairs, as they are now proceeding on the continent of America, EDINBURGH — PUBLIC MEETING. 49 if, for no other reason — at least for the philosophic interest there must be in this passing phenomena. It may be to you but a simple question of national psychology ; it may be to some of you a matter of sympathy ; but whether it be philosophic interest or whether it be humanitarian and moral interest, it shall be my business to speak, for the most part, of what I know, and so to speak that you shall be in no doubt what- ever of my convictions. (Loud cheers and laughter.) America has been going through an extraordinary revolution unconsciously and interiorly, which began when her present national form was assumed, which is now developing itself, but which existed and was in progress just as much before as now that it is seen. The eailier problem was how to establish an absolute independence in States from all external control 1 Next (and this is the peculiar interest of the period which formed our Constitution), how, out of independent States to form a Nation, yet without destroying local sovereignty 1 The period of germination and growth of the Union of the separate colonies is threefold. The first colonies that planted the American shores were separate, and jealous of their separateness. Sent from the mother country with a strong hatred of oppression, they went with an intense individualism, and sought to set up, each party, its little colony, where they would be free to follow their convictions and the dictates of conscience. (Loud applause.) And nothing is more characteristic of the earlier politics of the colonists than their jealous isolation, for fear that even contact would contaminate. Two or three efforts were made within the first twenty or twenty-five years of their existence to bring them together in Union. Delegates met and parted, met again and parted. Indian wars drove them together. It became by external dangers necessary that there should be a Union of those early colonies, but there was a fear that in going into Union they would lose something of the sovereignty that belonged to them as colonial States. The first real Union that took place was that of 1643, between the colonists of what is now New England. It is a little remarkable, I may say in passing, that the fugitive slave clause of our Constitution is founded almost in so many words on the first Articles of Federation that were made in 1643 between these little New England colonies. This earliest Union was the type and model of later ones. With various alternations of fortune the country grew, but maintained a kind of irregular Union as exigencies jwessed upon it. It was not until 1777, a year and a half after the Declaration of Indepen- dence, and while the colonies were at full war with the mother country, that what is called the Articles of Federation were adopted ; and this was the second period of Union, when the Southern States, the Middle States, and the States of New England came together in Federation, which was declared, in the preamble, to be perpetual. (Cheers.) But about ten years after these articles were framed, they were found to be utterly inadequate for the exigencies of the times ; and in 1787 the present Constitution of the United States was adopted by convention, and, at different dates thereafter, ratified by the thirteen States that first con- stituted the present Union. Now, during all this period of the first Union of 1643, the second Union of 1777, and the third or final D 50 EDINBURGH — PUBLIC MEETING, Union — the present one — of 1787, there is one thing to be remarked, and that is, the jealousy of State independence. The States were feeling their way towards nationality ; and the rule and measure of the wisdom of every step was, how to maintain individuality with nationality. That was their problem. It never had been found out for them. They had some analogies, but these were only analogies. In that wilderness, for the first time, the problem was about to be solved — How can there be absolute independence in local government with perfect nationality 1 Slavery was only incidental during all this long period ; but in reading from contemporaneous documents and debates thai took place in conventions both for Confederation and for final Union, it i*s remarkable that the difficulties which arose were difficulties of re- presentation, difficulties of taxation, difficulties of tariff and revenue, and, so far as we can find, neither North nor South anticipated in the future any of those dangers which have overspread the continent from the black cloud of slavery. The dangers they most feared, they have suffered least from : the dangers they have suffered most from, they did not at all anticipate, or but little. But the Union was formed. The Constitution, defining the national power conferred by the States on the Federal Government, was adopted. Thenceforward, for fifty years and more, the nation developed itself in wealth and political power, until, from a condition of feeble States exhausted by war, it rose to the dignity of a first-class nation. We now turn our attention to the gradual and unconscious development within this American nation of two systems of policy, antagonistic and irreconcilable. Let us look at the South first. She was undergoing unconscious transmutation. She did not know it. She did not know what ailed her. She felt ill — (laughter) — put her hand on her heart sometimes ; on her head sometimes ; but had no doctor to tell her what it was, until too late ; and when told she would not believe. (Laughter and cheers.) For it is a fact, that when the colonies combined in their final Union, slavery was waning not only in the Middle and Northern States but also in the South itself. When therefore they went into this Union, slavery was perishing, partly by climate in the North, and still more by the convictions of the people, and by the unproductive character of farm-slavery. Slavery is profit- able only by breeding and on plantations. In the North it never was very profitable, though somewhat convenient as a household matter ; for if you can get a good chambermaid and a good cook, it is worth while to keep them. (Laughter.) There was for the most part in New England only the shadow of slavery — household slavery. The first period of the South was the wane and weakness of slavery. Nevertheless it existed. The second period is the increase of slavery, and its apologetic defence ; for, with the invention of the cotton gin, an extraordinary demand for cotton sprang up. Slave labotir began to be more and more in demand, and the price of slaves rose ; but still there was a number of years within my remembrance — and I am not a patriarch — in which men said, "Slavery is among us ; we don't know how to get rid of it; we accept it as an evil ; we wish we had a better system, but it is a mis- fortune and not a fault." I remember the apologetic period. Then EDINBURGH — PUBLIC MEETING. 51 came the next period, one of revolution of opinion as to the inferior races of the South, a total and entire change in the doctrines of the South on the question of human rights and human nature. It dates from Mr. Calhoun. From the hour that Mr. Calhoun began to teach, there commenced a silent process of moral deterioration. I call it a retrogression in morals — an apostacy. Men no longer apologized for slavery; they learned to defend it ; to teach that it was the normal con- dition of an inferior race ; that the seeds and history of it were in the Word of God ; that the only condition in which a Republic can be pros- perous, is, where an aristocracy owns the labour of the community. That was the doctrine of the South, and with that doctrine there began to be ambitious designs, not only for the maintenance but for the propagation of slavery. This era of propagation and aggression constitutes the fourth and last period of the revolution of the South. They had passed through a whole ejele of changes. These changes followed certain great laws. No sooner was the new philosophy set on foot, than the South recognized its legitimacy and accepted it with all its inferences and inevitable tendencies. They gave up wavering and misgivings, adopted the insti- tution — praised it, loved it, defended it, sought to maintain it, burned to spread it. During the last fifteen years, I believe you cannot find a voice, printed or uttered, in the cotton states of the South, which deplored slavery. All believed in and praised it, and found authority for it in God's Word. Politicians admired it, merchants appreciated it, the whole South sang pseans to the new-found truth, that man was born to be owned by man. (Loud cheers.) This change of doctrine made it certain, that the South would be annoyed and irritated by a Constitution which, wich all its faults, still carried the God-given principle of human rights, which were not to be taken by man except in punishment for crime. That Constitution, and the policy which went with it at first, began to gnaw at, and irritate, and fret the South, when they had adopted slavery as a doctrine. How could they live in peace under a Constitu- tion, that all the time declared the manhood of men and the dignity of freedom ? It became necessary that they should do one of two things, either give up slavery, or appropriate the government to themselves, and in some way or other drain out of the Constitution this venom of liberty, and infuse a policy more in harmony with Southern ideas. They took the latter course. They contrived to possess themselves of the government; and for the last fifty years the policy of the country has been Southern. Was a tariff wanted 1 It was made a Southern tariff. Was a tariff oppressive 1 The Southerners overthrew it. Was a tariff wanted again 1 The Southern policy declared it to be neces- sary, and it was passed. Was more territory wanted ] The South must have its way. Was any man to obtain a place '? If the South opposed it, he had no chance whatever. For fitty years most of the men who became judges, who sat in the Presidential chair and in the Courts, had to base their opinions on slavery or on Southern views. All the filibustering, all the intimidations of foreign Powers, all the so-called snubbing of European Powers, happened during the period in which the policy of the country was controlled by the 52 EDINBURGH — PUBLIC MEETING. South. May I be permitted to look on it as a mark of victorious Christianity, that England now loves her worst enemy, and is sitting with arms of sympathy round her neck 1 (Loud cheers.) There was at the same time a revolution going on in the North unconsciously. The first period of revolution begun in the North was, what might be called the foundation-laying. Material wealth began to be amassed, manufacturing and farm labour flourished, schools were multiplied, colleges were rising. It was a period in which the North was develop- ing and consolidating its power. Then, for many years — and it is a count of about thirty years ago — the North began to be assailed by bold prophets of the truth, and a crusade was commenced against slavery. (Cheers.) I was then a boy, but old enough to be a spectator and a sympathizer. Those men, for the most part, have gone down into their graves — their names not yet honoured as they will be ; for the day is coming, when round their names, and the names of all who have been faithful to the sacred cause of liberty, there will be hung garlands, and they shall be clothed with honour; but around the brows of those who have betrayed their country to despotism shall shine lurid light in flame that shall consume. (Cheers.) The man who was an abolitionist when I was twenty-one years of age might bid farewell to any hopes of political advancement ; and the merchant who held these opinions was soon robbed of customers. As far as I remember, there was nothing in the world that so ruined a man — not crime itself was so fatal to a man's standing in the country — as to be known to hold abolition-sentiments. The churches sought to keep the question of slavery out ; so did the schools and colleges ; so did synods and conventions ; but still the cause of abolition progressed ; and still, as is always the case with everything that is right, though the men who held those sentiments were scoffed at, though such men as Garrison were dragged through the streets with halters round their necks, yet, the more it was spoken of and canvassed, the more the cause prospered, because it was true. (Cheers.) The insanity at last abated ; for the command came from on High, saying to the evil spirit concerning the North : " I command thee to come out of her." Then the nation wallowed on the ground, and foamed at the mouth ; but the unclean spirit passed out, and she became clean. The more some people wanted to keep down this subject and keep out the air, the more God forced the subject on their minds. If you let a steam-engine, when it is full of steam, only hiss at the rivets, with the scape-valve open, it cannot explode ; but if the steam is shut up, and the valve closed, it will be still for a moment, and then, like thunder, it will go oif ! So it was in regard to this subject. Those who discussed it, became convinced of its truth ; but those who would not permit it to be spoken of, and shut it up, exploded. (Laughter and cheers.) About this time the South began to take such steps as aiore and more brought the North into a rightful frame of mind. The first conflict that arose between the South and the North was in regard to the admission of the new State of Missouri in 1818. (Hear.) The North contended that there should be no more slave States — the doctrine that is now being revived EDINBURGH — PUBLIC MEETING. 53 as the Republican doctrine. It was the original doctrine and con- viction, that slavery might be tolerated where it was, but that no more States should be admitted. When Missouri knocked at the door, there were those who opposed its admission as a slave State, but by Southern management and intimidation Henry Clay persuaded the North to a compromise. Now, when there is no difference in principle, but only conflicting interests, a compromise is honourable and right, but when antagonistic principles are in question, I believe compromises to be bargains with the devil, who is never cheated. (Loud laughter and cheers.) The North gave up her principles and admitted the Missouri State with slavery as an exception, and by the compromise obtained a line of latitude that should limit slavery. Above the latitude of 36° 30' all States, except Missouri, were to be free ; south of that line there might be slave States. By this concession they gave up the whole principle, as such compromises always must. Then came the next conflict. The policy of the North and the policy of the South again jarred against each other. The North was striving, according to the spirit of the Constitution and the convictions of the fathers of the country, the founders of the Union, to carry out the doctrines of liberty. The South became ambitious, and having possession of the Government, aimed to enforce their ideas of slavery uj)on the whole continent. Hence admission of Texas and the war with Mexico for the sake of territory. Next were seized the regions of New Mexico and California. These were added to the Union not by the North, but by the South. Then came the compromise measures of 1850, and the Fugitive Slave Bill, which the North accepted finally, as children take medicine, when the silver sjxton is forced into their teeth, and they are almost choked to make them take it. (Laughter.) Then came the only abolition that I ever heard the South were in favour of — the abolition of the Missouri compromise. What that was, I have just been telling you. But now the South suddenly found out, that the compromise was unconstitutional and void. They claimed to abolish the compromise and have slave States north of the line 36° 30'. The North, incensed and indignant, yet held back, from love for the Union of the States, and gave up their own convictions and their proper line of duty. After the abolition of the Missouri Compromise it was declared by the South, that the doctrine of Popular sovereignty should be established — a doctrine to the effect that when the admission of a State was determined on, it should come in a slave State or a free State, according to the vote of the population. The South carried this measure, and the moment they carried it they attempted to get Kansas introduced as a slave state ; but the Northern men were too quick for them — (laughter and applause) — for they sent such a superabundant population into Kansas, that they soon lifted the white banner without a black star upon it. (Cheers.) The instant this was done, the South turned round and said, " Popular sovereignty is not constitutional or expedient (Laughter and applause.) The States applying for admission shall not have the liberty of saying whether they will come in free or slave." This was the work of Mr. Sliddell — (hisses) — now minister for the Southern States in Paris. (Hisses and 54 EDINBURGH — PUBLIC MEETING. slight applause). I wish he were in this hall to hear you hissing, (Cheers.) By this time the North was thoroughly roused and indignant. They had at length opened their eyes, and reluctantly began to see that the South meant nothing short of forcing slavery over the whole continent. The North thereupon grew firmer, and in 1S56 nominated Fremont, for the purpose of showing that they were no longer to be browbeaten by slavery. He failed ; but failed in the noblest way, by the cheats of his opponents. The State that gave us Buchanan to be a burden for four years, was the State in which the cheating took place. Then came the last act of this revolution of feeling in the North — the election of Mr. Lincoln. (Loud and protracted cheering. ) The principle that was laid down as a distinct feature of the platform on which Mr. Lincoln was elected, was, that there should be no more slave territories — in other words, the breathing hole was stopped lip, and slavery had no air ; it was only a question of time how long it would last before it would be suffocated. (Laughter and cheers.) The North respected the doctrine of State rights, when Georgia said, that slavery was municipal and local, and that the government of the United States had no right to touch slavery in Georgia, The North accepted the doctrine. It was true, that they could not touch slavery in the States : yet the North had a right, in connection with the Middle States, to say, " Although in certain States slavery exists beyond our political reach, yet the territory that is free and is not beyond our jurisdiction shall not be touched by the foot of a slave. (Loud cheers.) That was the spark which exploded, and this is the war that followed.; for the South knew perfectly well, — and there is no place where logic is better understood than in the South, — that if limits were set to the Slave States, if the territory could be no further extended, the prosperity of the slaveholders was at an end. They determined that that doctrine should be broken up, and and they went into the Secession-war for that very purpose. All these were conflicts between the North and the South, about the growth of slaveiy, and in all but one of them the South had its own way. (Hear.) The States had been charging each other with guilt, and with infidelity to obligations, but it was now collision. It was the attraction of great underlying influences that moved both South and North. The principle which had been operating in the North for many years was the principle of free labour, while the principle which had impregnated all Southern minds was the principle of slave-labour. The result is this. The South is exhausting the whole life of the States in defence of slavery. This is historical now, The great cause of the conflict — the centre of necessity, round which the cannons roar and the bayonets gleam, — is the preservation of slavery. Beyond slavery, there is no difference between North and South. Their interests are identical, with the exception of work, The North is for ft-ee work — the South is for slave work ; and the whole war in the South, though it is for inde- pendence, is, nevertheless, expressly in order to have slavery more firmly established by that independence. (Heai', hear, cheers, and some hisses.) On the other hand, the whole policy of the North, now at last regenerated, and made consistent with their documents, their EDINBURGH — PUBLIC MEETING. 55 history, and real belief — the whole policy of the North, as well as the whole work of the North, rejoicing at length to be set free from antagonism, bribes, and intimidations, — is for liberty ; liberty for eveiy man in the world. (Cheers.) I wish you to consider for a moment what is the result of this state of things in the North. There never was so united a purpose as there is to-day to crash the rebellion. We have had nearly three years of turmoil and disturbance, and it not only has not taken away that determination, but it has increased it. In the beginning of this conflict we were peculiarly English. What do I mean by that? Well, if I have observed aright, England goes into wars to make blunders at first always — (hisses and cheers) — but you must be aware, that in the end it is not England that has blundered. I have noticed, in the course of my study of the Peninsular war under Wellington, that the first whole year was a series of blunders and fraudulent squandering — (cheers) ; — but, if I recollect aright, at last the same Wellington drove his foes out of the Peninsula. (Cheers.) And so it is with us. We have so much English blood in our veins, that when we began this war we blundered and blundered; but we are doing better and better every step. (Loud cheering.) There has been time enough for mere enthusiasm to have cooled in the North. That has passed away. Enthusiasm is like the vapour, just enough condensed to let the sun striking upon it fill it with gorgeous colours ; but when still further it condenses, and falls in drops for the thirsty man to drink, or carries the river to the cataract, then it has become useful and substantial. Enthusiasm, at first, is that airy cloud ; but when it has become a prin- ciple in the hearts of the people, then it becomes substantial ; and such is the case in the North. Enthusiasm has changed its form, and is now based on substantial moral principle. (Cheers.) The loss of our sons in battle has been grievous ; but we accept it as God's will, and we are determined that every martyred son shall have a representative in one hundred liberated slaves. (Loud cheers.) Never was such a unity of Christian men in the North as there is to-day. I have in my possession some two hundred resolutions, passed by different Christian churches and denominations in America, saving Ihe Roman Catholics. In every form of language they express themselves alike resolute for the main- tenance of the government and the crushing of the rebellion. I may say that there is no seam in the garment that binds us together. We are one. (Cheers.) The Peace-Democrats have tried three times to put a stop to the war, and every time they tried it, it became evident that the only platform in America, on which this subject can be discussed, is this — that the war must be carried on till the Union is re-established. (Loud cheers.) The Americans are a practical people. They know their own business. (Hear, hear.) No one' so well able as they are, to judge what they want : and when they have deliberately arrived at a firm resolve, they surely are to be regai'ded, at least with respect, if not with sympathy. (Cheers.) This much we expect, that when a people twenty millions strong, intelligent, moral, and, as you know, thrifty — when people of this sort, after three' years of deliberation, are fixed on oue purpose, they at least demand courtesy, if not respect. (Loud 56 EDINBURGH — PUBLIC MEETING. cheers.) "We are told that we are breaking our constitutional obliga- tions by the measures we hare taken ; but we were forced to adopt those measures, and the reasons are abundant and plain. How 1 When a fire first breaks out, the engineer goes down and plays upon the fire, thinking that he will be able to save the furniture and the neighbouring houses ; but, as the devouring element increases, and threatens destruction to all around, the engineer says " Bring me powder," and he blows up the neighbouring house, then the next, and then the next, until a sufficient gap is made to prevent the spread of the conflagration (Cheers.) When he began, be did not think that he would require to sacrifice so much : and so it is with us. When this rebellion commenced, we thought to put it down, and to maintain, at the same time, the rights of the States ; but, when the war assumed such proportions as seemed to threaten the destruction of the nation and its constitutional Government, it became a question whether the President should put in practice the powers he possessed of saving the Union at all hazards. (Cheers.) Long he paused, I know ; for I assisted in bombai'ding him. (Laughter and cheers.) For months, and months, and months, I both pleaded and inveighed against the dilatory policy at Washington, and at last the President issued a proclamation, declaring that the rebellion had assumed such proportions, that, for the sake of saving the country, he intended to exercise the power he possessed, and to confiscate the total "property" of the South, the whole of the slaves being included, for the sake of saving the Union and the Constitution. (Cheers.) But some men speak to me, and say, " Oh, I am tired of waiting ; when is this little quarrel of yours on the other side to be settled ]" (Laughter.) A Little quarrel — (laughter) — with 1,200 miles of a base line — a little quarrel that commenced only seventy-five years ago. You ask how ? The smouldering fire that by some means or other has caught a rafter between the ceilings is not known of at first ; but after two or- three days it bursts out, and the whole building is consumed. The fire did not begin when it became visible to the eyes ; it began some time before. In the same way this war did not begin three years ago. It began when this constitution was adopted — a constitution for liberty with a policy for slavery — (cheers) — and it is as impossible to tell when it will come to a termina- tion as it is to foretell the conclusion of any great matter affecting the welfare of thirty millions of people, contingent partly on great laws and partly on interfering politicians. It might close next year ; it might close in three years ; it might close in five. We have lost many sons, we have spilled much blood. This is the operation by which the cancer is to be severed from our system ; the operation is now far advanced, and woe be to the man who interferes with it before the last bit of the virus is removed. (Cheers.) But, let me say, even a servant who will bear a blow, cannot bear to be beaten and preached at both together. If you insist on groaning over the tediousness of the war, you must not aid to pi'olong it. Either do not ask us when it will end, or else do • not send ships and guns to the rebels in the South. If you want to sympathize with us, do so ; EDINBURGH — PUBLIC MEETING. 