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GRE ^.T
GEAYE QUESTIONS
FOR
AMERICAN POLITICIANS,
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BOSTON:
WALKER, FULLER & CO., 245 Washington Stbeet.
A. WILLIAMS & CO., 100 Washington Street.
CINCINNATI:
ROBERT CLARKE & CO., 55 West Fourth Street.
Nero $ork:
C. S. WESTCOTT & CO.'S UNION PRINTING-HOUSE,
No. 79 JOHN STREET.
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AMERICAN POLITICIANS,
TOPIC FOR AMERICA'S STATESMEN.
iBy :e:bo:e : l.a.otts.
»
•'I owe a paramount allegiance to the whole Union — a subordinate one to
my own State." — Henry Clay.
"-Free labor, the acknowledged source of National wealth, is the bulwark of
free institutions.'* — Hon. Wm. fit Stewart.
" "Whilst, in the Old World, all physical labor is considered ungentleman-
, like, in America, on the contrary, not to work is looked upon as thoroughly
degrading." — Pulsky.
"L'unite c'est la vie d'un peuple." — Victor Hugo.
" Abandon, at once and/or ere? - , all notions of Secession, Nullification, and
Disunion. Determine to live, and teach your children to live, as true
American Citizens. There will be in the future, if there is not now, as much
of pride and grandeur in the name of ' American Citizens,' as there once was
in that of 'Roman Citizens.' The Republic is destined to go on increasing
in National power and greatness for centuries to come. " — B. F. Perry, Prov.
Gov. of South Carolina. — Speech at Greenville, July 3d, 1835. .- g% ■$ r
BOSTON :
Walker, Fuller & Co., 245 Washington street; A. Williams & Co., 100
Washington street.
CINCINNATI :
Robert Claeee & Co. , 55 West Fourth street.
X c uj {Dork:
C. S. WESTCOTT & CO.'S UNION PRINTING-HOUSE,
No. 79 John Street.
1865.
. If"
TO THOSE WHO GAVE
Sjjetr Jrienbsbip
(UNASKED)
TO A STRANGER,
THESE PAGES ARE DEDICATED.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
THE FIEST SECTION.
Illustrations, p. 3. — Eesults of Rebellions, 4. — Opinions Convulsed, 4, 5. —
The Restoration, 5.— The First French Revolution, 6, 7.— Harp of France, 7. —
The Southern Rebellion, 7. — Times of Pitt, 7.— England's Great Rebel-
lion, 7, 8. — Lord Campbell's Declaration, 8. — Doings of a Proclamation,. 9. —
God's Means, 9. — Southern Scourge, 9.
THE SECOND SECTION.
Illustrations, 10. — Old Parties Broken, 10.— The Democratic Party, 11.—
Baltimore Resolution, 11. — Southerners All-powerful, 11.— Education in
Georgia, 12.— Virginia in 1677, 12.— Police Cases, 12. — Eyes Filled with
Tears, 13.— The South Very Good, 13.— Payers and Repudiators, 13.— Tone
of Society, 13. — High Blood, 14.— New England Devils, 14. — Capitalization
of Labor, 14.— African Docilitv, 15.— South Carolina, 15.— Huts, 15.— Geor-
gia, 16.— The Moravians, 16.— Labor, 17.— Comforts, 17.— Prince Henry, 17.
Heathenism, 18.
THE THIRD SECTION.
Illustrations, 19. — Ireland, Poland, and Greece, 19. — National Nomencla-
ture, 20.— The Contrast, 20. —Verified by Facts, 20.— Sectional Terms, 21.—
Health, 22.— Freedom, 22.— Life and Liberty, 22.— Liberty's Power, 23.—
A Nation's Value, 23. — Boston, 24.— Stagnation, 24. — Ignorance, 24. —Source
of Power, 24.— Nationality, 25.— Washington's Words, 26, 27 —Our Duty,
27-
THE FOURTH SECTION.
Illustrations, 28.— England's Great Periods, 28 .—Progress, 28, 29.— Ameri-
can Colonies, 29.— Changes, 29.— Fruitful Germ, 29.— Political Geography,
29.— Proud Prerogative, 30.— An American Nation, 31.— The General Senti-
ment, 31.— Days of Darkness, 32. — Agitate and Educate, 32. — An Appeal to
Americans, 32.— A Question Asked, 33.— German Manifesto, 33.— A Prophecy,
33.— A Tray of Pearls, 35.