57 and if you must assist the rebels, do so ; but do not attempt both, things at once. (" Hear, hear," and applause.) I thank Earl Russell for his speech at Blairgowrie. It is a speech that has brought comfort and gladness to the hearts of our American friends. (Hear, hear.) A friend of mine in New Yoi'k has written to me, stating that the whole feeling there has been changed since the intelligence of Earl Russell's speech. We do not want to quarrel ; we do not want animosity between Great Britain and America. No man has spoken of Great Britain words of praise and blame with more honest heart than I have. (Cheers and some hisses.) That man is not your friend who dares not speak of your faults to your face. The man that is your friend tells you when he thinks you are wrong ; and whether I am right or wrong, I assert, that in giving moral sympathy largely to the South, and above all, in allowing the infamous traffic of your ports with the rebels, thus strengthening the hands of the slaveholders, — and that, without public rebuke, — you have done wrong. I have said this, because, dear as your country is to to us, precious as were the legacies given to us of learning and religion, and proud as we have been for years past to think of our ancestry and common relationship to you — yet so much dearer to us than kindred is the cause of God, that, if Great Britain sets herself against us, we shall not hesitate one moment on her account, but shall fulfil our mission ! (Cheers.) Earl Russell was, however, pleased to say that this was a conflict for territory on the one part, and for independence on the other. You know just as well as I, that the North has been adverse to the acquisition of territory. It was the South that brought in Texas, that brought in the whole of the Louisiana tract by purchase ; it was the South that went to war with Mexico, and added New Mexico, and the whole of California ; and it was the South that sent Walker, the filibusterer, to Cuba. The South would have territory. It is not the North that has been avaricious of land, but the South that needed the land for the extension of their slave system. Now, we are striving for the territory that belongs to the Union. (Hear, hear.) Let me see that man who dares to say here that he believes in the kind of patriotism that would let every citizen sit still while their territory was dismembered, and never raise a hand or lift a sword ? If that is your idea of patriotism, it is not mine. I have taught my people, and I have practised the doctrine myself as far as necessary, that it was the duty of every Christian to defend his house, and if any robber broke into his house, that he was bound to resist, and recover any goods that might have been carried off. Now, that which is true of the householder, I declare to be true of the nation. The love of country means this, to defend every part and particle of the country from unjust alienation. (Loud applause.) It amounts then to just this, that we are trying to get back our own ; though Lord John Russell — I beg his pardon, Earl Russell — (laughter) — says that we were ambitious of territory ! Well, here come two men before a Justice of the Peace, the one with the other by the coat. The one says : "I found this man in my house carrying off my wife's silks, finery, and jewels." Suppose the Justice to remonstrate with the 58 EDINBURGH — PUBLIC MEETING. complainant, and reprimand him for avarice, and blandly let tlie thief go without a word ! ! What would become of a community in which the victim of robbery was scolded and the robber set free ? (Applause.) Now, the territory in question was paid for by the money of the Union, and we swore by as solemn an oath as people can swear, to hold it for the good of the nation. Because we are striving to keep our oath, I do not see how that can make us ambitious of territory. (Hear, hear, and applause.) On the other side, Earl Paissell says the South are contending for independence. Yes they are, and I would to God that so much gallantry had a better cause. It needs but that, to be illus- trious to the end of time. (Cheers.) Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to say, that we have not in that "Western Continent degenerated from your British blood. There is high spirit yet iu America just as much as there is here. (Applause.) Yet, Southern independence, what is it 1 When they seceded and went to Montgomery to frame a Constitution, what did they do 1 They made one or two little altera- tions in the Constitution. They lengthened the term of the Presidency, and made a few alterations in the forms of procedures in the Congress ; but substantially they took the same Constitution as they had just escaped from. (Hear, hear.) The only material clause added was the one that made slavery perpetual, and declared it to be illegal to undertake to abolish it. What then is Southern independence 1 It is the meteor around the dark body of slavery. King Bomba of Naples wanted to be independent, and his idea of independence was, that he should be let alone whilst he was oppressing his subjects. This very idea of independence has been the same, since the days when Niinrod hunted men. (Laughter and cheers.) This is the only independence the South is fighting for. But it is said, that the North is just as bad as the South in its hatred for the negro. At one time I admit that there was a pre- judice against the black man, arising out of the political condition of things : but I can bear witness that this prejudice has almost entirely passed away, in so far as the native population is concerned. (Cheers.) I shall not say who are the bitterest enemies of the black men, because you would hiss me if I did so. (Loud cries of " Speak out," and a voice, "The Irishmen" — another voice, " The Irish Roman Catholics.") There is no doubt that the Irish have a strong prejudice against the negroes, but it arises simply from this, that they have been led to believe by the enemies of the North, that, were the slaves freed, they would dispute the field of labour with them ; whereas everybody who knew anything of their deposition could tell, that, were they freed, the Northern negroes would flock to the South, leaving the North for Northern labourers. — The statement has been made that the Americans are seeking to destroy the Anglo-Saxons for the sake of a few millions of negroes. I contend, that, although the freedom of the negroes will no doubt result from this war, yet we are fighting for the good of all mankind — black, white, and yellow — (laughter) — for men of all nations — to save representative government and universal liberty. It is also said, that the proclamation by the Pre- sident was not sincere — that he had issued it merely as an Official, and that it did not express his personal convictions. All I need to EDINBURGH — PUBLIC MEETING. 59 reply, is, that the President, whatever his own feelings, is bound to act as an Official and discbarge the duties of his Office. He is bound to administer the Constitution of the country. It was the President and not the man who spoke ; and it was the country, and not the President, that was responsible for the proclamation. At the same time I affirm, that the manner in which all these proclamations have been carried out is a sufficient test of their sincerity. The President was very loth to take the steps he did ; but, though slow, Abraham Lincoln was sure. A thousand men could not make him plant his foot before he was ready ; ten thousand could not move it after he had put it down. This national crisis in my own country is a spectacle worthy of the admiration of the world, and I can only hope that when next the Social Science Congress assembles, this great conflict will have gone so far towards an issue, that it may be found consistent with duty to inaugurate its meeting without sneering at a neighbouring nation. (Great cheering and hisses.) I have a closing word to speak. It is our duty in America, by every means in our power, to avoid all cause of irritation with every foreign nation, and with the English nation most especially. On your side it is your duty to avoid all irritating interference, and all speech that tends to irritate. Brothers should be brothers all the world over, and you are of our blood, and we are of your lineage. May that day be far distant when Great Britain and America shall turn their backs on each other, and seek an alliance with other nations. (Loud cries of "Russia.") The day is coming when the foundations of the earth will be lifted out of their places ; and there are two nations that ought to be found shoulder to shoulder and hand in hand for the sake of Christi- anity and universal liberty, and these nations are Great Britain and America. (Loud and prolonged cheering.) Dr. ALEXANDER, who was received with loud applause, said — ladies and gentlemen, the resolution which I have had put into my hands is the following : — " That this meeting most earnestly and emphatically protests against American slavery in all its ramifications, as a system which treats immortal and redeemed human beings as goods and chattels, which denies them the rights of marriage and of home, which consigns them to ignorance of the first rudiments of education, and exposes them to the outrages of lust and passion ; and that this meeting is therefore of opiniou that it should be totally abolished, and, further, that this meeting, rejoicing in the progress which has already been made in America towards this end, desires to encourage, with their cordial sympathy, the earnest abolitionists in that country in the noble efforts they are making." I do not think that it is necessary that I should offer any observations in support of this resolution. After the magnificent oration to which we have just listened, I do not feel myself inclined at all to intrude in the way of Bpeaking upon this question, and I presume the meeting is not all in- clined to hear anything I might be disposed to say. I do not think the motion which has been put into my hands requires very much to be 6aid in support of it. I think it is exceedingly moderate, rather more moderate than perhaps I should have expressed it, had it been in my own words. (Applause.) I think it pledges us to nothing but what we" (JO EDINBURGH — PUBLIC MEETING. may heartily agree to — (loud applause) — from our abhorrence of slavery, our desire to see that feeling acknowledged, and our sympathy with those who are trying to abolish it in America. Some may perhaps think that in the resolution we might directly sympathise with the Federals in their straggle, but that might probably lead to a division in the meeting. I would venture to suggest that our esteemed friend has gone very far to show that the Northeners, as such, are abolitionists. Those who think that he has made out that point might interpret the latter part of this resolution to mean the whole of the Federals as a body ; and those who do not think that might restrict it in their own minds to suit their views. (Laughter.) Dr. GEOEGE JOHNSTON then came forward amid loud cheers, and said : It is not necessary that I should say one word in seconding the motion. I am quite satisfied that this meeting is perfectly unanimous in accepting the sentiments expressed in the motion, and why, there- ore, should I occupy more time. (Applause.) Just let me say this one word, that I apprehend that the magnificent speech of our friend Mr. Beecher Stowe — (loud laughter) — 1 mean Mr. Ward Beecher — has removed some prejudices — (hear, hear) — has given some information which, if rightly used, will guide us to the same conclusion to which I long ago came — viz., that the North is banded together to maintain the iberties of mankind. (Loud applause.) A show of hands was then taken, when only three were held up against the resolution, which were carried amidst 'loud and prolonged heering. A gentleman named Wright came forward to the platform to speak, but was ruled to be out of order. The Bev. DUNCAN OGILYIE said : The motion I have to make is one which will recommend itself to every one, in consequence of what has been manifested as Mr. Beecher has gone on. It has been to every one an immense treat to hear such a speech. (Loud applause.) I felt myself warmed exceedingly by it. (Laughter.) I am quite sure that the sympathies of this large meeting go with Mr. Beecher in a large measure — (applause) — and that you are ready to say Amen to every word almost, if not entirely. (Loud applause and hisses.) I am ready to say Amen to what Dr. Johnston stated, and I think the meeting is ready to do the same. (Loud applause and hisses.) What I now propose is that we give a very hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Beecher for coining, at very much inconvenience, as I know he has done, to address us this evening. (Loud and prolonged applause.) Mr. NELSON, publisher, rose to second the motion. He said : I have been requested to second this motion of a vote of thanks to Mr. Beecher, and I rise to do it with great diffidence, but at the same time with great pleasure. It is unnecessary, and it would be unbecoming in me, to pay any personal compliment to Henry Ward Beecher. The truth is that, in listening to his address to-night, I forgot Mr. Beecher altogether in the cause of which he is the representative ; and I daresay he will think that the best compliment I can pay to his eloquence. In thanking him, perhaps you will allow me, in a single sentence, to bear my humble but EDINBURGH — PUBLIC MEETING. 61 ■willing testimony to what I have seen of the growth of a healthy public opinion in America on the subject of slavery. Ten years ago I happened to visit the United States • and everywhere, from New York to Missouri, I had, bike others from the old country, to defend myself as I best could against the defenders of slavery. Conversation on general topics was sure at last to drift into this one great subject; but all is changed now. A few months ago I paid a second visit to the United States, and, except among the Copperheads, I can bear witness that the old hostility to English sentiment against slavery is gone. In the city of New York there is a large and influential association, known as the American Tract Society. This society has for many years been one of the battle-grounds on which the cause of freedom has been fought. Its mutilation of the works of English authors, and its rigid exclusion from its publications of everything against slavery, resulted a few years ago in the formation of a new society pledged to the cause of freedom. When I state that proposals have been made for a re-union of the two societies, because all feel free now to speak out on the subject of slavery, you may receive it as pretty strong evidence that a vast change has taken place. Yes, Mr. Chairman, the tide of public opinion has turned, and you might as well attempt to chain the sea as arrest its progress. In this country we are accustomed to talk of North and South, as if in these two words we expressed the nature of this terrible civfl war; but, Mr. Chairman, I beg leave to say that these two words express only one -half the truth. There are'two Norths and two Souths. There is that North which all along has yielded to the South, and strengthened the hands of the slave power. There is that other North who, for the first time, have the reins of power in their hands, and, amidst tremendous difficulties, are fighting the battle of freedom. It is that party, represented by such men as Mr. Beech er, Charles Sumner, and others, who have a right to appeal to this country for sympathy, and who, I think, are entitled to get it. "With the destruction of slavery there will be no South. A distinguished nobleman in this country some time ago set afloat the neat but delusive phrase that this is a war on one side for empire, on the other for independence. Yes, Mr. Chairman, and so it was. The Southern leaders, at the beginning of the struggle, boasted that they would soon have their flag floating over the Capitol at Washington, and at New York and Boston. Was not that a struggle for empire ] On the other side, was it not a struggle for independence when for the first time we saw the North rising up against the domination of the South 1 Last December, I happened to land in New York soon after the first battle of Fredericksburg, the darkest hour the North has known in this great war ; but, Mi*. Chairman, allow me to say that though the terrible battle of Fredericksburg was a defeat to the North, it was the greatest victory they ever gained. It broke the Democratic party into two — peace Democrats and war Democrats. The Government was stronger after the battle of Fredericksburg than before it • and so has it been with all the other defeats of the North. The Press in this country seemed to rejoice over these defeats and disasters, but they will, I venture to think, find themselves mistaken. They have not weakened 62 EDINBURGH — PUBLIC MEETING. the North. These defeats and disasters were all needed to bring round the North to the true position that either slavery must be destroyed or slaveiy would destroy their country. Every disaster has brought large' accessions to that party who have all along been true to the cause of freedom. There is one other point that 1 would like for a moment to refer to. Tn this country we attach far too much importance to the news- papers of America, and especially to the vilest of them all — the New York Herald. It is a common mistake in this country to suppose that that paper has a larger circulation than any other. In its daily issue among the rowdies of New Yoi'k it undoubtedly has ; but taking its whole issues during the week, it is far outnumbered in circulation by the abolition paper, the New York Tribune. We complain against the Americans for writing bitter articles against this country; but allow me to say that the worst of these articles are generally written on the arrival of the English mail, and I confess, from the tone of the Press of this country, I don't wonder at the fierce and bitter replies. In mixing with Americans, I must say that I have found little that was offensive, except a little harmless brag; but remember that this is natural to a young country, and should hardly offend us, as it seems to do. The most offensive things I have read or heard did not come from native- born Americans, but from our own countrymen, and especially from those who were natives of the Green Isle. I believe that among native Americans there is every desire to cultivate the friendship of this country, and that the present bitterness of feeling, having no root in itself, will soon wither away. Mr. Chairman, we must not forget that there are also two Souths. There are blacks as well as whites. Why should we always speak as if the whites alone formed the South; but I feel that I have already detained you too long 1 ? Before I sit down I beg to express the belief that, with the destruction of slavery, there will be no South. It is slavery alone that has formed the South. The din aud smoke of battle will, ere long, clear away. I believe that the present bitter feelings between North and South will also pass away, and we will see a united country, with the fair form of liberty wielding the sceptre over a free people. The motion was carried amid loud applause. The Rev. Mr. CULLEN moved a cordial vote of thanks to the Chairman ; and The Rev. Dr. THOMSON concluded the proceedings with prayer. LIVEKPOOL.-OCTOBER 16, 186S. GREAT MEETING IN THE PHILHARMONIC HALL. The Hall was crowded in every part by an audience drawn together by the announcement that the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, the celebrated American preacher and philanthropist, brother of Mrs. Beecher Stowe, would lecture on the American War and Emancipation. Immediately the doors were opened the hall was tilled, and the aspect of the audience showed that the proceedings were anticipated with no little eagerness. Mr. Charles Robertson was the chairman of the evening, and amongst those present on the platform we observed — Rev*. Robert Knox, Fareham; Rev. Josiah Hankinson, Leek ; Samuel Mosley, Esq., London; Rev. Dr. Nicholas; Rev. Robert Harlej', F.R.S. ; Rev. John Jones, Denis Daley, A. Leighton, Robert Trimble; Rev. Henry Tarrant, Derby; William Crossfield, C. E. Macqueen, Rev. Dr. Graham, H. G. Cook, Rev. Thomas Dui'ant, Charles Wilson, E. K. Muspratt, H. C. Long, J. H. Estcourt, E. O. Greening, Peter Sinclair, W. Johnson, J. C. Edwards, R. Goulden, Manchester; George A. Brown, John Innes, Charles E. Rawlins, Rev. C. M. Birrell, Rev. O. B. Bidwell, New York; William Crossfield, junior, Isaac B. Cooke, Rev. Enoch Mellor, M.A., President of the Congregational Union; Rev. Jones Booth, Yorkshire; Rev. Robert Shaw, P. James, Rev. R. Balgarnie, of Scar- borough; Rev. J. Gawthorn, Rev. W. Sanders, Maurice Williams, Dr. Hitchcock, Rev. R. J. Milne, the Dean of Dromore; C. R. Hall, John Patterson, Rev. John Lumb, Malvern; Rev. John Jones, Kirkdale; Rev. G. Procter, Isle of Wight; Rev. — Day, Rev. D. G. Smith, Eglish; Rev. Owen Evans, Wrexham ; Rev. William Roberts, Rev. James M ahood, Rev. Robert Thomas, Bangor; Rev. William Rees, Rev. E. Evans, Mor- riaton; Rev. William Griffith, Holyhead; Rev. E. T. Davis, Abergele; Rev. Noah Stephens, Rev. John Davis, Cardiff; Rev. J. Stephens, Brecon; Rev. William Edwards. Cardigan; Rev. F. Busby, Southport; Rev. W. P. Davis, Ringmore; Rev. John Thomas. Rev. J. Jenkins, Holywell; Rev. A. Francis, Rhyl; Rev. J. Roberts, Conway; Rev. John Wilde, Nottingham ; Rev. Robert Ashton, Secretary of the Congregational Union, London. On the entrance of Mr. Beecher, preceded by the chairman, a vast shout of mingled welcome and disapprobation was immediately raised 64 LIVERPOOL — PUBLIC MEETING. As is already known, to our readers, placards had been posted through- out the town inciting the people of Liverpool to give the reverend lecturer a hostile reception ; and it soon became evident that a small but determined minority of the meeting -were present with that inten- tion. The extent to which their exertions, which were sedulously continued throughout, interfered with the proceedings, will be perceived by the report. CHARLES ROBERTSON", Esq., on rising to introduce the lecturer, was received with loud cheers and hisses. After obtaining silence he said : Ladies and gentlemen, we are met here to-night to hear an address from the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. (Cheers and hisses.) I hope, gentlemen, this is an assembly of Englishmen — (hear, hear,) — and that everybody will be heard with calmness and impartiality. (Hear, hear.) Well, gentlemen, we are met together this evening to receive such information from Mr. Beecher as he has it in his power to com- municate to lis respecting the present state of the contest now going on in the United States of America, and its bearing on that most im- portant question which has so powerfully stirred the hearts of English- men, the question of the emancipation of the negro race. (Loud applause and hisses.) I need not say to you, gentlemen, it is that aspect of the question which has induced many of us to take a part in this meeting. It is because we believe that this is a contest which has a most important bearing on the emancipation of the negro race, and the introduction, to a larger portion of the population of the Southern States, of those rights and liberties which, as men, they ought to possess — that we have taken a deep interest in this struggle, believing that the success of the Northern States will lead to the emancipation of the slave. (" No, no," hisses and cheers.) The question of emancipation possesses such an immense interest and importance, that we are prepared to give a free expression of our sympathy and support to this movement. We, in common with all our fellow-countrymen, deplore and deprecate the bloodshed and miseries which this war has occasioned. I think there is no man among us who can view with other than feelings of the deepest regret the suffering and the loss which it has occasioned both in the country where the war is being waged and among the European communities. But, while admitting this to the fullest extent, I say, that to establish the great principle of liberty, the sacrifice of all else we hold dear pur- chases that liberty cheaply. (Hear, hear.) Therefore, while we do regret the misery produced, we do not regret the great issue which we believe will be obtained through that misery. But, gentlemen, we take this side not only in sympathy for the North, but in sympathy for the South. (Cheers.) The great work of negro emancipation is to benefit the inhabitants of these Southern States more than even it will benefit the North. With the North it is a question of humanity; with the South it is a question of progress, liberty, and of all that can contribute to elevate and promote the prosperity of a state. (Hear, hear.) It is with no unfriendly feelings to the South that I say these things. They are our own kinsmen as well as the people of the North. We have admired LIVERPOOL — PUBLIC MEETING. 65 their courage and unflinching devotedness to what they believe a right cause. (Applause.) But we are equally convinced that their cause is wrong. (Loud cries of " No, no," and " Hear, hear.") If there is a righteous God in Heaven, we believe that cause cannot prosper. (Renewed interruption.) Tbe chairman concluded by asking the respectful attention of the audience to Mr. Beecher's address, adding that that gentleman was perfectly prepared to answer any questions that might be addressed to him after the lecture, provided they were put in writing, with the name of the writer attached, and handed up to him the (chairman). ("Oh, oh.") The Rev. HENRY WARD BEECHER then rose, and, advancing to the front of the platform, was greeted with mingled cheers, hisses, and groans. A considerable proportion of the audience stood up, waving hats and handkerchiefs, and cheering. A man in the gallery called for " Three cheers for the Southern States," which created much laughter and some uproar. Mr. Beecher proceeded to say — " Ladies and gentle- men," when the uproar again commenced, and efforts were made to eject one noisy individual from the body of the hall. The CHAIRMAN said : A fair opportunity will be afforded to express approval or dissent at the close of the lecture, but if any one interrupts the meeting by disorderly conduct, I shall be obliged to call in the aid of the police. (Cheers.) The Rev. Mr. BEECHER then said : For more than twenty-five years I have been made perfectly familiar with popular assemblies in all parts of my country except the extreme South. There has not for the whole of that time been a single day of my life when it would have been -safe for me to go South of Mason's and Dixon's line in my own country, and all for one reason ; my solemn, earnest, persistent testimony against that which I consider to be the most atrocious tiling under the sun — the system of A merican slavery in a great free republic. (Cheers.) I have passed through that early period, when right of free speech was denied to me. Again and again I have attempted to address audiences that, for no other crime than that of free speech, visited me with all manner of contumelious epithets ; and now since I have been in England, although 1 have met with greater kindness and courtesy on the part of most than I deserved, yet, on the other hand, I perceive that the Southern influence prevails to some extent in England. (Applause and uproar.) It is my old acquaintance ; I understand it perfectly — (laughter) — and I have always held it to be an unfailing truth that where a man had a cause that would bear examination he was perfectly willing to have it spoken about. (Applause.) And when in Manchester I saw those huge placards, " Who is Henry Ward Beecher?" — (laughter, cries of "Quite right," and applause) — and when in Liverpool I was told that there were those blood-red placards, purporting to say what Henry Ward Beecher had said, and calling upon Englishmen to suppress free speech — I tell you what I though' I thought simply this — " I am glad of it." (Laughter.) Why? Because if they had felt perfectly secure, that you are the minions of the South and the slaves of slavery, they would have been perfectly still. E 66 LIVERPOOL — PUBLIC MEETING. (Applause and uproar.) And, therefore, when I saw so much nervous apprehension that, if I were permitted to speak — (hisses and applause) — when I found they were afraid to have me speak — (hisses, laughter, and "No, no") — when I found that they considered my speaking damaging to their cause — (applause) — when I found that they appealed from facts and reasonings to mob law — (applause and uproar) — I said : no man need tell me what the heart and secret counsel of these men are. They tremble, and are afraid. (Applause, laughter, hisses, "No, no," and a voice : "New York mob.") Now, personally, it is a matter of very little consequence to me whether I speak here to-night or not. (Laughter and cheers.) But, one thing is very certain— if you do permit me to speak here to-night you will hear very plain talking. (Applause and hisses.) You will not find a man — (interruption) — you will not find me to be a man that dared to speak about Great Britain 3,000 miles off, and then is afraid to speak lo Great Britain when he stands on her shores. (Immense applause and hisses.) And if I do not mistake the tone and the temper of Englishmen, they had rather have a man who opposes them in a manly way — (applause from all parts of the hall) — than a sneak that agrees with them in an unmanly way. (Applause and "Bravo.") Now, if I can carry you with me by sound convictions, I shall be immensely glad — (applause) ; but if I cannot carry you with me by facts and sound arguments, I do hot wish you to go with me at all ; and all that I ask is simply pajr play. (Applause, and a voice : "You shall have it, too.") Those of you who are kind enough to wish to favour my speaking— and you will observe that my voice is slightly husky, from having spoken almost every night in succession for some time past — those who wish to hear me will do me the kindness simply to sit still, and to keep still ; and I and my friends the Secessionists will make all the noise. (Laughter.) There are two dominant races in modern history — the Germanic and the Romanic races. The Germanic races tend to personal liberty, to a sturdy individualism, to civil and to political liberty. The Romanic race tends to absolutism in Government ; it is clanish ; it loves chieftains, it develops a people that crave strong and showy Governments to support and plan for them. The Anglo-Saxon race belongs to the great German family, and is a fair exponent of its peculiarities. The Anglo-Saxon carries self-government and self-development with him wherever he goes. He has popular government and popular industry ; for the effects of a generous civil liberty are not seen a whit more plain in the good order, in the intelligence, and in the virtue of a self- governing people, than in their amazing entei'prise and the scope and power of their creative industry. The power to create riches is just as much a part of the Anglo-Saxon virtues as the power to create good order and social safety. The things required for prosperous labour, prosperous manufactures, and prosperous commerce are three. First — liberty; second, liberty; third, liberty. (Hear, hear.) Though these are not merely the same liberty as I shall show you. First, there must be liberty to follow those laws of business, which experience has developed, without imposts or restrictions, or governmental intrusions. 1 LIVERPOOL — PUBLIC MEETING. 67 Business simply wants to be let alone. (Hear, keax\) Then, secondly, there must be liberty to distribute and exchange products of industry in any market without burdensome tariffs, without imposts, and without vexatious regulations. There must be these two liberties — liberty to create wealth, as the makers of it tJiink best according to the light and experience which business has given them ; and then liberty to distribute what they have created without unnecessary vexatious burdens. The comprehensive law of the ideal industrial condition of the world is free manufacture and free-trade. (Hear, hear : a Voice : " The Morrill tariff." Another voice : " Monroe.") I have said there were three elements of liberty. The third is the necessity of an intelligent and free race of customers. There must be freedom among producers ; there must be freedom among the distributors ; there must be A-eedom among the customers. It may not have occurred to you that it makes any difference what one's customers are, but it does in all regular and prolonged business. The condition of the customer determines how much he will buy, determines of what sort he will buy. Poor and ignorant people buy little and that of the poorest kind. The richest and the intelligent, having the more means to buy, buy the most, and always buy the best. Here then are the three liberties — liberty of the producer ; liberty of the distributor ; and liberty of the consumer. The first two need no discussion, they have been long thoroughly and brilliantly illustrated by the political economists of Great Britain, and by her eminent statesmen ; but it seems to me that enough attention has not been directed to the third ; and, with your patience, I will dwell on that for a moment, before proceeding to other topics. It is a necessity of every manufacturing and commercial people that their customers should be very wealthy and intelligent. Let us put the subject before you in the familiar light of your own local experience. To whom do the tradesmen of Liverpool sell the most goods at the highest profit ? To the ignorant and poor, or to the educated and prosperous ? (A voice : " To the Southerners." Laughter.) The poor man buys simply for his body ; he buys food, he buys clothing, he buys fuel, he buys lodging. His rule is to buy the least and the cheapest that he can. He goes to the store as seldom as he can, — he brings away as little as he can, — and he buys for the least he can. (Much laughter.) Poverty is not a misfortune to the poor only who suffer it, but it is more or less a misfortune to all with whom he deals. On the other hand, a man well off, — how is it with him ? He buys in far greater quantity. He can afford to do it ; he has the money to pay for it. He buys in far greater variety, because he seeks to gratify not merely physical wants, but also mental wants. He buys for the satisfaction of sentiment and taste, as well as of sense. He buys silk, wool, flax, cotton ; he buys all metals — iron, silver, gold, platinum ; in short he buys for all necessities and of all substances. But that is not all. He buys a better quality of goods. He buys richer silks, finer cottons, higher grained wools. Now, a rich silk means so much skill and care of somebody's that has been expended upon it to make it finer and richer ; and so of cotton, and so of wool. That is, the price C8 LIVERPOOL — PUBLIC MEETING. of the finer goods runs back to the very beginning, and remunerates the workman as well as the merchant. Now, the whole labouring community is as much interested and profited as the mere merchant, in this buying and selling of the higher grades in the greater varieties and quantities. The law of price is the skill ; and the amount of skill expended in the work is as much for the market as are the goods. A man comes to market and says, " I have a pair of hands," and he obtains the lowest wages. Another man comes and says, "I have something more than a pair of hands ; I have truth and fidelity ; " he gets a higher price. Another man comes and says, " I have something more ; I have hands, and strength, and fidelity, and skill." He gets more than either of the others. The next man comes and says, " I have, got hands, and strength, and skill, and fidelity ; but my hands work more than that. They know how to create things for the fancy, for the affections, for the moral sentiments ; " and he gets more than either of the others. The last man comes and says, " 1 have all these qualities, and have them so highly that it is a peculiar genius ; " and genius carries the whole market and gets the highest price. (Loud applause.) So that both the workman and the merchant are profited by having purchasers that demand quality, variety, and quantity. Now, if this be so in the town or the city, it can only be so because it is a law. This is the specific development of a general or universal law, and there- fore we should expect to find it as true of a nation as of a city like Liverpool. I know it is so, and you know that it is true of all the world ; and it is just as important to have customei-s educated, intelli- gent, moral, and rich out of Liverpool as it is in Liverpool. (Applause.) They are able to buy ; they want variety, they want the very best ; and those are the customers you want. That nation is the best customer that is freest, because freedom works prosperity, industry, and wealth. Great Britain then, aside from moral considerations, has a dh-ect com- mercial and pecuniary interest in the liberty, civilization, and wealth of every people and every nation on the globe. (Loud applause.) You have also an interest in this, because you are a moral and a religious people. (" Oh, oh," laughter, and applause.) You desire it from the highest motives ; and godliness is profitable in all things, having the promise of the life that is, as well as of that which is to come ; but if there were no hereafter, and if man had no progress in this life, and if there were no question of civilization at all, it would be worth your while to protect civilization and liberty, merely as a commercial speculation. To evan- gelize has more than a moral and religious import — it comes back to temporal relations. Wherever a nation that is crushed, cramped, degraded under despotism is struggling to be free, you, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Paisley, all have an interest that that nation should be free. When depressed and backward people demand that they may have a chance to rise — Hungary, Italy, Poland — it is a duty for humanity's sake, it is a duty for the highest moral motives, to sympathize with them; but beside all these there is a material and an interested reason why you should sympathize with them. Pounds and 2>ence join with conscience and with honour in this design. Now, LIVERPOOL — PUBLIC MEETING. 69 Great Britain's chief want is — what 1 They have said that your chief want is cotton. I deny it. Your chief want is consumers. (Applause and hisses.) You have got skill, you have got capital, and you have got machinery enough to manufacture goods for the whole population of the globe. You could turn out four-fold as much as you do, if you only had the market to sell in. It is not so much the want therefore of fabric, though there may be a temporary obstruction of it ; but the principal and increasing want — increasing from year to year — is, where shall we find men to buy, what we can manufacture so fast ? (Interruption, and a voice, " The Morrill tariff," and applause.) Before the American war broke out, your warehouses were loaded with goods that you could not sell. (Applause and hisses.) You had over-manufactured; what is the meaning of over-manufacturing but this, that you had skill, capital, machinery, to create faster than you had customers to take goods off your hands 1 And you know, that, rich as Great Britain is, vast as are her manufactures, if she could have four-fold the present demand, she could make four-fold riches to-morrow ; and every political economist will tell you that your want is not cotton primarily, but customers. Therefore, the doctrine, how to make cus- tomers, is a great deal more important to Great Britain than the doctrine how to raise cotton. It is to that doctrine I ask from you, business men, practical men, men of fact, sagacious Englishmen — to that point I ask a moment's attention. (Shouts of " Oh, oh," hisses, and applause.) There are no more continents to be discovered. (Heai', hear.) The market of the future must be found — how 1 There is very little hope of any more demand being created by new fields. If you are to have a better market there must be some kind of process invented to make the old fields better. (A voice, " Tell us something new," shouts of "Order," and interruption.) Let us look at it, then. You must civilize the world in order to make a better class of purchasers. (Interruption.) If you were to press Italy down again under the feet of despotism, Italy, discouraged, could draw but very few supplies from you. But give her liberty, kindle schools throughout her valleys, spur her industry, make treaties with her by which she can exchange her wine, and her oil, and her silk for your manufactured goods ; and for every effort that you make in that direction there will come back profit to you by increased traffic with her. (Loud applause.) If Hungary asks to be an unshackled nation — if by freedom she will rise in virtue and intelligence, then by freedom she will acquire a more multifarious industry, which she will be willing to exchange for your manufactures. Her liberty is to be found — where 1 You will find it in the Word of God, you will find it in the code of history ; but you will also find it in the Price Current (hear, hear) ; and every free nation, every civilized people — every people that rises from barbarism to industry and intelligence, becomes a better customer. A savage is a man of one story, and that one story a cellar. When the man begins to be civilized, he raises another story. When you Christianize and civilize the man, you put story upon story, for you develop faculty after faculty ; and you have to supply every story with your productions. The savage is a man one story deep ; the civilized 70 LIVERPOOL — PUBLIC MEETING. man is thirty stories deep. (Applause.) Now, if you go to a lodging- house, where there are three or four men, your sales to them may, no doubt, be worth something ; but if you go to a lodging-house like some of those which I saw in Edinburgh, which seemed to contain about twenty stories — ("oh, oh," and interruption) — every story of which is full, and all who occupy buy of you — which is the best customer, — ■ the man who is drawn out, or the man who is pinched up 1 ( Laughter.) Now, there is in this a great and sound principle of political economy. (" Yah ! yah !" from the passage outside the hall, and loud laughter.) If the South should be rendered independent — (at this juncture mingled cheering and hisses became immense ; half the audience rose to their feet, waving hats and handkerchiefs, and in every part of the hall there was the greatest commotion and uproar.) You have had your turn now ; now let me have mine again (Loud applause and laughter.) It is a little inconvenient to talk against the wind ; but, after all, if you will just keep good-natured — I am not going to lose my temper ; will you watch yours 1 (Applause.) Besides all that,— it rests me, and gives me a chance, you know, to get my breath. (Applause and hisses.) And I think that the bark of those men is worse than their bite. They do not mean any harm — they don't know any better. (Loud laughter, applause, hisses, and continued uproar.) I was saying, when these responses broke in, that it was worth our while to consider both alter- natives. What will be the result if this present struggle shall eventuate in the separation of America, and making the South — (loud applause, hisses, hooting, and cries of " Bravo !") — a slave territory exclusively, — (cries of "No, no," and laughter) — and the North a free territory, what will be the first result ? You will lay the foundation for carrying the slave population clear through to the Pacific Ocean. That is the first step. There is not a man that has been a leader of the South any time within these twenty years, that has not had this for a plan. It was for this that Texas was invaded, first by colonists, next by marauders, until it was wrested from Mexico. It was for this that they engaged in the Mexican war itself, by which the vast territory reaching to the Pacific was added to the Union. Never have they for a moment given up the plan of spreading the American institutions, as they call them, straight through towards the West, until the slave, who has wash'ed his feet in the Atlantic, shall be carried to wash them in the Pacific. (Cries of " Question," and uproar.) There ! I have got that statement out, and you cannot put it back. (Laughter and applause.) Now, let us con- sider the prospect. If the South become a slave empire, what relation will it have to you as a customer 1 (A Voice : " Or any other man." Laughter.) It would be an empire of 12,000,000 of people. Now, of these, 8,000,000 are white and 4,000,000 black. (A Voice: "How many have you got ?" — applause and laughter. Another Voice : " Free your own slaves.") Consider that one-third of the whole are the miserably poor, unbuying blacks. (Cries of " No, no," " Yes, yes," and interruption.) You do not manufacture much for them. (Kisses, "Oh!" "No.") You have not got machinery coarse enough. (Laughter, and "No.") Your labour is too skilled by far to manufacture bagging and LIVERPOOL — PUBLIC MEETING. 71 linsey-woolsey. (A Southerner : " "We are going to free them every one.") Then you and I agree exactly. (Laughter.) One other third consists of a poor, unskilled, degraded Avhite population ; and the remaining one-third, which is a large allowance, we will say, intelligent and rich. Now here are twelve million of people, and only one-third of them are customers thai can afford to buy the kind of goods that you bring to market. (Interruption and uproar.) My friends, I saw a man once, who was a little late at a railway station, chase an express train. He did not catch it. (Laughter.) If you are going to stop this meeting, you have got to stop it before I speak; for after I have got the things out, you may chase as long as you please — you would not catch them. (Laughter and interruption.) But there is luck in leisure; I'm going to take it easy. (Laughter.) Two-thirds of the population of the Southern States to-day are non-purchasers of English goods. (A Voice: "No, they are not;" "No, no," and uproar.) Now you must recollect another fact — namely, that this is going on clear through to the Pacific Ocean; and if by sympathy or help you establish a slave empire, you sagacious Britons — (" Oh, oh," and hooting) — if you like it better, then, I will leave the adjective out — (laughter, hear, and applause) — are busy in favouring the estab- lishment of an empire from ocean to ocean that should have fewest customers and the largest non-buying population. (Applause, " No, no." A Voice : "I think it was the happy people that populated fastest.") Now, for instance, just look at this, the difference between free labour and slave labour to produce cultivated land. The State of Virginia has 15,000 more square miles of land than the State of New York ; but Virginia has only 15,000 square miles improved, while New York has 20,000 square miles improved. Of unimproved land Virginia has about 23,000 square miles, and New York only about 10,000 square miles. Now, these facts speak volumes as to the ca pacity of the territory to bear population. The smaller is the quantity of soil uncultivated, the greater is the density of the population — (hear, hear) ; — and upon that, their value as customers depends. Let us take the States of Maryland and Massachusetts. Maryland has 2,000 more square miles of land than Massachusetts; but Maryland has about 4,000 square miles of land improved, Massachusetts has 3,200 square miles. Mary- land has 2,800 unimproved square miles of land, while Massachusetts has but 1,800 square miles unimproved. But these two are little States, — let us take greater States. Pennsylvania and Georgia. The State of Georgia has 12,000 more square miles of land than Pennsylvania. Georgia has only about 9,800 square miles of im- proved land, Pennsylvania has 13,400 square miles of improved land, or about 2,300,000 acres more than Georgia. Georgia has about 25,600 square miles of unimproved land, and Pennsylvania has only 10,400 square miles, or about 10,000,000 acres less of unimproved land than Georgia. The one is a Slave State and the other is a Free State. I do not want you to forget such statistics as those, having once heard them. (Laughter.) Now, what can England make for the poor white population of such a future empire, and for her slave population '? 