THE FIFTH SECTION.
Illustrations, 36. — Six Elements, 36. — Free Communities, 37. — The Great
Arch, 37.— Many Systems, 37.— State Rights, 37.— Faults, 38.— Politcal Sci-
ence, 38. — American Characteristic, 39. — Rights of Man, 39. — Ports Wide
Open, 40.— A Prayer to God, 40.
THE SIXTH SECTION.
National Elements, 41. — Not Presumptuous, 41. — Present Safety, 42. —
Rights of Citizenship, 42. — Infamy, 42.— Soul of Lincoln, 43. — Education,
43. — C. Brooks, 43. — Works on Education, 44.
THE CONCLUDING: SECTION.
Farewell! 45. — Nature's Charms, 45. — A Mother's Voice, 45.— Disobedient,
45. — Tubal Cain, 46. — Repose, 46. — American Achievements, 46. — Joys,
Blessings, Patriots, Prosperity, 46. — Dreams, Martyrs, Scholars, 46. — God's
Word, 46.— My Brother, 46.— Twine the Garlands, 46.— My Sister, 46.— Zone
of Happiness, 46.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
APPENDICES.
PAGE.
A Topic for America's Statesmen 47
Face the Danger • 49
The Situation ". 51
A New York Village 53
Meeting at Newark ; 55
Reconstruction 56
The War Cry 56
South Carolina's Laws 58
Items Worth Remembering 59
The Germans' Manifesto GO
William T. Blodgett, Esq 66
The Character of America's Ladies 07
Manhood Suffrage 68
The Man of Destiny 74
The Empire in Exile and Harness 77
"Done to Perfection" 80
The Spectre 80
The Murderer 81
The Scribes 83
The Lancashire Distress S4
Meeting of Operatives 85
National Grant for Lancashire 86
Parliamentary Grant Association 87
Meeting in Stevenson Square 87
Unemployed Operatives 88
Address to the Bate-Payers 89
The Anti-Southern Lecturer >. • 91
Maryport 92
Over Darwen 93
Barker's Writings and Lectures 93
Stockport .' 96
Free Speech Prevented 98
Mr. Broom's Lecture ICO
A Challenge 101
Middleton . : 102
The American War 103
Confutation of Statements 108
W. W. Broom's Reply 110
Second Lecture 117
Lincoln's Native State '. '. 121
Southern Standard Literature 122
Kershaw's Hand-Bills 122
A Telegram for Southerners 122
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
" The school of pain is hard but productive." — W. H. Dixon.
" It was only with the revolt against England that freedom came to any
part of the black race in America." — W. H. Dixon.
" Thy best Hope where, dear Liberty ?
In fast upwinging time. ■
Thy first strength where, proud Liberty?
In thine oppressor's crime."
" The end of the war has been obtained. The republic has fulfilled its
destiny. Slavery, the plague-spot upon the fair body of our country, is
dead, and no trumpet, though it were an angel's, can awake it to resurrec-
tion." — Four Years in Secessia.
" L'unite de l'homme correspond a l'unite de Dieu." — Victor Hugo.
" Behold the few who stalk abroad in pride,
In gilded trappings or a garb of gray,
With haughty mien and soldierly disguise.
They left our legislative halls, unstained
Except by their offences in times past,
And secretly in conclave met and swore,
With all the hate of aristocracy,
To make of the plebeians all — the poor,
Degraded menials, subject to themselves ;
And vowed, this end to gain they would destroy
The happiest nation on the verdant earth.
They talk of rights, but are the foes of God,
Of man, and man's most dear-bought liberty.
Nor have they more exalted aim in life
4 GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
Than crushing right and revelling in wrong ;
Brigands, and pirates, vampires, blood they crave,
The fulsome, self-styled chivalry are they,
Who took the sword, by it to fall, indeed."
J. C. Webster's Foe Unmasked.
Unsuccessful Revolutions and Rebellions are always bene-
ficial to the progress of humanity. The advantages are not
invariably immediate. Sometimes they are very remote.
Only the profound and highly sensitive mind can penetrate
the confusion and blindness of incensed passions to see Law
and Progress. Wealth, energy, intellect, blood — are not
wasted. There may be mourning and weeping in the house-
hold over the sacrifice of a loved one "—harassing poverty and
grim destitution may depose the queen of beauty enthroned
in luxury — intellect may exhaust its depths in devising plans
that are futile or inoperative — energy may droop piteously
and pitifully, broken-hearted at the loss of once giant
strength and inflexible determination — wealth may vanish
from workshops, warehouses, banks — nevertheless, in the
midst of seeming despair and ruin, the elements of Good are
silently but surely gathering and combining, the subtle
operations of Spiritual chemistry are evolving conditions and
forces that will everlastingly improve and bless mankind.
" God moves in a mysterious way ;" but the way is only
mysterious to the ignorant and the faithless — and to the
" worldly-wise," who scheme for solitary aggrandizement.
One Revolution and two Rebellions have convulsed opinions
and startled theorists on two continents. The revolutionists
and rebellionists were defeated. Many lamented the bitter
strifes. Curious and " dry-as-dust" statisticians figured-up
the stupendous loss of life and property. So many persons
shot — guillotined — so much wealth consumed unproductive-
ly. The statisticians lay down their pens and fulminate
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. 5
against the people for not practising business habits, and for
not possessing mathematical knowledge ! Animate those
figures with the soul of faith and the reckoners will see a
magnificent compound interest — capital (blood shed and
wealth scattered) yearly trebling itself in extending freedom,
increasing knowledge, and deepening the faith of peoples in
Grod's never-ceasing goodness.
The Restoration soon followed the death of Cromwell.
A selfish, heartless debauchee disgraced royalty and degraded
his country. To enable him to satisfy his licentious extrav-
agance, he accepted money from France. He transformed
palaces into brothrels, his court into a moral cesspool. The
gentle sweetness of Milton, that had mellowed and hallowed
the stern councils of the Puritans, had departed to a — garret
or to Heaven. The grand far-seeing of Cromwell was
shrouded in death. The malicious execrations of cowards,
fools, hypocrites, and knaves, brayed in vain over the unoc-
cupied clay-tenement. The psalms and Scripture-comfort
sung and given to each other by pale women and disappointed
men, were invoked and sought in dark recesses. The good
and noble mourned the national gyrations of moral dissolu-
tion. The vile herds who fattened on political corruption,
and gloated over royal depravity, danced gleefully amid the
ruins of a nation's glory. Not so ! The ruins were not of
glory, but of sin. Fiends were dancing amid the wreck
of despotism, The flames of hell lighted the terrible scene.
The slowly-burning embers of Absolutism were fitfully
gleaming around the hiding-places of wise patriots who were
breathing fervent prayers to Christ. God was operating
for the nation's benefit — for the world's advancement. But
the people did not then see what we now know. In clouds
of smoke, where steel was clashing, Progress was nestling
6 GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
and growing serenely and securely as an infant in its mother's
arms.
The first French ^Revolution violently estranged men from
each other in all modern nations. It appalled Burke, but
pleased the operatives of England. France became, as many
supposed and asserted, a chaos of bloody crimes. The wit
of Voltaire, the eloquence of De Holbach, the startling
logic of the Cure Meslier, the well-aimed shafts of Diderot,
had shattered priestly power and torn-up the roots of a noble
Christian faith. Kousseau had shattered the political edi-
fice. The sickly and nervous man, weak as a child and fear-
ful as a maniac, had hurled thunderbolts against the proud
monarchy, and split the gorgeous throne asunder. What a
rushing to-and-fro of priestly apes and political imbeciles !
The sky lurid, the atmosphere dark and sultry, the waters
roaring and rushing, oratorical giants grappling with each
other, " Clubs" declaiming against old while evolving and
explaining new theories, mobs starving and execrating — the
nobility scattered, flying, gasping for a foreign shore — and, in
the midst of this Pandemonium of passions, vanities, am-
bitions and deadly antagonisms, the Guillotine cast its re-
volting but purging shadow of an impartial Nemesis.
In time, the grim strife merged into the Consulate and
the Empire — the Empire vanished before Monarchy uplifted
on bayonets — and, again, Monarchy fled, as once more the
Empire stealthily (having lost its martial boldness) ad-
vanced.