72 LIVERPOOL — PUBLIC MEETING. What carpets, what linens, what cottons can you sell to them ? "What machines, what looking-glasses, what combs, what leather, what books, what pictures, what engravings ? (A Voice: "We'll sell them ships.") You may sell ships to a few, but what ships can you sell to two-thirds of the population of poor whites and blacks ? (Applause.) A little bagging and a little linsey-woolsey, a few whips and manacles, are all that you can sell for the slave. (Great applause, and uproar.) This very day, in the Slave States of America there are eight millions out of twelve millions that are not, and cannot be your customers from the very laws of trade. (A Voice: "Then how are they clothed?" and interruption.) The CH AIRMAN" : If gentlemen will only sit down, those who are making the disturbance will be tired out. Mr. BEECHER resumed : There are some apparent drawbacks that may suggest themselves. The first is that the interests of England consist in drawing from any country its raw material. (A. Voice: "We have got over that.") There is an interest, but it is not the interest of England. The interest of England is not merely where to buy her cotton, her ores, her wool, her linens, and her flax. When she has put her brains into the cotton, and into the linen and flax, and it becomes the product of her looms, a far more important question is, " What can be done with it 1 ?" England does not want merely to pay prices for that which brute labour produces, but to get a price for that which brain labour produces. (Hear, hear, and applause.) Your interest lies beyond all perad venture; therefore, if you should bring ever so much cotton from the slave empire — ("Yah, yah,") — you cannot sell back again to the slave empire. (A Voice: "Go on with your subject; we know all about England.") Excuse me, sir, I am the speaker, not you; and it is for me to determine what to say. (Hear, hear.) Do you suppose I am going to speak about America except to convince Englishmen? lam here to talk to you for the sake of ultimately carrying j^ou with me in judgment and in thinking — (" Oh ! oh!") — and, as to this logic of cat-calls, it is slavery logic, — I am used to it. (Applause, hisses, and cheers.) Now, it is said that if the South should be allowed to be separate there will be no tariff, and England can trade with her ; but if the South remain in the United States, it will be bound by a tariff, and English goods will be excluded from it (interruption). Now, I am not going to shirk any question of that kind. In the first place, let me tell you that the first tariff ever proposed in America was not only supported by Southern interests and votes, but was originated by the peculiar structure of Southern society. The first and chief difficulty — after the Union was formed under our present constitution — the first difficulty that met our fathers was, how to raise taxes to support the government ; and the question of representation and taxes went together ; and the difficulty was, whether we should tax the North and South alike, man for man per caput, counting the slaves with whites. The North having fewer slaves in comparison with the number of its whites ; the South, which had a lai-ger number of blacks, said, "We shall be over-taxed if this system be adopted." They LIVERPOOL — PUBLIC MEETING. 73 therefore proposed that taxes and representation should be on the basis of five black men counting as three white men. In a short time it was found impossible to raise these taxes in the South, and then they cast about for a better way, and the tariff scheme was submitted. The object was to raise the revenue from the ports instead of from the people. The tariff therefore had its origin in Southern weaknesses and necessities, and not in the Northern cities (loud applause). Daniel Webster's first speech was against it ; but after that was carried by Southern votes, (which for more than fifty years determined the law of the country,) New England accepted it, and saying, "It is the law of the land," con- formed her industry to it ; and when she had got her capital embarked in mills and machinery, she became in favour of it. But the South, beginning to feel, as she grew stronger, that it was against her interest to continue the system, sought to have the tariff modified, and brought it down ; though Henry Clay, a Southern man himself, was the immortal champion of the tariff. All his life time he was for a high tariff, till such a tariff could no longer stand ; and then he was for moderating the tariffs. And there has not been for the whole of the fifty years a single hour when any tariff could be passed without them. The opinion of the whole of America was, tariff, high tariff. I do not mean that there were none that dissented from that opinion, but it was the popular and prevalent cry. I have lived to see the time when, just before the war broke out, it might be said that the thinking men of America were ready for free-trade. There has been a steady progress throughout America for free-trade ideas. How came this Morrill tariff] The Democratic administration, inspired by Southern counsels, left millions of millions of unpaid debt to cramp the incoming of Lincoln ; and the Government, betrayed to the Southern States, found itself unable to pay those debts, unable to build a single ship, unable to raise an army ; and it was the exigency, the necessity, that forced them to adopt the Morrill tariff, in order to raise the money which they required. It was the South that obliged the North to put the tariff on. (Applause and uproar.) Just as soon as we begin to have peace again, and can get our national debt into a proper shape as you have got yours — -(laughter) — the same cause that worked before will begin to work again ; and there is nothing moi'e certain in the future than that the American is bound to join with Great Britain in the world-wide doctx-ine of free-trade. (Applause and interruption.) Here then, so far as this argument is concerned, I rest my case, saying that it seems to me that in an argument addressed to a commercial people it was perfectly fair to represent that their commercial and manufacturing interests tallied with their moral sentiments ; and as by birth, by blood, by history, by moral feeling, and by everything, Great Britain is connected with the liberty of the world, God has joined interest and conscience, head and heart ; so that you ought to be in favour of liberty everywhere. (Great applause.) There ! I have got quite a speech out already, if I do not get any more. (Hisses and applause.) Now then, leaving this for a time, let me tm*n to some other nearly connected topics. It is said that the South is fighting for just that independence of which I 74 LIVERPOOL — PUBLIC MEETING. have been speaking. (Hear, hear.) The South is divided on that subject. (" .No, no.") There are twelve millions in the South. Four millions of them are asking for their liberty. (" No, no," hisses, "Yes," a2)plause, and intei-ruption.) Four millions are asking for their liberty. (Continued interruption, and renewed applause.) Eight millions are banded together to prevent it. (" No, no," hisses, and applause.) That is what they asked the world to recognise as a strike for independence. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) Eight million white men fighting to pre- vent the liberty of four million black men, challenging the world. (Uproar, hisses, applause, and continued interruption.) You cannot get over the fact. There it is ; like iron, you cannot stir it. (Uproar). They went out of the Union because slave property was not recognised in it. There were two ways of reaching slave property in the Union : the one by exerting the direct Federal authority : but they could not do that, for they conceived it to be forbidden. The second was by indirect influence. If you put a candle under a bowl it will burn so long as the fresh air lasts, but it will go out as soon as the oxygen is exhausted ; and so, if you put slavery into a State where it cannot get more States, it is only a question of time how long it will live. By limiting slave territory you lay the foundation for the final extinction of slavery. (Applause.) Gardeners say that the reason why crops will not giow in the same ground for a long time together, is that the roots excrete poisoned matter which the plants cannot use, and thus poison the grain. Whether this is true of crops or not, it is certainly true of slavery, for slavery poisons the land on which it grows. Look at the old slave States, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and even at the newer State of Missouri. What is the condition of slavery in those States 1 It is not worth one cent except to breed. It is not worth one cent so far as productive energy goes. They cannot make money by their slaves in those States. The first reason with them for maintaining slavery is, because it gives political power ; and the second, because they breed for the Southern market. I do not stand on my own testimony alone. The editor of the Virginia Times, in the year 183B, made a calculation that 120,000 slaves were sent out of the State during that year ; 80,000 of which went with their owners, and 40,000 were sold at the average price of 000 dollars, amounting to 24,000,000 dollars in one year out of the State of Virginia. Now, what does Henry Clay, himself a slaveowner, say about Kentucky ? In a speech before the Colonisation Society, he said : " It is believed that nowhere in the farming portion of the United States would slave labour be generally employed, if the proprietary were not compelled to raise slaves by the high price of the Southern market," and the only profit of slave property in Northern farming slave States is the value they bring. (A voice : "Then if the Northerners breed to supply the South, what's the diiference 1 ") So that if you were to limit slavery, and to say, it shall go so far and no further, it would be only a question of time when it should die of its own intrinsic weakness and disease. Now, this was the Northern feeling. The North was true to the doctrine of constitutional rights. The North refused, by any Federal LIVERPOOL — PUELIC MEETING. 75 action within the States, to violate the compacts of the constitution, and left local compacts unimpaired ; but the North, feeling herself unbound with regard to what we call the territories, — free land which has not yet State rights, — said there should be no more territory cursed with slavery. (Applause.) With unerring instinct the South said, "The Government administered by Northern men on the principle that there shall be no more slave territory, is a Government fatal to slavery," and it was on that account that they seceded — (" No, no," " Yes, yes," applause, hisses, and uproar) — and the first step which they took when they assembled at Montgomery, was, to adopt a constitution. Y\ 7 hat constitution did they adopt ? The same form of constitution which they had just abandoned. What changes did they introduce 1 A trifling change about the Presidential term, making it two years longer ; a slight change about some doctrine of legislation, involving no principle whatever, but merely a question of policy. But by the constitution of Montgomery they legalized slavery, and made it the organic law of the land. The very constitution which they said they could not live under when they left the Union they took again immediately afterwards, only altering it in one point, and that was, makiug the fundamental lav/ of the land to be slavery. (Hear, hear.) Let no man undertake to say in the face of intelligence — let no man undertake to delude an honest community, by saying that slavery had nothing to do with the Secession. Slavery is the framework of the South ; it is the root and the branch of this conflict -with the South. Take away slavery from the South, and she would not differ from us in any respect. There is not a single antagonistic interest. There is no difference of race, no difference or* language, no difference of law, no difference of constitution ; the only difference between us is, that free labour is in the North, and slave laboiu- is in the South. (Loud applause.) But I know that you say, you cannot help sympathizing with a gallant people. (Hear, hear.) They are the weaker people, the minority ; and you cannot help going with the minority who are struggling for their rights against the majority. Nothing could be more generous, when a weak party stands for its own legitimate rights against imperious pride and power, than to sympathize with the weak. But who ever yet sympathized with a weak thief, because three constables had got hold of him ? (Hear, hear.) And yet the one thief in three policemen's hands is the weaker party. I suppose you would sympathize with him. (Hear*, hear, laughter, and applause.) Why, when that infamous king of Naples — Bomba, was driven into Gaeta by Garibaldi with his immortal band of patriots, and Cavour sent against him the army of Northern Italy, who was the weaker party then 1 The tyrant and his minions ; and the majority was with the noble Italian patriots, struggling for liberty. I never heard that Old England sent deputations to King Bomba, and yet his troops resisted bravely there. (Laughter and interruption.) To-day the majority of the people of Rome is with Italy. Nothing but French bayonets keeps her from going back to the Kingdom of Italy, to which she belongs. Do you sympathize with the minority in Home or the majority in Italy? (A voice: "With Italy.") To-day the South is 76 LIVERPOOL — PUBLIC MEETING. the minority in America, and they are fighting for independence ! For what? (Uproar. A voice : "Three cheers for independence," and hisses.) I could wish so much bravery had had a better cause, and that so much self-denial had been less deluded ; that that poisonous and venomous doctrine of State rights might have been kept aloof ; that so many gallant spirits, such as Jackson, might still have lived. (Great applause and loud cheers, again and again renewed.) The force of these facts, historical and incontrovertible, cannot be broken, except by diverting attention by an attack upon the North. It is said that the North is fighting for Union, and not for emancipation. The North is fighting for Union, for that ensures emancipation. (Loud cheers, " Oh, oh," ''No, no," and cheers.) A great many men say to ministers of the Gospel — " You pretend to be preaching and Avorking for the love of the people. Why, you are all the time preaching for the sake of the church." What does the minister say 1 " It is by means of the church that we help the people," and when men say that we are fighting for the Union, I too say we are fighting for the Union. (Hear, hear, and a voice : " That's right.") But the motive determines the vame ; and why are we fighting for the Union 1 Because we never shall forget the testimony of our enemies. They have gone off declaring that the Union in the hands of the North was fatal to slavery. (Loud applause.) There is testimony in court for you. (A voice: "See that," and laughter.) We are fighting for the Union, because we believe that preamble which explains the very reason for which the Union was constituted. I will read it. " We " — not the States — " We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfeet nation — (uproar) — I don't wonder you don't want to hear it — [laughter) — "in order to form a more perfect nation, establish justice, assure domestic tranquillity — (uproar) — provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty — (" oh, oh") — to ourselves and our posterity, ordain and establish this constitution of the United States of America." (A Yoice : " How many States V) It is for the sake of that justice, that common welfare, and that liberty for which the National Union was established, that we fight for the Union. (Interruption.) Because the South believed that the Union was against slavery, they left it. (Renewed interruption.) Yes. (Applause, and " No, no.") To-day, however, if the North believed that the Union was against liberty, they would leave it. (" Oh, oh," and great disturbance.) Gentlemen, I have travelled in the West ten or twelve hours at a time in the mud knee-deep. It was hard toiling my way, but I always got through my journey. I feel to-night as though I were travelling over a very muddy road ; but I think I shall get through. (Cheers.) Well, next it is said, that the North treats the negro race worse than the South. (Applause, cries of "Bravo !" and uproar.) Now, you see I don't fear any of these disagreeable arguments. I am going to face everyone of them. In the first place I am ashamed to confess that such was the thoughtlessness — (interruption) — such was the stupor of the North — (renewed interruption) — you will get a word at a time ; to- morrow will let folks see what it is you don't want to hear — that for a LIVERPOOL — PUBLIC MEETING. 77 period of twenty-five years she went to sleep, and permitted herself to be drugged and poisoned with the Southern prejudice against black men. (Applause and uproar.) The evil was made worse, because, when any object whatever has caused anger between political parties, a political animosity arises against that object, no matter how innocent in itself; no matter what were the original influences which excited the quarrel. Thus the coloured man has been the football between the two parties in the North, and has suffered accordingly. I confess it to my shame. But I am speaking now on my own ground, for I began twenty-five years ago, with a small party, to combat the unjust dislike of the coloured man. (Loud applause, dissension, and uproar. The inter- ruption at this point became so violent that the friends of Mr. Beecher throughout the hall rose to their feet, waving hats and handkerchiefs, and renewing their shouts of applause. The interruption lasted some minutes.) Well, I have lived to see a total revolution in the Northern feeling — I stand here to bear solemn witness of that. It is not my opinion ; it is my knowledge. (Great uproar.) Those men who under- took to stand up for the rights of all men — black as well as white — have increased in number ; and now what party in the North represents those men that resist the evil prejudices of past years 1 The Republicans are that party. (Loud applause.) And who are those men in the North that have oppressed the negro? They are the Peace Democrats ; and the prejudice for which in England you are attempting to punish me, is a prejudice raised by the men who have opposed me all my life. These pro-slavery democi-ats abused the negro. I defended him, and they mobbed me for doing it. Oh, justice ! (Loud laughter, applause, and hisses.) This is as if a man should commit an assault, maim and wound a neighbour, and a surgeon being called in should begin to dress his wounds, and by-and-by a policeman should come and collar the surgeon and haul him off to prison on account of the wounds which he was healing. Now, I told you I would not flinch from any- thing. I am going to read you some questions that were sent after me from Glasgow, purporting to be from a working man. (Great interrup- tion. ) If those pro-slavery interrupters think they will tire me out, they will do more than eight millions in America could. (Applause and renewed inteiTuption.) I was reading a question on your side, too. " Is it not a fact that in most of the Northern States laws exist precluding negroes from equar civil and political rights with the whites ? That in the State of New York the negro has to be the possessor of at least two hundred and fifty dollars worth of property to entitle him to the privileges of a white citizen 1 That in some of the Northern States the coloured man, whether bond or free, is by law excluded altogether, and not suffered to enter the State limits, under severe penalties 1 and is not Mr. Lincoln's own State one of them ; and in view of the fact that the $20,000,000 compensation which was promised to Missouri in aid of emancipation was defeated in the last Congress (the strongest Republican Congress that ever assembled), what has the North done towards emancipation ?" Now then, there's a dose for you. (A Voice : " Answer it.") And I will address myself to the answering 78 LIVEKPOOL — PUBLIC MEETING. . of it. And first, the bill for emancipation in Missouri, to which this money was denied, was a bill which was drawn by what we call " log rollers," who inserted in it an enormously disproportioned price for the slaves. The Republicans offered to give them $10,000,000 for the slaves in Missouri, and they outvoted it because they could not get $12,000,000. Already half the slave population had been " run " down South, and yet they came up to Congress to get $12,000,000 for what was not worth ten millions, nor even eight millions. Now as to those States that had passed " black " laws, as we call them ; they are filled with Southern emigrants. The Southern parts of Ohio, the Southern part of Indiana, where I myself lived for years, and which I knew like a book, the Southern part of Illinois where Mr. Lincoln lives — (great uproar) — these parts are largely settled by emigrants from Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina, and it was their vote, or the Northern votes pandering for political reasons to theirs, that passed in those States the infamous " black " laws ; and the Republicans in these States have a record, clean and white, as having opposed these laws in every instance as " infamous." Now as to the State of New York, it is asked whether a negro is not obliged to have a certain freehold property, or a certain amount of property, before he can vote. It is so still in North Carolina and Rhode Island for white folks — it is so in New York State. (Mr. Beecher's voice slightly failed him here, and he was inter- rupted by a person who tried to imitate him, cries of " Shame" and " Turn him out.") I am not undertaking to say that these faults of the North, which were brought upon them by the bad example and influence of the South, are all cured ; but I do say that they are in a process of cure which promises, if unimpeded by foreign influence, to make all such odious distinctions vanish. "Is it not a fact that in most of the Northern States laws exist precluding negroes from equal civil and political rights with the whites ?" I will tell you. Let us compare the condition of the negro in the North and the South, and that will tell the story. By express law the South takes away from the slave all attributes of manhood, and calls him " chattel," which is another word for " cattle." (Hear, hear, and hisses.) No law in any Northern State calls him anything else but a person. (Applause.) The South denies the right of legal permanent marriage to the slave. There is not a State of the North where the marriage of the slave is not as sacred as that of any free white man. (Immense cheering.) Throughout the South, since the slave is not permitted to live in anything but in concubinage, his wife, so called, is taken from him at the will of his master, and there is neither public sentiment nor law that can hinder most dreadful and cruel separations every year in every county and town. There is not a State, county, or town, or school district in the North where, if any man dare to violate the family of the poorest blackman, "there would not be an indignation that would overwhelm him. (Loud applause. A Voice : " How about the riots 1 ") Irishmen made that entirely. (Laughter.)* * A London newspaper disgracefully attacked Mr. Beecher as impudently false, for making this statement ; and the paragraph was reprinted in other papers without comment, although Mr. Beecher's statement is notoriously true. Mr. Berkeley, of Bristol, dishonoured himself lately, by adducing the New York riots in proof that the coloured man is treated as ill in the North as in the South, when the riot from beginning to end was Southern. — Eds. LIVERPOOL — PUBLIC MEETING. 79 In the South by statutory law it is a penitentiary offence to teach a black man to read and write. In the North not only are hundreds and thousands of dollars expended of State money in teaching coloured people, but they have their own schools, their own academies, their own churches, their own ministers, their own lawyers. (Cheers and hisses.) In the South, black men are bred, exactly as cattle are bred in the North, for the market and for sale. Such dealing is considered horrible beyond expression in the North. In the South the slave can own nothing by law — (interruption) — but in the single city of New York there are ten million dollars of money belonging to free coloured people. (Loud applause.) In the South no coloured man can determine — (uproar) — no coloured man can determine in the South where he will work, nor at what he will work ; but in the North — except in the great cities, where we are crowded by foreigners, — in any country part the black man may choose his trade and work at it, and is just as much protected by the laws as any white man in the land. (Applause.) I speak with authority on this point. (Cries of " No.") When I was twelve years old, my father hired Charles Smith, a man as black as lampblack, to work on his farm.. I slept with him in the same room. ("Oh, oh/') Ah, that don't suit you. (Uproar.) Now, you see, the South comes out. (Loud laughter.) I ate with him at the same table ; I sang with him out of the same hymn-book — ("Good"); — I cried, when he prayed over me at night ; and if I had serious impressions of religion early in life, they were due to the fidelity and example of that poor humble farm-labourer, black Charles Smith. (Tremendous uproar and cheers.) In the South, no matter what injury a coloured man may receive, he is not allowed to appear in court nor to testify against a white man. (A voice : "That's fact.") In every single court of the North a respectable coloured man is as good a witness, as if his face were white as an angel's robe. (Applause and laughter.) I ask any truthful and considerate man whether, in this contrast, it does not appear that, though faults may yet linger, in the North uneradicated, the state of the negro in the North is not immeasurably better than anywhere in the South? (Applause.) And now, for the first time in the history of America — ■ (great interruption), — for the first time in the history of the United States a coloured man has received a commission under the broad seal and signature of the President of the United States. (Loud applause.) This day — (renewed interruption) — this day, Frederick Douglas, of whom you all have heard here, is an officer of the United States — (loud applause) — a commissioner sent down to organize coloured regiments on Jefferson Davis's farm in Mississippi. (Uproar and applause, and a Voice, " You put them in the front of the battle too.") There is another fact that I wish to allude to — not for the sake of reproach or blame, but by way of claiming your more lenient consideration — and that, is, that slavery was entailed upon us by your action. (Hear, hear.) Against the earnest protests of the colonists the then Government of Great Britain — I will concede not knowing what were the mischiefs — ignorantly, but in point of fact, forced slave traffic on the unwilling colonists. (Great uproar, in the midst of which one individual was lifted up and carried out of the room amidst cheers and hisses.) SO LIVERPOOL — PUBLIC MEETING. The CHAIRMAN: If you would only sit down no disturbance would take place. The disturbance having subsided, Mr. BEECHER said : I was going to ask you, suppose a child is born with hereditary disease ; suppose this disease was entailed upon him by parents who had contracted it by their own misconduct, would it be fair that those parents, that had brought into the world the diseased child, should rail at that child because it was diseased. (" No, no.") Would not the child have a right to turn round and say, "Father, it was your fault that I had it, and you ought to be pleased to be patient with nry deficiencies." (Applause and hisses, and cries of "order;" great interruption and great disturbance here took place on the right of the platform ; and the chairman said that if the persons around the unfortunate individual who had caused the disturbance would allow him to speak alone, but not assist him in making the disturbance, it might soon be put an end to. The interruption was continued until another person was carried out of the hall.) Mr. Beecher continued : I do not ask that you should justify slavery in us, because it was wrong in you two hun- dred years ago ; but having ignorantly been the means of fixing it upon us, now that we are struggling with mortal struggles to free ourselves from it, we have a right to your tolerance, your patience, and charitable construction. I am every day asked when this war will end. (Inter- ruption.) I wish I could tell you ; but remember slavery is the cause of the war. ("Hear, hear," applause, "yes," "no.") Slavery has been working for more than 100 years, and a chronic evil cannot be suddenly cured ; and as war is the remedy, you must be patient to have the con- flict long enough to cure the inveterate hereditary sore. (Hisses, loud applause, and a Voice : "We'll stop it.") But of one thing I think I may give you assurance — this war won't end until the cancer of slavery is cut out by the roots. (Loud applause, hisses, and tremendous uproar.) I will read you. a word from President Lincoln. (Renewed uproar.) It is a letter from Theodore Tilton. (Hisses, and cheers.) Won't you hear what President Lincoln thinks 1 ("No, no.") Well you can hear it or not. It will be printed whether you hear it or hear it not. (Hear, and cries of "Read, Read.") Yes, I will read. "A talk with President Lincoln revealed to me a great growth of wisdom. Eor instance, he said he was not going to press the colonization idea any longer, nor the gradual scheme of emancipation, expressing himself sorry that the Missourians had postponed emancipation for seven years. He said, ' Tell your anti-slavery friends that I am coming out all right.' He is desirous that the Border States shall form free constitutions, recognising the proclamation, and thinks this will be made feasible by calling on loyal men." (A Voice : " What date is that letter?" and interruption.) Ladies and gentlemen, I have finished the exposition of this troubled subject. (Renewed and continued inter- ruption.) No man can unveil the future ; no man can tell what revolutions are about to break upou the world ; no man can tell what destiny belongs to France, nor to any of the European powers ; but one thin" is certain, that in the exigencies of the future there will be LIVERPOOL — PUBLIC MEETING. 81 combinations and re-combinations, and that those nations that are of the same faith, the same blood, and the same substantial interests, ought not to be alienated from each other, but ought to stand together. (Immense cheering and hisses.) I do not say that you ought not to be in the most friendly alliance with France or with Germany ; but I do say that your own children, the offspring of England, ought to be nearer to you than any people of strange tongue. (A "Voice : " De- genei-ate sons," applause and hisses ; another voice : "What about the Trent 1 ") If there had been any feelings of bitterness in America, let me tell you they had been excited, rightly or wrongly, under the im- pression that Great Britain was going to intervene between us and our own lawful struggle. (A Voice: "No," and applause.) With the evidence that there is no such intention all bitter feelings will pass away. (Applause.) We do not agree with the recent doctrine of neutrality as a question of law. But it is past, and we are not disposed to raise that question. We accept it now as a fact, and we say that the utterance of Lord Russell at Blairgowrie — (Applause, hisses, and a Voice : " Yv T hat about Lord Brougham ?") — together with the declara- tion of the government in stopping war-steamers hei-e — (great uproar, and applause) — has gone far towards quieting every fear and removing every appi-ehension from [our minds. (Uproar and shouts of applause.) And now in the future it is the work of every good man and patriot not to create divisions, but to do the things that will make for peace. ("Oh, oh," and laughter.) On our part it shall be done. (Applause and hisses, and " No, no.") On your part it ought to be done ; and when in any of the convulsions that come upon the world, Great Britain finds herself struggling single-handed against the gigantic powers that spread oppression and darkness — (applause, hisses, and uproar) — there ought to be such cordiality that she can turn and say to her first-born and most illustrious child, " Come !" (Hear, hear, applause, tremendous cheers, and uproar.) I will not say that England cannot again, as hitherto, single handed manage any power — (applause and uproar) — but I will say that England and America together for religion and liberty — (A Voice : " Soap, soap," uproar, and great applause) — are a match for the world. (Applause ; a Voice : " They don't want any more soft soap.") Now, gentlemen and ladies — (A Voice: "Sam Slick;" and another Voice : " Ladies and gentlemen, if you please.") — when I came 1 was asked whether I would answer questions, and I very readily consented to do so, as I had in other places ; but I will tell you it was because I expected to have the opportunity of speaking with some sort of ease and quiet. (A Voice : " So you have.") I have for an hour and a half spoken against a storm — (hear, hear) — and you yourselves are witnesses that, by the interruption, I have been obliged to strive with my voice, so that I no longer have the power to control this assembly. (Applause.) And although I am in spirit perfectly willing to answer any question, and more than glad of the chance, yet I am by this very unnecessary opposition to-night incapacitated physically from doing it. (A Voice : " Why did Lincoln delay the proclamation of slavery so long. — Another Voice : "Habeas Corpus." A piece of paper was here F 82 LIVERPOOL — PUBLIC MEETING. handed up to Mr. Beecher.) I am asked a question. I will answer this one. "At the auction of sittings in your church, can the negi-ocs bid on equal terms with the whites V (Cries of "No, no.") Perhaps you know better than I do. (Hear, hear.) But I declare that they can. (Hear, hear, and applause.) I declare that, at no time for ten years past — without any rule passed by the trustees, and without even a request from me — no decent man or woman has ever found molestation or trouble in walking into my church and sitting where he or she pleased. (Applause.) "Are any of the office-bearers in your church negroes'?" No, not to my knowledge. Such has been the practical doctrine of amalgamation in the South that it is very difficult now-a- days to tell who is a negro. (Hear, hear, and " No, no.") Whenever a majority of my people want a negro to be an officer, he will be one ; and I am free to say that there are a great many men that I know, who are abundantly capable of honouring any office of trust in the gift of our church. (Applause.) But while there are none in my church there is in Columbia county a little church where a negro man, being the ablest business man, and the wealthiest man in that town, is not only a ruler and elder of the church, but also contributes about two-thirds of all the expenses of it. (Hear, hear, and a Voice : "That is the exception, not the rule.") I am answering these questions, you see, out of gratuitous mercy : I am not bound to do so. It is asked whether Pennsylvania was not carried ior Mr. Lincoln on account of his advocacy of the Morrill tariff, and whether the tariff was not one of the planks of the Chicago platform, on which Mr. Lincoln was elected. I had a great deal to do with that election ; but I tell you that whatever local — (Here the interruptions became so noisy, that it was found impossible to proceed. The Chairman asked how they could expect Mr. Beecher to answer questions amid such a disturbance. When order had been restored, the lecturer proceeded :)— I am not . afraid to leave the treat- ment I have received at this meeting to the impartial judgment of every fair-playing Englishman. When 1 am asked questions, gentlemanly courtesy requires that I should be permitted to answer them. (A Voice from the farther end of the room shouted something about the inhabi- tants of Liverpool.) I know that it was in the placards requested to give Mr. Beecher a reception that should make him understand what the opinion of Liverpool was about him. ("No, no;" and "Yes, yes.") There are two sides to every question, and Mr. Beecher's opinion about the treatment of Liverpool citizens is just- as much as your opinion about the treatment of Mr. Beecher. Let me say, that if you wish me to answer questions you must be still ; for, if I am interrupted, that is the end of the matter. (Hear, hear, and "Bravo.") I have this to say, that I have no doubt the Morrill tariff, or that which is now called so, did exercise a great deal of influence, not alone in Pennsylvania, but in many other parts of the country ; because there are many sections of our country — those especially where the manufacture of iron or wool are the predominating industries — that are yet very much in favour oi protective tariffs ; but the thinking men and the influential men of both parties are becoming more and more in favour of free-trade. " Can a LIVERPOOL — PUBLIC MEETING. 83 negro ride in a public vehicle in New York with, a white man?" I reply that there are times when politicians stir up the passions of the lower classes of men and the foreigners, and there are times just on the eve of an election when the prejudice against the coloui'ed man is stirred up and excited, in which they will be disturbed in any part of the city ; but taking the period of the year throughout, one year after another, there are but one or two of the city horse-railroads in which a respectable coloured man Avill be molested in riding through the city. It is only on one railroad that this happened, and it is one which I have in the pulpit and the press always held up to severe reproof. At the Fulton Ferry there are two lines of omnibusses, one white and the other blue. I had been accustomed to go in them indifferently ; but one day I saw a little paper stuck upon one of them, saying " Coloured people not allowed to ride in this omnibus." I instantly got out. There are men who stand at the door of these two omnibus lines, urging passengers into one or the other. I am very well known to all of them, and the next day, when I came to the place, the gentleman serving asked " Won't you ride, sir ?" "No," I said, "I am too much of a negro to ride in that omnibus." (Laughter.) I do not know whether this had any influence, but I do know, that after a fortnight's time I had occasion to look in, and the placard was gone. I called the attention of everyone I met to that fact, and said to them, "Don't ride in that omnibus, which violates your principles, and my principles, and common decency at the same time." I say still further, that in all New England there is not a railway where a coloured man cannot ride as freely as a white man. (Hear, hear.) In the whole city of New York, a coloured man taking a stage of rail- way will never be inconvenienced or suffer any discourtesy. Ladies and gentlemen, I bid you good evening. — Mr. Beecher's resuming his seat was the signal for another outburst of loud and prolonged cheers, hisses, groans, cat-calls, and every conceivable species of expression of approbation and disapprobation. Three cheers were proposed for the lecturer from the galleries, and enthusiastically given. The Eev. C. M. BIRB.ELL then came forward and said it would have been very unlike the fairness of Englishmen if that assembly had not given to a distinguished stranger — (hisses) — a fair and impartial hearing ; and it would have been as unlike a free American to demand of Englishmen that they should accept his opinions merely because they were his. But, since Mr. Beecher had given to them, under circumstances of great difficulty, and with marvellous courtesy and patience — (hear, hear,) — an elaborate, temperate, and most eloquent lecture, he called upon them to render him a cordial vote of thanks. (Hear, hear, and renewed hisses.) He expected that that vote would be joined in by all the representatives of the American slave- holders in that assembly, considering that they had had more instruction that night than they had apparently received during all the previous part of their lives. ("Oh, oh," cheers and laughter). Mr. W. CROSSFIELD, in seconding the resolution, said, as an inhabitant of Liverpool, he had been ashamed at the conduct of that meeting — an assembly of gentlemen, or those who professed to be 84 LIVEKPOOL — PUBLIC MEETING. gentlemen. For himself he most cordially thanked Mr. Beecher for the very interesting lecture they had had. The vote was carried with loud and prolonged cheering and the waving of hats. The CHAIRMAN said he was sure Mr. Beecher would be quite satisfied with that unanimous expression of feeling, and the disturbance which had been created was not the expression of the feeling of the meeting, but the work of a few persons in the room who had come for the purpose of opposition. The Chairman then put the negative of the proposition, but the meeting was in a state of confusion. Of those who understood the proceeding there were none to be seen who stood up to negative the vote. LONDON -OCTOBER 20, 1863. GREAT DEMONSTRATION AT EXETER HALL. Last night, under the auspices of the Emancipation Society and the London Committee of Correspondence on American Affairs, a meeting was held in Exeter Hall to hear an address from the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. The distinction which Mr. Beecher has acquired in his own country, and the great public interest which was felt in his subject — "England and America" — left no room for doubt that his audience would only be limited by the capacity of the building. Tn the first instance it was proposed that only a portion of the hall should be set apart for reserved seats, and that the remaining space should be occupied with free seats ; but the demand for tickets far exceeded any possible supply, and long before the day of meeting it became evident that thousands would be disap- pointed. It is of course quite unnecessary to say that long before the hour of meeting the great hall was densely packed by as many human beings as could find sitting or standing room in any part of the edifice, however inconvenient or perilous the position. They were both patient and good-humoured while waiting for the appearance of Mr. Beecher, who found great difficulfcy in forcing a way through the enormous mass of people, which, in the Strand and Exeter-street, literally beleaguered the place of meeting. On presenting himself to the audience, accompanied by many of the leading supporters of the Emancipation movement, he was welcomed by long and reiterated plaudits, which were again and again repeated, the audience rising en masse. The entire scene brought vividly to mind the great meeting held in the same building ten months ago, although, if possible, the enthusiasm and unanimity were still greater than on that memorable occasion. The friends of Seces- sion had endeavoured to stir up some personal feeling against the lecturer by inflammatory placards, which covered every wall in the metropolis ; but the result only exhibited their own weakness and the total absence of any popular sympathy with their cause. There was a small group of Southern sympathizers here and there, but so small as to be utterly unable to do more than give vent to a few hisses, which were always drowned by a torrent of applause. The cheers were now and then relieved by stentorian groans for the Times, Mr. Mason, and other unpopular organs of the press and individual Secessionists ; and we may remark that this species of honour was very fairly divided between Printing-house-square and the notorious author of the .Fugitive Slave Law. 86 LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. The name of President Lincoln was received, as it always is in an open Eng- lish audience, with a tempest of applause ; and when Mr. Beecher all uded to the retention of the rams, and said that when he returned to America he should have " a different story" to tell of the state of English public opinion from that which had previously obtained credence there, the assembly testified their approbation by a demonstration which has never been surpassed and rarely equalled in the palmiest days of agitation. Dark complexions were not wanting in that vast multitude of upturned faces ; and conspicuous in the body of the hall was a venerable negro, who excited some amusement by the vigour with which he acted as fugleman throughout Mr. Beecher's speech. The courage of the mal- contents sensibly diminished as the proceedings advanced, and ultimately only three hands were held up against the resolution moved by Professor Newman. Every now and then the cheers of "the oiitsiders," who extemporised a meeting of their own, echoed through the hall, and helped to swell the plaudits of those who had been fortunate enough to obtain admission. Scarcely anyone left before the meeting was brought to a close, and we venture to say that not one of the assembled thousands will ever forget Mr. Beecher's last public address in England, or the popular enthusiasm which it evoked in his honour and in sym- pathy with the cause which he represented. The chair was taken shortty after seven o'clock, by Benjamin Scott, Esq., Chamberlain of London, and the following were among the gentlemen present : — Sir Charles Fox, Professor Newman, Professor Newth, Dr. Halley, President of New College ; the Rev. Dr. Hugh Allen, vicar of St. George's, Southwark ; the Bev. Dr. Campbell, the Bev. Dr. Jobson, the Revs. W. M. Bunting, W. Dunkerley, L. H. Byrnes, Dr. Waddington, Newman Hall, William Brock, W. Cuthbert- son, J. B. French, Geo. Wilkins, H. J. Bevis, E. Davies, Arthur Hall, Sella Martin, A. Hannay, J. C. Galloway, M.A., W. O'Neill, John Curwen, John Howard Hinton, M.A., T. Jones, James Spong, William Tyler, E. Mathews, A. Raleigh, and W. Dorling ; Dr. Frederick Tomkins ; Messrs. S. Lucas, George Thompson, John Cimnington, G. J. Holyoake, W. R. Spicer, W. W'illans, Washington W 7 ilks, John Gorrie, Judge Winter, of Georgia ; J. M'Carthy, L. A. Chamerovzow, Dr. D'Aubigne, Passmore Edwards, John Stewart, Edmond Beales, J. R. Taylor, Hugh Williams ; M. D. Conway, of Virginia ; J. Jewitt, Boston ; William Craft, Georgia ; W. J. Haynes, John Noble, jun., James Beal, J. B. Langley, R. Moore, J. Lyndall, John Cassell ; T. W. Chester, Liberia ; J. Kenny ; R. Hill, Bedford ; John Richardson, C.C. ; H. Thompson, J. A. Horner, W. T. Malleson, treasurer, and F. W. Chesson, hon. secretary of the Emancipation Society, &c. Mr. G. Thompson, who was one of the first to appear on the platform, was received with three cheers. Tha CHAIRMAN said : Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to inform you that the crowd outside the building is so dense that Mr. Beecher has not been able to force his way punctually. It has been with the greatest difficulty that I and some other members of the committee have found our way here. You will, therefore, I am sure, make all LONDON — rUBLIC MEETING. 87 allowance for Mr. Beecher if lie should yet be a few minutes behind time. (Cheers.) I will pi-oceed to address a few words pending the arrival of Mr. Beecher. Appearing before you to preside this evening, I regret to say in place of Mr. Bright, whom we had hoped to be present — (cheers) — I must inform you that it is not our object to discuss the great American struggle. There will be and there are presented to us, from day to day, abundant opportunities of discussing that momentous question. Our object to-night is to afford an opportunity to a distinguished stranger — (cheers) — to address us on that absorbing topic — a gentleman who is entitled, whatever opinions we may hold, to our profound respect. (Great cheering.) Whether we regard Henry Ward Beecher as the son of the celebrated Dr Beecher — (hear) — or as the brother of Mrs. Beecher Stowe — (cheers) — or a stranger visiting our shores — whether we regard him as a gentleman or a Christian ministei", and as -the uncompromising advocate of human rights — (loud cheers) — he is entitled to our respectful and courteous attention. (Cheers.) I am cpiite sure that this assembly of Englishmen and English women will support me in securing for him a respectful hearing. It becomes the more incumbent upon us to do so since he states that the rapid and fragmentary reports of speeches delivered in America which were flashed across the Atlantic by the telegraph have been so brief and hurried that they have not conveyed to us his full meaning and sense. He has been very often misunderstood, and, I fear, misrepresented ; and, as a stranger about to depart from our shores in a few days, he asks for this opportunity of putting himself l'ight with the London public upon this question. You will hear him and judge of his statements, and I am sure you will accord him a fail* hearing. I shall myself abstain ad- visedly from entering upon the subject of to-night's address. I wish merely to take this opportunity of saying how much I esteem the man personally, and because he has been the uncompromising advocate, for twenty-five years, in times of peace and before the war, of the emanci- pation of the enslaved and oppressed. He was one of the few thinking men who were the noble pioneers of freedom on the American continent. He was so when it was neither fashionable nor profitable to be so. He took his stand, not on the shifting sands of expediency, but on the immovable rock of principle. (Cheers.) He had put his hand to the plough, and would never turn back. Some people had allowed their ears to be stuffed with cotton — (laughter and cheers) — some were blinded by gold dust, and some had allowed the gag of expediency to be put in their mouths to quiet them. (Cheers.) But Henry Ward Beecher stood before the world of America, and for some time stood almost alone, and called things by their right names. (Cheers.) He had no mealy-mouthed expressions about peculiar institutions, patriarchal institutions, and paternal institutions — ("hear, hear," and laughter) — but he called slavery by the old English name of slavery. (Loud cheers.) And he charged to the account of that crime cruelty, lust, murder, rapine, piracy. (Loud cheers.) He minced not his terms or his phrases. He looked right ahead to the course of duty which he had selected ; and, regardless of the threats of man or the wrath of man, 88 LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. although the tar-pot was ready for him and the feathers were prepared — although the noose and the halter were ready and almost about his neck — he went straight onward to the object; and now he has converted — as every man who stands alone for the timth and right will eventually convert — a large majority of those who were originally opposed to him. (Cheers.) What the humble draper's assistant, Granville Sharpe, did in tliis country, Henry Ward Beecher and two or three like-minded men have done on the continent of America. When he heard Christian ministers — God save the mark ! — standing in their pulpits with the Book of Truth before them, and stating that the institution of slavery was Christian, he did not mince the matter — he affirmed that it was bred in the bottomless pit. (Loud cheers.) I honour and respect him for his manliness. He is every inch a man. He is a standard by which humanity may well measure itself. (Loud cheers.) Would to God we had a hundred such men. (Cheers.) I will now call upon Mr. Beecher — (great cheering) — but allow me to say that we shall only prolong our meeting in this heated atmosphere by not affording the speakers a fair opportunity of addressing you. (Loud applause.) Rev. HENRY WARD BEECHER then advanced to the front of the platform amidst the most enthusiastic demonstrations of applause. The whole audience stood up : hats and handkerchiefs were waved, and for some minutes the most exciting manifestations of hearty English good feeling were extended to the American advocate of freedom. As the uproarious greeting subsided, a few lnsses rose up from the middle of the room, as if a body of serpents had some how or other found their way into the assemb]} 7 -, and were adding their prolonged tribute to the general display. Mr. Beecher then addressed the audience as follows, speaking distinctly and deliberately : Ladies and gentlemen, — The very kind introduction that I have received requires but a single word from me. I should be guilty if I could take all the credit which has been generously ascribed to me, for I am not old enough to have been a pioneer. And when I think of such names as Weld, Alvin Stewart, Geritt Smith, Joshua Levitt, William Goodell, Arthur and Lewis Tappan, William Lloyd Garrison — (loud applause) — and that most accom- plished speaker of the world, Wendell Phillips — (renewed applause) — when I think of multitudes of that peculiar class of Christians called Friends — when I think of the number of men, obscure, without name or fame, who laboured in the earliest days at the foundation of this reformation — and when I remember that 1 came in afterwards to build on their foundation — I cannot permit in this fair country the honours to be put upon me and wrested from those men that deserve them far more than 1 do. (Cheers.) All I can say is this, that when I began my public life I fell into the ranks under the appropriate captains, and fought as well as I knew how in the ranks or in command. (Loud cheers.) As this is my last public address upon the American question in England, I may be permitted to glance briefly at my course here. (Hear, hear.) At Manchester I attempted to give a history of the external political movement for fifty years past, so far as it was neces- sary to illusti-ate the fact that the present American war was only an LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. 89 overt and warlike form of a contest between liberty and slavery that had been going on politically for half a century. (Hear, hear.) At Glasgow I undertook to show the condition of work or labour neces- sitated by any profitable system of slavery, demonstrating that it brought labour into contempt, affixing to it the badge of degradation, and that a struggle to extend servile labour across the American continent interests every free working man on the globe. (Cheers.) For my sincere belief is that the Southern cause is the natural enemy of free labour and the free labourer all the world over. (Loud cheers.) In Edinburgh 1 endeavoured to sketch how, out of separate colonies and States intensely jealous of their individual sovereignty, there grew up and was finally established a nation', and how in that Nation of United States two dis- tinct and antagonistic systems were developed and strove for the guidance of the national policy, which struggle at length passed and the North gained the control. Thereupon the South abandoned the Union simply and solely because the Government was in future to be administered by men who would give their whole influence to freedom. (Loud cheers.) In Liverpool I laboured, under difficulties — (laughter and cheers) — to show that slavery in the long run was as hostile to commerce and to manu- factures all the world over, as it was to free interests in human society — (cheers) — that a slave nation must be a poor customer, buying the fewest aud poorest goods, and the least profitable to the producers — (hear hear) — that it was the interest of every manufacturing country to promote freedom, intelligence, and wealth amongst all nations — (cheers) — that this attempt to cover the fairest portion of the earth with a slave popu- lation that buys nothing, and a degi-aded white population that buys next to nothing, should array against it every true political econo mist and every thoughtful and far-seeing manufacturer, as tending to strike at the vital want of commerce — which is not cotton, but rich customers. (Cheers.) I have endeavoured to enlist against this flagitious wickedness, and the great civil war which it has kindled, the judgment, conscience, and interests of the British people. (Cheers.) I am aware that a popular address before an excited audience more or less affected by party sympathies is not the most favourable method Ol doing justice to these momentous topics ; and there have been some other circumstances which made it yet more difficult to present a careful or evenly balanced statement ; but I shall do the best I can to leaA^e no vestige of doubt, that slavery was the cause — the only cause — the whole cause — of this gigantic and cruel war. (Cheers.) I have tried to show- that sympathy for the South, however covered by excuses or softened by sophistry, is simply sympathy with an audacious attempt to build up a slave empire pure and simple. (Hear, hear.) I have tried to show that in this contest the North were contending for the preservation of their Government and their own territory, and those popular institutions on which the well-being of the nation depended. (Hear, hear. ) So far, I have spoken to the English from an English point of view. To-uight I ask you to look to this struggle from an American point of view, and in its moral aspects. (Hear, hear.) That is, I wish you to take our stand-point for a little while — (cheers) — and to look at our actions and motives, not 90 LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. from what the enemy says, but from what we say. (Cheers.) When two men have disagreed, you seldom promote peace between them by attempting to prove that either of them is all right or either of them is all wrong. (Hear, hear.) Now there has been some disagreement of feeling between America and Great Britain. I don't want to argue the question to-night which is right and which is wrong, but if some kind neighbour will persuade two people that are at disagreement to consider each other's position and circumstances, it may not lead either to adopting the other's judgment, but it may lead them to say of each other, "I think he is honest and means well, even if he be mis- taken." (Loud cheers.) You may not thus get a settlement of the difficulty, but you will get a settlement of the quarrel. (Hear, hear.) I merely ask you to put yourselves in our track for one hour, and look at the objects as we look at them — (cheers) — after that, form your judgment as you please. (Cheers.) The first and earliest form in which the conflict took place between North and South was purely moral. It was a conflict simply of opinion and of truths, by argument ; and by appeal to the moral sense it was sought to persuade the slaveholder to adopt some plan of emancipation. (Heai*, hear.) When this seemed to the Southern sensitiveness unjust and insulting, it led many in the North to silence, especially as the South seemed to apologize for slavery rather than defend it against argument. It was said, "The evil is upon us ; we cannot help it. We are sullied, but it is a misfortune rather than a fault. (Cheers.) It is not right for the North to meddle with that which is made worse by being meddled with, even by argument or appeal." That was the earlier portion of the conflict. A great many men were deceived by it. I never myself yielded to the fallacy. As a minister of the gospel preaching to sinful men, I thought it my duty not to give in to this doctrine ; their sins were on them, and I thought it my duty not to soothe them, but rather to expose them. (Cheers.) The next stage of the conflict was purely political. The South was attempt- ing to extend their slave system into the Territories, and to prevent free States from covering the continent, by bringing into the Union a slave State for every free State. It was also the design and endeavour of the South not simply to hold and employ the enormous power and influence of the Central Executive, but also to engraft into the whole Federal Government a slave State policy. They meant to fill all offices at home and abroad with men loyal to slavery— to shut up iha road to political preferment against men who had aspirations for free- dom, and to corrupt the young and ambitious by- obliging them to swear fealty to slavery as the condition of success. I am saying what I know. I have seen the progressive corruption of men naturally noble, educated in the doctrine of liberty, who, being bribed by political offices, at last bowed the knee to Moloch. The South pursued a uniform system of bribing and corrupting ambitious men of Northern consciences. A far more dangerous part of its policy was to change the Constitution, not overtly, not by external aggression — worse, to fill the courts with Southern judges — (shame)— until, first by laws of Congress passed through Southern influence, and secondly, by the construction and LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. 91 adjudication of the courts, the Constitution having become more and more tied up to Southern principles, the North would have to submit to slavery, or else to oppose it by violating the law and constitution as construed by servile judges. (Hear, hear.) They were, in short, little by little, injecting the laws, constitution, and policy of the country with the ]wison and blood of slavery. (Cheers.) I will not let this stand on my own testimony. I am going to read the unconscious corroboration of this by Mr. Stephens, the Vice-President of the present Confederacy — one, to his credit be it said, who at one time was a most sincere and earnest opponent of Secession. It is as follows : — This step (of Secession) once taken, can never be recalled ; and all the baleful and withering consequences that must follow will rest on the convention for all coming time. When we and our posterity shall see our lovely South desolated by the demon of war, which this act of yours will inevitably invite and call forth; when our green fields of waving harvests shall be trodden down by the murderous soldiery and fiery car of war sweeping over our land; our temples of justice laid in ashes ; all the horrors and desolation of war upon us ; who but this convention will be held responsible for it ? and who but him who shall have given his vote for this unwise and ill-timed measure, as I honestly think and believe, shall be held to strict account for this suicidal act by the present generation, and probably cursed and execrated by posterity for all coming time, for the wide and desolating ruin that will inevi- tably follow this act you now propose to perpetrate ? Pause, I entreat you, and consider for a moment what reasons you can give that will even satisfy yourselves in calmer moments — what reasons you can give to your fellow-sufferers in the calamity that it will bring upon us. What reasons can you give to the nations of the earth to justify it? They will be the calm and deliberate judges in the case; and what cause or one overt act can you name or point on which to rest the plea of justification ? What right has the North assailed f What interest of the South has been invadtd ? What justice has been denied? and what claim founded in justice and right has been withheld ? Can either of you to-day name one governmental act of wrong, deliberately and purposely done by the Government of Washington, of which the South has a right to complain ? 1 challenge the answer. While, on the other hand, let me show the facts (and believe me, gentlemen, I am not here the advocate of the North ; but I am here the friend, the firm friend and lover of the South and her institutions, and for this reason I speak thus plainly and faithfully, for your's, mine, and every other man's interest, the words of truth and soberness), of which I wish you to judge, and I will only state facts which are clear and unde- niable, and which now stand as records authentic in the history of our country. When we of the South demanded the slave trade, or the importation of Africans for the cultivation of our lands, did they not yield the right for twenty years ? When we asked a three-fifths representation in Congress for our slaves was it not granted? When we asked and demanded the return of any fugitive from justice, or the recovery of those persons owing labour or allegiance, was it not incorporated in the Constitution, and again ratified and strengthened in the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850? But do you reply that in many instances they have violated this compact and have not been faithful to their engagements? As individual and local communities they may have done so ; but not by the sanction of Government j for that has always been true to Southern interests. Again, gentlemen, look at another fact, when we have asked that more territory should be added, that we might spread the institution of slavery, have they not yielded to our demands in giving us Louisiana, Florida, and Texas, out of which four States have been carved, and ample territory for four more may be added in due time if you by this unwise and impolitic act, do not destroy this hope, and perhaps, by it lose all, and have your last slave wrenched from you by stern military rule, as South America and Mexico were, or by the vindictive decree of a universal emancipation, which may reasonably be expected to follow. But, again, gentlemen, what have we to gain by this proposed change of our relation to the general Government ? We have always had the control of it, and can yet, if we remain in it and are as united as we have been. AVe have had a 92 LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. majority of the Presidents chosen from the South ; as well as the control and management of most of those chosen from the North. We have had sixty years of Southern Presidents to their twenty-four, thus controlling the executive department. So of the judges of the Supreme Court, we have had eighteen from the South, and but eleven from the North j although nearly four- fifths of the judicial business has misen in the Free States, yet a majority of the court has always been from the South. This we have required so as to guard against any interpretation of the Con - stitution unfavourable to us. In like manner we have been equally watchful to guard our interest in the legislative branch of Government. In choosing the presiding Presidents (pro tern.) of the Senate, we have had twenty-four to their eleven. Speakers of the house we have had twenty-three, and they twelve. While the majority of the representatives, from their greater population, have always been from the North, yet we have so generally secured the speaker, because he, to a greater extent, shapes and controls the legislation of the country. Nor have we had less control in every other department of the general Government Attorney-Generals we have had fourteen, while the North have had but five. Foreign ministers we have had eighty-six and they but fifty-four. While three- fourths of the business which demands diplomatic agents abroad is clearly from the Free States, from their greater commercial interests, yet we have had the principal embassies, so as to secure the world's markets for our cotton, tobacco, and sugar on the best possible terms. We have had a vast majority of the higher offices of both army and navy, while a larger proportion of the soldiers and sailors were drawn from the North. Equally so of clerks, auditors, and comptrollers filling the executive department, the records show for the last fifty years that of the three thousand thus employed, we have had more than two-thirds of the same, while we have but one- third of the white population of the Republic. Again, look at another item, and one, be assured, in which we have a great and vital interest ; it is that of revenue, or means of supporting Government. From official documents we learn that a fraction over three-fourths of the revenue collected for the support of Government has uniformly been raised from the North. Pause now, while you can, gentlemen, and contemplate carefully and candidly these important items. Leaving out of view, for the present, the countless millions of dollars you must expend in a war with the North ; with tens of thousands of your sons and brothers slain in battle, and offered up as sacrifices upon the altar of your ambition — and for what? we ask again. Is it for the overthrow of the American Government, established by our common ancestry, cemented and built up by their sweat and blood, and founded on the broad principles of right, justice, and humanity ? And, as such, I must declare here, as I have often done before, and which has been repeated by the greatest and wisest of statesmen and patriots in this and other lands, that it is the best and freest Government — the most equal in its rights, the most just in its decisions, the most lenient in its measures, and the most inspiring in its principles to elevate the race of men, that the sun of heaven ever shone upon. Now, for you to attempt to overthrow such a Government as this, under Avhich we have lived for more than three-quarters of a century — in which we have gained our wealth, our standing as a nation, our domestic safety while the elements of peril are around us, with peace and tranquil- lity accompanied with unbounded prosperity and rights unassailed — is the height of madness, folly, and wickedness, to which I can neither lend my sanction nor my rote. Was there ever such, an indictment unconsciously laid against any people 1 (Cheers.) Here Mr. Stephens, talking to people in Georgia, quite unconscious that his speech would be reported, that it would appear in the Northern press, and be read in Exeter Hall to an English audience — tells you what has been the plan and what have been the effects of Southern domination on the national policy, on the Government, and on the courts during the last fifty years. The object of Southern policy, early commenced and steadily pursued, was to control the Government and to establish a slave influence through- out North America. Now, take notice first, that the North, hating LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. 93 slavery, having rid itself of it at its own cost, and longing for its extinction throughout America, was unable until this war to touch slavery directly. The North could only contend against slave policy— not directly against slavery. Why 1 Because slavery was not the creature of national law, and therefore not subject to national jurisdic- tion, but of State law, and subject only to State jurisdiction. A direct act on the part of the North to abolish slavery would have been revolutionary. (A Voice : "We do not understand you.") You will understand me before I have done with you to-night. (Cheers.) Such an attack would have been a violation of a fundamental principle of State independence. This peculiar structure of our Government is not so unintelligible to Englishmen as you may think. It is only taking an English idea on a larger scale. We have borrowed it from you. A. great many do not understand how it is that there should be State independence under a national Government. Now I am not closely acquainted with your affairs, but the Chamberlain can tell you if I am wrong, when I say, that there belong to the old city of London certain private rights that Parliament cannot meddle with. Yet there are elements in which Parliament — that is, the will of the nation — is as supreme over London as over any town or city of the realm. Now, if thei-e are some things which London has kept for her own judgment and will, and yet others which she has given up to the national will, you have herein the principle of the American Government — (cheers) — by which certain local matters belong exclusively to the local jurisdic- tion, and certain general matters to the national Government. I will give you another illustration that will bring it home to you. There is not a street in London, but, as soon as a man is inside his house, he may say, his house is his castle. There is no law in the realm which can lay down to that man how many members shall compose his family — how he shall dress his children — when they shall get up and when they shall go to bed — how many meals he shall have a day, and of what those meals shall be constituted. The interior economy of the house belongs to the members of the house, yet there are many respects in which every householder is held in check by common rights. The}" have their own interior and domestic economy, yet they share in other things which are national and governmental. It may be very wrong to give children opium, but all the doctors in London cannot say to a man that he shall not drug his childj It is his business, and if it is wrong it cannot be interfered with. I will give you another illustration. Five men form a partnership of business. Now, that partnership represents the national Government of the United States ; but it has relation only to certain great commercial interests common to them all. But each of these five men has another sphere — his family — and in that sphere the man may be a drunkard, a gambler, a lecherous and indecent man, but the firm cannot meddle with his morals. It cannot touch anything but business interests that belong to the firm. Now, our States came together on this doctrine — that each State, in respect to those rights and institutions that were local and peculiar to it, was to have undivided sovereignty over its own affairs ; but that all those 94 LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. powers, such as taxes, wars, treaties of peace, which belong to one State, and which are commen to all States, went into the general Government. The general Government never had the power — the power was never delegated to it — to meddle with the interior and domestic economy of the States, and it never could be done. You will a,sk what are we doing it for now. I will tell you in due time. Have I made that point plain 1 (Cheers.) It was only that part of slavery which escaped from the State jurisdiction, and which entered into the national sphere, which formed the subject of controversy. We could not justly touch the Constitution of the States, but only the policy of the national Government, that came out beyond the State and appeared in Congress and in the territories. (Cheex's.) We are bound to abide by our fundamental law. Honour, fidelity, integrity, as well as patriotism, required us to abide by that law. The great conflict between the South and North, until this war began, was, which should control the Federal or central Government and what we call the Territories ; that is, lands which are the property of the Union, and have not yet received Stale rights. (Cheers.) That was the conflict. It was not " Emancipation " ' or "No Emancipation;" Government had no business with that question. Before the war, the only thing on which politically the free people of the North and South took their respective sides was, " Shall the National policy be free or slave V And I call you to witness that forbearance, though not a showy virtue — fidelity, though not a shining quality — are fundamental to manly integrity. (Cheers.) During a period of eighty years, the North, whose wrongs I have just read out to you, not from her own lips, but from the lips of her enemy, has stood faithfully to her word. With scrupulous honour she has respected legal rights, even when they were merely civil and not moral rights. The fidelity of the North to the great doctrine of State rights, which was born of her — her forbeai-ance under wrong, insult, and provocation — her conscientious and honourable refusal to meddle with the evil which she hated, and which she saw to be aiming at the life of Government, and at her own life — her determination to hold fast pact and constitution, and to gain her victories by giving the people a new National policy — will yet be deemed worthy of something better than a contemptuous sneer, or the allegation of an " enormous national vanity." (Cheers.) The Northern forbearance is one of those themes of which we may be justly proud — (" Oh," and cheers) — a product of virtue, a fruit of liberty, an inspiration of that Christian faith, which is the mother at once of truth and of liberty. (Cheers.) I am proud to think that there is such a record of national fidelity as that which the North baa written for herself by the pen of her worst enemies. Now that is the reason why the North did not at first go to war to enforce emancipation. She went to war to save the National institutions ; — (cheers) — to save the Territories ; to sustain those laws, which would first circumscribe, then suffocate, and finally destroy slavery. (Cheers.) That is the reason why that most true, honest, just, and conscientious magistrate, Mr. Lincoln — (The announcement of Mr. Lincoln's name was received with loud and continued cheeriner. The whole audience rose and cheered for LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. 95 some time, and it was a few minutes before Mr. Beecher could proceed.) From having spoken much at tumultuous assemblies I had at times a fear that when I came here this evening my voice would fail from too much speaking. But that fear is now changed to one that your voices will fail from too much cheering. (Laughter.) How then did the North pass from a conflict with the South and a slave policy, to a direct attack upon the institutions of slavery itself 1 Because, according to the foreshadowing of that wisest man of the South, Mr. Stephens, they beleaguered the national Government and the national life with the institution of slavery — obliged a sworn President, who was put under oath not to invade that institution — to take his choice between the safety and life of the Government itself, or the slavery by which it was beleaguered. (Cheers.) If any man lays an obstruction on the street, and blocks up the street, it is not the fault of the people if they walk over it. As the fundamental right of individual self-defence cannot be withdrawn without immorality — so the first element of national life is to defend life. As no man attacked on the highway violates law, but obeys the law of self-defence — a law inside of the law3 — by knocking down his assailant ; so, when a nation is assardted, it is a right and duty, in the exercise of self-defence, to destroy the enemy, by which otherwise it will be destroyed. (Hear.) As long as the South allowed it to be a moral and political conflict of policy, we were content to meet the issue as one of policy. But when they threw down the gauntlet of war, and said that by it slavery was to be adjudicated, we could do nothing else than take up the challenge. (Loud cheers.) The police have no right to enter your house as long as you keep within the law, but when you defy the laws and endanger the peace and safety of the neighbourhood they have a right to enter. So in constitutional Governments ; it has no power to touch slavery while slavery remains a State institution. But when it lifts itself up out of its State humility and becomes banded to attack the nation, it becomes a national enemy, and has no longer exemption. (Cheers.) But it is said, " The Presi- dent issued his proclamation after all for political effect, not for humanity." (Cries of " Hear, hear.") Of course the right of issuing a proclamation of emancipation was political, but the disposition to do it was personal. (Loud cheei-s.) Mr. Lincoln is an officer of the State, and in the Presi- dential chair has no more right than your judge on the bench to follow his private feelings. (Applause.) He is bound to ask " What is the law ] " — not " What is my sympathy 1 " (Hear, hear.) And when a judge sees that a rigid execution or interpretation of the law goes along with primitive justice, with humanity, and with pity, he is all ( the more glad because his private feelings go with his public office. (Cheers.) Perhaps in the next house to a kind and benevolent surgeon is a boy who fills the night with groans, because he has a cancerous and diseased leg. The surgeon would fain go in and amputate that limb and save that life ; but he is not called in, and therefore he has no business to go in, though he ever so much wish it. (Hear, hear.) But at last the father says to him, "In the name of God, come in and save my child;" and he goes in professionally and cuts oil' his leg and saves his life, to 96 LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. the infinite disgust of a neighbour over the way, that says, " Oh, he would not go in from neighbourly feeling and cut his leg off." (Loud applause.) I should like to know how any man has a right to cut your leg or mine off except professionally — (laughter and cheers) — and so a man must often wait for official leave to perform the noblest offices of justice and humanity. Here then is the great stone of stumbling. At first the President could not touch slavery, because in time of peace it was a legal institution. How then can he do it now ? Because in time of war it has stept beyond its former sphere, and is no longer a local institution, but a national and public enemy. (Applause.) Now I promised to make that clear; have I done it 1 ? ("Hear, hear," and applause.) It is said, "Why not let the South go?" ("Hear, hear," and cheers.) "Since they won't be at peace with you, why do you not let them separate from you ?" Because tliey would be still less peaceable when separated. (Hear, hear.) Oh, if the Southerners only would go ! (Laughter.) They are determined to stay — that is the trouble. (Hear, hear.) We would furnish free passage to all of them if they would go. (Laughter. | But we say, " The land is ours." (Cheers ) Let them go, and leave to the nation its land, and they will have our unanimous consent. (Renewed cheers.) But I wish to discuss this more carefully. It is the very marrow of the matter. I ask you to stand in our place for a little time, and see this question as we see it, afterwards make up your judgment. (Hear, hear.) And first, this war began by the act of the South — firing at the old flag that had covered both sections with glory and protection. (Applause.) The attack made upon us was under circumstances which inflicted immediate severe humiliation and threat- ened us with final subjugation. The Southerners held all the keys of the country. They had robbed our arsenals. They had made our treasury bankrupt. They had possession of the most important offices in the army and navy. They had the vantage of having long anticipated and prepared for the conflict. (Hear, hear.) We knew not whom to trust. One man failed, and another man failed. Men, pensioned by the Govern- ment, lived on the salary of the Government only to have better oppor- tunity to stab and betray it. There was not merely one Judas,' there were a thousand in our country. ("Hear, hear," and hisses.) And for the North to have lain down like a spaniel — to have given up the land that every child in America is taught, as every child in Britain is taught, to regard as his sacred right and his trust — to have given up the mouths of our own rivers and our mountain citadel without a blow, would have marked the North in all future history as craven and mean. (Loud cheers and some hisses.) Secondly, the honour and safety of that grand experiment, self-government by free institutions, demanded that so flagi- tious a violation of the first principles of legality should not carry off' impunity and reward, thereafter enabling the minority in every party conflict to turn and say to the majority, "If you don't give us our way we will make war." Oh, Englishmen, would you let a minority dictate in such a way to you? (Loud cries of "No, no, never !" ^nd cheers.) Three thousand miles off don't make any difference, then ? (" No. no."; LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. 97 The principle thus introduced would literally have no end — would carry the nation back to its original elements of isolated States. Nor is there any reason why it should stop with States. If every treaty may be overthrown by which States have been settled into a Nation, what form of political union may not on like grounds be severed ] There is the same force in the doctrine of Secession in the application to counties as in the application to States, and if it be right for a State or a county to .secede, it is equally right for a town and a city. (Cheers.) This doctrine of Secession is a huge revolving millstone that grinds the national life to powder. (Cheers.) It is anarchy in velvet, and national destruction clothed in soft phrases and periphrastic expressions. (Cheers.) But we have fought with that devil "Slavery,'' and understand him better than you do. (Loud cheers.) No people with patriotism and honour will give up territory without a struggle for it. (Cheers.) Would you give it up ] (Loud cries of "No.") It is said that the States ai*e owners of their territory ! It is theirs to use, not theirs to run away with. We have equal right with them to enter it. Let me inform you when those States first sat in convention to form a Union, a resolution was introduced by the delegates from South Carolina and Virginia, " That we now pro- ceed to form a National Government." The delegate from Connecticut objected. The New Englanders were State-right men, and the South, in the first instance, seemed altogether for a National Government. Con- necticut objected, and a debate took place whether it should be a Consti- tution for a mere Confederacy of States, or for a nation formed out of those States. (A Voice : " When was that '?") It was in the Convention of 1787. He wants to help me. (Laughter.) I like suck interruptions. I am here a friend amongst friends. (Cheers.) Nothing will please me better than any question asked in courtesy and in earnest to elucidate this subject. I am not afraid of being interrupted by questions which are to the point. (Cheers.) At this convention the resolution of the New England delegates that they should form a Confederacy instead of a Nation was voted down, and never came up again. (Cheers.) The first draft of the preamble contained these words, "We, the people of the United States, for the purpose of forming a Nation ; " but as there was a good deal of feeling amongst the North and South on the subject, when the draft came to the committee for revision, and they had simply to put in the proper phraseology, they put it "for the purpose of forming a Union." But when the question whether the States were to hold their autocracy came up in South Carolina — which was called the Carolina heresy — it was put down, and never lifted its head up again until this Secession, when it was galvanised to justify that which has no other pretence to justice. (Cheers.) I would like to ask those English gentlemen who hold that it is right for a State to secede when it pleases, how they would like it, if the county of Kent woidd try the experiment. (Hear, hear.) The men who cry out for Secession of the Southern States in America would say, "Kent seceding? Ah, circumstances alter cases." (Cheers and laughter.) The Mississippi, which is our Southern door and hall to come in and to go out, runs right through the territory which they tried to rend from us. The South magnanimously offered to let us o 98 LONDON — PUBLIC .MEETING. use it ; but what would you say if, on going home, you found a squad of gipsies seated in your hall, who refused to be ejected, saying, " But look here, we will let you go in and out on equitable and easy terms." (Cheers and laughter.) But there was another question involved — the question of national honour. If you take up and look at the map that delineates the mountainous features of that continent, you will find the peculiar structure of the Alleghany ridge, begiuning in New Hampshire, running across the New England States, through Pennsylvania and West Virginia, stopping in the Northern part of Georgia. (Hear, hear.) Now, all the world over, men that live in mountainous regions have been men for liberty — (cheers) — and from the first hour to this hour the majority of the population of Western Virginia, which is in this moun- tainous region, the majority of the population of Eastern Tennessee, of Western Carolina, and of North Georgia, have been true to the Union, and were urgent not to go out. They called to the National Govern- ment, " We claim that, in fulfilment of the compact of the constitution, you defend our rights, and retain us in the Union." (Cheers.) We would not suffer a line of fire to be established one thousand five hundred miles along our Southern border out of which, in a coming hour, there might shoot out wars and disturbances, with such a people as the South, that never kept faith in the Union, and would never keep faith out of it. They have disturbed the land as old Ahab of accursed memory did — (cheers and hisses) — and when Elijah found this Ahab in the way, Ahab said, "It is Elijah that has disturbed Israel." (A laugh.) Now we know the nature of this people. We know that if we entered into a tKuce with them they would renew their plots and violences, and take possession of the continent in the name of the devil and slavery. (Cheers.) One more reason why we will not let this people go is because we do not want to become a military people. A great many say America is becoming too strong ; she is dangerous to the peace of the world. But if you permit or favour this division, the South becomes a military nation, and the North is compelled to become a military nation. Along a line of 1,500 miles she must have forts and men to garrison them. These 250,000 soldiers will constitute the national standing army of the North. Now any nation that has a large standing army is in great danger of losing its liberties. (" No, no.") Before this war the legal size of the national army was 25,000. That was all ; the actual uumber was 18,000, and those were all the soldiers we wanted. The Tribune and other papers repeatedly said that these men were useless in our nation. But if the country were divided, then we should have two great military nations taking its place, and instead of a paltry 18,000 soldiers, there would be 250,000 on one side and 100,000 or 200,000 on the other. And if America,' by this ill-advised disruption, is forced to have a standing army, like a boy with a knife she will always want to whittle with it. (Laughter and cheers.) It is the interest, then, of the world, that the nation should be united, and that it shoull be under the control of that part of America that has always been for peace — (cheers, and cries of " No, no") — that it should be wrested from the control and policy of that part of the nation that has always been for more territory. LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. 99 for filibustering, for insulting foreign nations. (Cheers.) But that is not all. The religious-minded among our people feel that in the territory committed to us there is a high and solemn toast — a national trust. We are taught that in some sense the world itself is a field, and every Christian nation acknowledges a certain responsibility for the moral condition of the globe. But how much nearer does it come when it is one's own country ! And the Church of America is coming to feel more and more that God gave us this country, not merely for material aggrandisement, but for a glorious triumph of the Church of Christ. (Cheers.) Therefore we undertook to rid the territory of slavery. Since slavery has divested itself of its municipal protection, and has become a declared public enemy, it is our duty to strike down the slavery which would blight this far Western territoiy. When I stand and look out upon that immense territory as a man, as a citizen, as a Christian minister, I feel myself asked, " Will you permit that vast country to be over-clouded by this curse ? Will you permit the cries of bondmen to issue from that fair territory, and do nothing for their liberty?" What are we doing? Sending our ships round the globe, carrying missionaries to the Sand- wich Islands, to the islands of the Pacific, to Asia, to all Africa. And yet, when this work of redeeming our continent from the heathendom of slavery lies before us, there are men who counsel us to give it up to the devil, and not try to do anything with it. — Ah! independent of pounds and pence, independent of national honour, independent of all merely material considerations, there is pressing on every conscientious Northerner's mind this highest of all considerations — our duty to God to save that continent from the blast and blight of slavery. (Cheers.) Yet how many are there who up, down, and over all England are saying, "Let slavery go — let slavery go?" It is recorded, I think, in the biography of one of the most noble of your own countrymen, Sir T. Fowell Buxton — (cheers) — that on one occasion a huge favourite dog was seized with hydrophobia. With wonderful courage he seized the creature by the neck and collar, and against the animal's mightiest efforts, dash- ing hither and thither against wall and fence, held him until help could be got. If there had been Englishmen there of the stripe of the Times, they would have said to Fowell Buxton, "Let him go;" but is there one here who does not feel the moral nobleness of that man, who rather than let the mad animal go down the street biling children and women and men, risked his life and prevented the dog from doing evil? Shall we allow that hell hound of slavery, mad, mad as it is, to go biting millions in the future ? (Cheers.) We will peril life and limb and all we have first. These truths are not exaggerated — they are diminished rather than magnified in my statement ; and you cannot tell how power- fully they are. influencing us unless you were standing in our midst in America; you cannot understand how firm that national feeling is which God has bred in the North on this subject. It is deeper than the sea ; it is firmer than the hills ; it is serene as the sky over our head, where God dwells. (Cheers.) But it is said, "What a ruthless business this war of extermination , ; J I have heard it stated that a fellow from America,, purporting to be a minister of the gospel of pisice, had come 100 LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. over to England, and that that fellow had said he was in favour of a war of extermination. Well, if he said so he will stick to it ; — (cheers) — but not in the way in which enemies put these words. Listen to the way in which I put them, for if I am to bear the responsibility it is only fair that I should state them in my own way. We believe that the war is a test of our institutions ; that it is a life-and-death struggle between the two principles of liberty and slavery — cheers — that it is the cause of the common people all the world over. (Renewed cheers.) We believe that every struggling nationality on the globe will be stronger if we conquer this odious oligarchy of slavery, and that every oppressed people in the world will be weaker if we fail. (Cheers.) The sober American regards the war as part of that awful yet glorious struggle which has been going on for hundreds of years in every nation between right and wrong, between virtue and vice, between liberty and despotism, between freedom and bondage. It carries with it the whole future condition of our vast continent — its laws, its policy, its fate. And standing in view of these tremendous realities we have con- secrated all that we have — our children, our wealth, our national strength — and we lay them all on the altar and say "It is better that they should all perish than that the North should falter and betray this trust of God, this hope of the oppressed, this Western civilisation." (Cheers.) If we say this of ourselves, shall we say less of the slaveholders 1 If we are willing to do these things, shall we say " Stop the war for their sakes ?" If we say this of ourselves, shall we have more pity for the rebellious, for slavery seeking to blacken a continent with its awful evil, desecrating the social phrase " National Independence" by seeking only an inde- pendence that shall enable them to treat four millions of human beings as cliattels ? (Cheers.) Shall we be tenderer over them than over ourselves ? Standing by my cradle, standing by my hearth, standing by the altar of the church, standing by all the places that mark the name and memory of heroic men, who poured out their blood and lives for principle, I declare that in ten or twenty years of war we will sacrifice everything we have for principle. (Cheers.) If the love of popular liberty is dead in Great Britain you will not understand us ; but if the love of liberty lives as it once lived, and has worthy successors of those re- nowned men that were our 'ancestors as much as yours, and whose example and principles we inherit as so much seed corn in a new and fertile land — then you will understand our firm, invincible determina- tion — to fight this war through at all hazards and at every cost. (Immense cheering, accompanied with a few hisses.) I am obliged for this little diversion ; it rests me. Against this statement of facts and principles no public man and no party could stand up for one moment in England if it were permitted to rest upon its own merits. It is therefore sought to darken the lighb of these truths and to falsify facts. I will not mention names, but I will say this, that there have been important organs in Great Britain that have deliberately and knowingly spoken what is not the truth. (Applause, and loud cries of "The Times!" "Three groans for the Times!") It is declared that the North has no sincerity. It is declared that the North treats the blacks LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. 101 werse than the South does. (Hear, hear.) A monstrous lie from beginning to end. It is declared that emancipation is a mere political trick — not a moral sentiment. It is declared that this is the cruel unphilanthropic squabble of men gone mad with national vanity. (Cheers and hisses.) Oh, what a pity that a man should "fall nine times the space that measures day and night" to make an apostasy which dishonours his closing days, and to wipe out the testimony for liberty that he gave in his youth ! But even if all this monstrous lie about the North — this needless slander — were true, still it would not alter the fact that Northern success will carry liberty — Southern success, slavery. (Cheers.) For when society dashes against society, the results are not what the individual motives of the members of society would make them — the results are what the institutions of society make them. When your army stood at Waterloo, they did not know what were the vast moral consequences that depended on that battle. It was not what the individual soldier's meant nor thought, but what the British empire — the national life behind, and the genius of that renowned kingdom which sent that army to victory — meant and thought. (Hear, hear.) And even if the President were false — if every Northern man were a juggling hypocrite — that does not change the Constitution ; and it does not change the fact that if the North prevails, she carries Northern ideas and Northern institutions with her. (Cheers.) But I hear a loud protest against war. (Hear, hear.) Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Chair- man, — there is a small band in our country and in youi-s — I Avish their number were quadrupled — who have borne a solemn and painful testi- mony against all wai*s, under all circumstances ; and although I differ with them on the subject of defensive warfare, yet when men that rebuked their own land, and all lands, now rebuke us, though I cannot accept their judgment, I bow with profound respect to their consistency. ("Hear, hear," and cheers.) But excepting them, I regard this British horror of the American war as something wonderful. (Renewed cheers and laughter) Why, it is a phenomenon in itself! On what shore has not the prow of your ships dashed ? (Hear, hear.) What land is there with a name and a people, where your banner has not led your soldiers'? (Hear, hear.) And when the great resurrection reveille shall sound, it will muster British soldiers from every clime and people under the whole heaven. (Cheers.) Ah ! but it is said this is a war against your own blood. (Hear, hear.) How long is it since you poured soldiers into Canada, and let all your yards work night and day to avenge the taking of two men out of the Trent ? (Lowd applause.) Old England shocked at a war of principle ! She gained her glories in such wars. (Cheers.) Old England ashamed of a war of principle ! Her national ensign symbolises her history — the cross in a field of blood. (Cheers.) And will you tell us — who inherit your blood, your ideas, and your high spirits — (cheers) — that we must not fight ? (Cheers.) The child must heed the parents, until the parents get old and tell the child not to do the thing that in early life they whipped him for not doing. And then the child says, father and mother are getting too old ; they had better be taken away from their present 102 LONDON — PUBLIC MKETIN.i. home and come to Jive with us. (Cheers and hisses.) Perhaps you think that the old island will do a little longer. (Hisses.) Perhaps you think there is coal enough. Perhaps you think the stock is not quite run out yet ; but whenever England comes to that state that she does not go to war for principle, she had better emigrate and we will give her room. (Laughter.) I have been very much perplexed what to think about the attitude of Great Britain in respect to the South. I must, I suppose, look to the opinion of the majority of the English people. I dou't believe in the Times. (Groans for the Times ; groans for the Teh'/paph.) You cut my poor sentence in two, and all the blood runs out of it. (Laughter.) I was just going to say that like most of you I don't believe in the Times, but I always read it. (Laughter.) Every Englishman tells me that the Times is no exponent of English opinion, and yet I have taken notice that when they talk of men, somehow or other their last argument is the last thing that was in the Times. (Laugh tei\) I think it was the Times or Post that said, that America was sore, b cause she had not the moral sympathy of Great Britain, and that the moral sympathy of Great Britain had gone for the South. ("No, no.") Well, let me tell you, that those who are represented in the news- papers as favourable to the South are like men who have arrows and bows strong enough, to send the shafts 3,000 miles ; and those who feel sympathy for the North are like men who have shafts, but have no bows that could shoot them far enough. (Heai\) The English sentiment that has made itself felt on our shores is the part that slandered the North and took part with the South ; and if you think we are unduly sensitive, you must take into account that the part of English sentiment carried over is the part that gives its aid to slavery and against liberty. (Hear, hear.) I shall have a different story to tell when I get back. (The assembly rose, and for a few moments hats and handkerchiefs were waved enthusiastically amidst loud cheering. A Voice : " What about the Russians ]" Hear, hear.) A gentleman asks me to say a word about the Russians in New York harbour. As this is a little private confidential meeting — (laughter) — I will tell you the fact about them. (Laughter.) The fact is this — it is a little piece of coquetry. (Laughter.) Don't you know that when a woman thinks her suitor is not quite attentive enough, she takes another beau, and flirts with him in the face of the old one 1 (Laughter.) New York is flirting with Russia, but she has got her eye on England, (Cheers.) Well I hear men say this is a piece of national folly that is not becoming on the part of people reputed wise, and in such solemn and important circumstances. It is said that when Russia is now engaged in suppressing the liberty of Poland it is an indecent thing for America to flirt Avith her. I think so too. (Loud cheers.) Now you know what we felt when you were flirting with Mr. Mason at your Lord Mayor's banquet. (Cheers.) Ladies and gentlemen, it did not do us any hurt to have you Englishmen tell us our faults I hope it don't do you Britishers any hurt to have us tell you some of yours. (A laugh.) Let me tell you my honest sentiments. England, because she is a Christian nation, because she has the guardianship of the dearest LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. 103 principles of civil and religions liberty, ought to be friendly with, every nation and with every tongue. But when England looks out for an ally she ought to seek for her own blood, her own language, her own children. (Cheers.) And I stand here to declare that America is the proper and natural ally of Great Britain. (Cheers.) I declare that all sorts of alliances with Continental nations as against America monstrous, and that all flirtations of America with pandoured and whiskered foreigners ai'e monstrous, and that in the great conflicts of the future, when civilization is to be extended, when commerce is to be free round the globe, and to carry with it religion and civilization, then two flags should be flying from every man-of-war and every ship, and they should be the flag with the cross of St. George and the flag with the stars of promise and of hope. (Cheers.) Now, ladies and gentlemen, when anybody tells you that Mr. Beecher is in favour of war you may ask, " In what way is he in favour of war V And if any man says he seeks to sow discord between father and son and mother and daughter you will be able to say, " Show lis how he is sowing discord." If I had anything grievous to say of England I would sooner say it before her face than behind her back. I would denounce English- men, if they were maintainors of the monstrous policy of the South. However, since I have come over to this country you have told me the truth, and I shall be able to bear back an assurance to our people of the enthusiasm you feel for the cause of the North. And then there is the very significant act of your Government — the seizure of the rams in Liverpool. (Loud cheers.) Then there are the weighty words spoken by Lord Russell at Glasgow, and the words spoken by the Attorney-General. (Cheers.) These acts and declara- tions of policy, coupled with all that I have seen, and the feeling of enthusiasm of this English jieople, will warm the heart of the Amei'icans in the North. If we are one in civilization, one in religion, one sub- stantially in faith, let us be one in national policy, one in every enter- prize for the furtherance of the gospel and for the happiness of mankind. (Cheers.) I thank you for your long patience with me. ("Go on !") Ah ! when I was a boy they used to tell me never to eat enough, but always to get up being yet a little hungry. I would rather you go away wishing I had spoken longer than go away saying, "What a tedious fellow he was !" (A laugh.) And therefore if you will not permit me to close and go, I beg you to recollect that this is the fifth speech of more than two hours' length that I have spoken, on some occasions under difficulties, within seven or eight days, and I am so exhausted that I ask you to permit me to stop. (Great cheering.) Professor NEWMAN then rose and moved the following resolution : "Resolved, — That this meeting presents its most cordial thanks to the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher for the admirable address which he has delivered this evening, and expresses its hearty sympathy with his reprobation of the slaveholders' rebellion, his vindication of the rights of a free Government, and his aspirations for peace and friendship between the English people and their American brethren ; and as this meeting recognises in Mr. Beecher one of the early pioneers of negro 104 LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. emancipation, as well as one of the most eloquent and successful of the champions of that great cause, it rejoices in this opportunity of con- gratulating him on the triumph with which the labours of himself and his associates have been crowned in the anti-slavery policy of President Lincoln and his cabinet." (Cheers.) He said that in the present state of this controversy it was necessary that the English people should see whether their sentiments on slavery were still the same. The people he remembered in his boyhood were in great majority anti-slavery ; and it was but recently that half a million British ladies of all classes sent addresses to the women of America deploring this terrible curse. America wanted to see whether they were changed since then. It was but lately that Lord Brougham publicly insulted the American ambassador, Mr. Dallas, from his excessive zeal against the Southern domestic institution : the wonderful contrast of that noble lord's recent conduct led many people, and pre-eminently their Northern brethren, to suppose that there had been a great change among them. The writings of such men as Mr. Carlyle, the articles in the Times and of a large portion of the metropolitan press, had tended to induce the same feeling ; but it was for them to show that they still adhered to their old anti-slavery views. The only way to do that was never to read those papers ; or at any rate never to pay for reading them. (Cheers.) Rev. NEWMAN HALL seconded the resolution. He said : Last evening I was visited by a fugitive slave. Her intelligent countenance, her modest demeanour, her clear, calm, refined voice at once interested me. I soon learnt her history. Her owner, as I at once guessed, was both her father and her master. (Shame.) While she was yet a child she so felt the cruelties of slavery that she escaped. She was pursued, tracked by bloodhounds, brought back, and subjected to the fearful torments which are generally inflicted upon a captured slave. She was made to marry early, and became a mother. Then she was employed as wet nurse to her father's children — that is, she suckled her own brothers and sisters. (Sensation.) But the grief that she felt most was the selling of her own little girl at the age of ten years. Then, as child after child was born, she wished that child after child might die rather than endure the cruelties which she had suffered. With all the tender instincts of a mother she yet rejoiced to see her babe in the cradle of death. She had been taught to believe at first that her owner was her God, and for a time she did believe that her master was God Almighty. But when she afterwards learned that there was a God in heaven she looked to Him for help, and resolved at any risk to get away. She fled to the woods, and was soon pursued, and her master was so near her at one time that she heard him, when hiding in the hollow of a tree, saying that if he caught her she would never put a step on the ground again. " Surely," I said, " he would not have maimed you 1 " " No," she said, he would have tarred, feathered, and burnt me alive " — a fate which many a captured fugitive has undergone as an example to others. For ten days she wandered in the woods, feeding, or rather starving, upon roots and leaves, till she was found under a hedge, exhausted, by a good Samai-itan, a minister of the Gospel, who assisted her, and got her LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. 105 shipped in a vessel that was going to New York, and thence to Calcutta, from whence she has come to England. On her right ankle there is the mark of the red-hot branding-iron put there by her father, and on her left shoulder is the mark of the red-hot branding-iron put there also by her father ! (Shame.) On her wrists you will see the scars made by the links of the chains by which she was bound by her father, and where the iron gnawed into her flesh ! (Sensation.) She bears the mark of a terrible blow struck by her father with a heavy iron on her side, which has made her crooked and incapacitated her for hard work. It is for the pui'pose of maintaining and extending the liberty to exercise such abominations as these over four millions of their fellow-creatures that the Southerners are in ai'ms. (Cheers.) It is for the purpose of maintaining a Government and the carrying out of laws which will put a stop to these abominations — it is now actually and avowedly, whatever it may have once been, for the purpose of sweeping the American continent of such atrocities as these — that the North is fighting. (Cheers.) Can there be a moment's hesitation on which side— if there is to be a quarrel — the sympathies of Christian and free England shall be placed 1 ? (Cries of "No.") There may be and there are differences of political opinions among us, but there is no diffei^ence worth mentioning with reference to the abomination of the slave system. There are many of our countrymen — I would have Mr. Beecher take note of it — and there may be some in this meeting, who think that it would have been as well that the Soiith should have been let go at first, or that the war having commenced and gone on so long it should now cease. I give them credit for being as ardent haters of slavery as I am. (Hear, hear.) There are on the other hand those who consider that if the war were now to be brought to a premature close the cause of emancipation would be lost, and that more bloodshed and war would ensue than if now the battle were fought out. (Hear, hear.) And if I give those other gentlemen credit for being haters of slavery, I demand that on our part we shall have credit for being haters of war. (Cheers.) But whatever differences of political opinion there may be amongst us, there is no difference worthy of mentioning with reference to our abhorrence of the system of slavery ; there is no difference of opinion in this hall as to the honour we would pay to one of the noblest and boldest champions of freedom in the world. (Loud applause.) And though we are not bound by our jDrinciples to agree with every word and sentiment uttered to-night, we do all agree in heartily thanking the lecturer for his eloquent oration and the assistance he has thus given us to understand this great question. (Renewed applause.) We may also say that we agree in wishing him hearty fare- well as a true friend to Great Britain. (Hear, hear.) We may have misunderstood America — we shall henceforth understand her better. Mr. Beecher may have misunderstood us — he will understand us better. He is going back to his country to bear this testimony, that whatever difference of political opinions there may be here, the heart of Old England beats true to freedom — that in spite of caricatures and leading articles, the heart of Great Britain beats true to America. He will go back to 106 LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. his own country to do there what we pledge ourselves to do here — every- thing that will promote harmony between the two great nations. (Loud applause.) He will go home to do what we pledge ourselves to do — discourage every word and act calculated to excite international irritation and discord. He will go to teach his countrymen, as we teach ours, that the true alliances for the free to make are with free peoples, and not with despotic emperors or czars. (Renewed cheering.) We will both of us — they on that side and we on this — do all we can to promote true and brotherly love between these two great peoples — do all we can to discou- rage every act or word that may tend to beget disunion between two nations that are, as we have heard, one in blood, one in speech, one in literature, one in freedom, one in faith — two nations over whose disunion I could fancy hell from beneath would be moved with exultation, while all the tyrannies on the earth would clap their hands — (loud and prolonged cheering) — two nations over whose indissoluble alliance the heaven -born spirits of freedom, civilisation, and religion will sing rapturous anthems of praise to God, beckoning lis onwards, as sworn brothers in the van of human progress, to share together the toil and to reap together the divine honour of the final victory of truth, righteousness, and love. (Immense applause.) G. THOMPSON, Esq. : Mr. Chairman, ladies, and gentlemen,— I promise you that my words shall be exceedingly few. Two "new men" have set you and me the example of brevity, and I an old man, will not violate the example they have furnished. I may, however, be permitted to say that it is with more than ordinary interest I attend such a meet- ing us this, when I recollect that more than nine-aud-twenty years ago I was labouring with a handful of faithful men and women in the city of Boston, in the State of Massachusetts, amid much obloquy and frequent danger, in disseminating those very truths which are now convulsing and converting America — regenerating and establishing America — and which will through many future ages, and I trust centuries, cement together the several parts of America, and in no long period from this moment exhibit to the world a continent in which there neither domineers a tyrant nor crawls a slave. (Loud cheers.) I can, from the study and observation of thirty years, during which I have paid two visits to America, and held familiar intercourse with many of the wisest — certainly of the best — in that country, and have enjoyed uninterrupted intercourse with them by correspondence and the reception of news- papers through the whole time, — I can bear my humble testimony to the truth of all that, in substance at least, Mr. Beecher has said to- night. (Hear, hear.) Let Mr. Beecher know that the heart of England would have beaten in all its pulses but for — whatever may have been the motives — the perversities of the truth which have been steadily kept before the public. Let Mr. Beecher know that the men throughout this country who have manifested a decided leaning towards the South are men who belong to two classes, and two classes only — either the unteachable, and therefore the ignorant, or the informed, and therefore the wilful. (Cheers.) I have heard in this meeting occasional cries of " No." Now I have had an opportunity, in almost every part of LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. 107 England, of taking the amount of information possessed by those who At public meetings like this shout, "No, no." If the provincial papers had not to a great extent followed the example of some members of the London press, Mr. Beecher need not have come to this country to know what the opinions of the honest and uncorrupted millions of English- men on this subject have ever been. (Cheers.) Had the North been disposed to pay the price which the South has paid, the venal pens that have slandered the North would have been as ready to magnify and exalt the North. (Hear, hear.) It comes within my knowledge that in the city of Manchester, where there is a feeble imitator of a great public instructor of this metropolis — (A. Voice : The Manchester Guirdian) — in that city many public meetings have been held, in all of which, by immense majorities, and frequently with perfect unanimity, i-eaolutions have been passed in favour of the North, and approving and supporting the anti-slavery policy of President Lincoln, and in all the great surrounding towns similar meetings have been held and resolutions passed, and yet that newspaper has given no publicity whatever to the occurrence of such meetings — (shame) — while it has blazoned forth overy little and insignificant meeting held by little knots of Secessionists, whose names until recently we could not by all diligence obtain. (Hear, hear.) Let Mr. Beecher see that while this hall has been crowded, and while thousands have been gathered in the hall below, and in the Strand and neighbouring streets, and while in all the various districts of London and its suburbs there have been multitudinous meetings, always with the same results, and almost unanimous in their support of the North, only two meetings have been held in London — or, at least, meetings only in two places — in support of the South : one, a meeting called to hear a lecture from some redoubtable Colonel Fuller, who volunteered to tell us all about the question, and the other a meeting held up a pair of stairs in Devonshire-street, Portland-place. (Laughter and cheers.) And yet the Times and the Manchester Guardian ignore the occurrence of meetings like this ! But what for ? It serves their masters for the time ; it pleases their patrons for the time ; and it manages the market for the time. But it will come to pass on this question, as it came to pasts with regard to other questions discussed on this platform, that the •'brayings" of Exeter Hall will become the utterance of the feelings of the English people. (Cheers.) You are asked to commend the address of Mr. Beecher because in it he has rightly reprobated the slave- holders' rebellion. (Hear, hear.) There are a few Copperheads in this assembly. (Laughter.) I don't know whether you all are aware what they are, and Mr. Beecher could tell you better than I can. South Carolina is called the Palmetto State, but besides having the palmetto for its ensign it has also the rattlesnake. (Hear, hear,) The rattle- snake loses its skin every year and gets a new one — and I hope that South Carolina, will also lose its skin and get a new one — but while the process is going on the rattlesnake becomes blind, and the copperhead suake brings it the food it requires. Therefore the people in the North who sympathise with the South have got the name of Copperheads. (Laughter.) Now if, on leaving this halL you should hear any gentleman 108 LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. finding fault with Mr. Beecher, I do not say call him a Copperhead — (laughter) — hut you may at any .rate suspect that he is very nearly one. (Great laughter.) Mr. Beecher has said that this is a slaveholders' rebellion. Slaveholders conceived it, and developed, and formed all that is vital and influential in the Southern Confederacy. Their President is a slaveholder, and if not he was one until the advance of the Federal troops set his slaves at liberty. (Hear, hear.) The simple object of the South is to raise an empire by the subjugation of a weaker race. But I believe that the South will not succeed in her criminal designs, and that notwithstanding temporary checks and reverses, the Federals, who have been compelled to draw the sword, will in the end achieve the victory. (Cheers.) And I earnestly pray that when the smoke of battle shall have passed way, and the tears have been wiped from the eye of every mourner, and when the grass has begun to grow upon the graves of those who have fallen, universal liberty will prevail, and the whole of America be made hallowed ground. (Protracted applause.) The motion was then carried amidst loud cheers, only three hands being held up against it. The Rev. H.W. BEECHER briefly acknowledged the vote of thanks. The Rev. W. M. BUNTING moved, and Sir CHARLES FOX seconded, a vote of thanks to the Chairman, which was unanimously passed, and the proceedings then terminated. OUTSIDE THE HALL. The scene outside Exeter Hall last evening was one of a most extra- ordinary description. The lecture of the Rev. Mr. Beecher had been advertised to commence at seven o'clock, and it was announced that the hall doors would be opened at half-past six. The crowd, however, began to assemble as early as five o'clock, and before six o'clock it became so dense and numerous as completely to block up, not only the footway, but the carriage way of the Strand ; and the committee of management wisely determined at once to thx-ow open the doors. The rush that took place was of the most tremendous character, and the hall, in every available part, became filled to overflowing in a few minutes. No per- ceptible diminution, however, was made in the crowd, and at half-past six there were literally thousands of well-dressed persons struggling to gain admission, despite of the placards exhibited announcing the hall to^ be "quite full." The policemen and hall-keepers were powerless to contend against this immense crowd, who ultimately filled the spacious corridors and staircases leading to the hall, still leaving an immense crowd both in the Strand and Burleigh-street. At ten minutes before seven o'clock Mr. B. Scott, the City Chamberlain, and the chairman of the meeting, accompanied by a large body of the committee of the Emancipation Society, arrived, but were unable to make their way through the crowd, and a messenger was despatched to the Bow-street Police-station for an extra body of police. About LONDON — PUBLIC MEETING. 109 thirty of the reserve men were immediately sent, and those aided by the men already on duty at last succeeded in forcing a passage for the chairman and his friends. Mr. Beecher at this time arrived, but was himself unable to gain admittance to the hall until a quarter of hour after the time appointed for the commencement of his address. The rev. gentlemen bore his detention in the crowd with great good humour, and was rewarded with a perfect ovation, the crowd pressing forward in all directions to shake hands with him. He was at last fairly carried into the hall on the shoulders of the policemen, and the doors of the hall were at once closed, and guarded by a body of police, who distinctly announced that no more persons would be admitted whether holding tickets or not. This had the effect of thinning to some extent the crowd outside ; but some two thousand or more people still remained eager to seize on any chance of admission that might arise. At a quarter-past seven a tremendous burst of cheers from within the building announced that Mi*. Beecher had made his appearance on the platform. The cheering was taken up by the outsiders, and re-echoed again eand again. The bulk of the crowd had now congregated in Burleieh-street, which was completely filled, and loud cries were raised for som member of the Emancipation Committee to address them. The call was not, however, responded to. Several impromptu speakers, however, mounted upon the shoulders of some working-men, addressed the people in favour of the policy of the North, and their remarks were received with loud cheering from the large majority ot those present. One or two speakers raised their voices in sympathy with the South, but these were speedily dislodged from their positions by the crowd, whose Northern sympathies were thus unmistakably exhibited. Every burst of cheei's that resounded from within the hall was taken up and as heartily responded to by those outside. Indeed, they could not have been more enthusiastic had they been listening to the eloquent lecturer himself. This scene continued without intermission until the close of the meeting. When Mr. Beecher and his friends issued from the building they were again received with loud eheers. A call for a cheer for Abraham Lincoln was responded to in a manner that only an English crowd can exhibit. A strong body of police were stationed in the Strand and Burleigh-street, but no breach of the peace occurred calling for their interference, During the evening a large number of placards denouncing in strong language the President, the North, and its advocates were posted in the neighbourhood of the hall. LOXDON.-OCTOBEB 23, 1863. FAREWELL TO THE REV. H. W. BEECHER Yesterday morning, at Radley's Hotel, between 200 and 300 gentlemen, chiefly ministers of various denominations, met the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher at breakfast, upon the invitation of the Committee of Correspondence on American Affairs, for the purpose of wishing him farewell prior to his departure to the United States. The chair was occupied by the Hon. and Rev. B. W. Noel. Among the gentlemen present were : — Messrs. B. Scott, Chamberlain, S. Lucas, Joshua Wilson, E. Fisher, W. B. Underbill, George Thompson, L. A. Chame- rovzow, John Cassell, S. H. Skeats, James Grant, W. Wilks, H. Wharton, F. W. Chesson, D. Pratt, Thomas Walker, M. D. Conway, of Virginia; Edmond Beales, Victor Schcelcher, E. Dicey, F. Evans, T. C. Turberville, Capt. T. W. Chester, of Massachusetts Coloured Regiment ; the Revs. Dr. Wacldington, Dr. Campbell, Dr. Davis, Dr. Angus, Dr. Burns, Dr. Tomkins, W. M. Bunting, Newman Hall, C Sfcovel, J. Curwen, F. Soden, John Graham, J. H. Hinton, F. Tucker, C. Gilbert, Kilsby Jones, Thos. Jones, G. Rogers, W. Ballan- tyne, J. Pillans, E. White, J. Miall, J. C. Galloway, J. Corbin, T. W. Aveling, W. Tarbottom, J. Spong, J. V. Mummery, T. Lesaey, A. Hannay, W. Dorling, J. Bevis, H. B. Bowen, F. Neller, R. Fletcher, J. H. Hitchens, John Hall, Ebenezer Davies, E. Matthews, J. P. Lyon, J. W. Eichardson, W. M. Statham, H. J. Gamble, R. Ashton, H. B. Ingram, W. Owen, A. M. Mackennell, J. Viney, R. W. Betts, R. Macbeth, A. M. Henderson, J. Northrop, J. Bramall, S. March, G. Wilkins, W. O'Neill, J. Russell, Rev. Sella Martin, of Virginia ; Mr. W. Craft, of Georgia ; Mr. Gerard Ralston, Consul-General of Liberia, WEfl GKEENING, J uon ' oeC8,