Was the ^Revolution useless ? Was the land soddened
with blood in vain ? Did rival " patriots" depose each other
in an objectless tragedy ? Keenly examine the history of
France during the past three centuries, cast your eyes over
the partially cleared ground, and the answer will not be
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. 1
affirmative nor uncertain. Mackintosh vindicates the Rev-
olution, and Buckle displays his learning and acumen in
giving proof of the blessings showered on the pathway of
Civilization by those who cut the locks of strength of the
Samson of Absolutism. The Bastile, and nearly all it
represented, has vanished into thin air. Imbeciles cannot
again occupy the palaces of France, though scheming, crafty,
subtle hypocrites may. Beranger is enthroned in the sen-
timents of the French people, and the psalm of eloquence
for freedom is poured-forth in never-ceasing strains by
Victor Hugo — the soul and harp of France. The sallow-
faced monster of Imperialism is obliged to use the rhetoric
of progress and mouthe the syllogisms of freedom.
Northern resistance to the Southern Rebellion was a ghost
as horrible to the nations as was the French Revolution.
The manners of the times of Pitt have been adopted in
England in treating of the American struggle. The same
absurdities of language, rashness of theories, violence of de-
nunciation, pomposity of judgments, have been repeated.
The intellect and patriotism of England throbbing for the
North — the ignorance, passions, prejudice, and greed, yelling
for the South. Profound philosophy, the lessons of history
and the dignity of truth, marshalled for the North — reckless
lying, audacious brutishness, the bitterness of vulgar cun-
ning, plotting for the South. In the House of Commons the
same pleasing and revolting features are seen. The oratory
of Bright, the energy of Taylor, the experience of Foster,
overruling the ignorant petulance of Roebuck, the impu-
dence of Laird, and the stupidity of Gregory.
The Great Rebellion of England struggled for freedom,
the contending parties in France during the Revolution were
all opposed to despotism, and strove for liberty according to
8 GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
the measure of their understandings. The Southern Rebel-
lion was instituted to overthrow freedom and progress. Its
leading men hated free schools, free speech, free press, free
thinking — they only loved slavery, subordination, and des-
potic government. They resolved that no " law denying or
impairing the right of PROPERTY in negro slaves shall be
passed." The long screech of South Carolina against the
North was on behalf of retrogression, moral desolation,
Heathenism, and national destruction. Thirty millions of
human beings were driven to shed each other's blood to sat-
isfy the dark and remorseless designs of a clique of infernal
sinners. The rich harvests of industry were destroyed by
political barbarians. Dissolute crusaders against Civilization
crawled round the mountains, tainted the once delightful at-
mosphere with moral poison, and darkened the Heavens with
the breath of destruction. The bright and gentle feathered
denizens of the air, the forests, and the valleys, were scared
by new and dismal sounds. The pioneer was arrested in his
pilgrimage through the wilds to extend human progress — his
unblunted axe was no longer required. The soft, sweet music
of murmuring streams and gentle zephyrs, was hushed in the
thunders of cannon and the groans of dying demons and
patriots. Black hearts raging and shedding blood for black
purposes. The stars veiled in the smoke of rebellion, the air
filled with the moans of the bleeding and the sobs of the
bereaved. But Progress was in the midst — for over all God
reigneth.
" You can never conquer the South," was the hourly-
proclaimed words of knaves and imbeciles, here and abroad,
" therefore, stop the unholy war." " The North may make
a Poland of the South," said Lord Campbell, " but it can-
not be conquered ;" and, while he was speaking in Manches-
ter, the war-steeds of freedom dashed over the serried hosts
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. »
of Devildom ! The North has Triumphed — rebellion for
slavery is crushed — and Civilization is preparing to march
through the world under the bright banner of American Re-
publicanism.
From the smouldering embers of camp fires — amid the
wreck of cities and the pauperism of once gay homes — amid
mountains tinged with blood and the bankruptcy of South-
ern credit — amid the loneliness of little orphans and the
tortures of wives divorced from wedded love by the Furies of
war — amid the groves of a sunny land turned into a reeking
burial-ground — emerges the sable forms (of young and old,
of strong and feeble, of the growing and the decaying) of
FOUR MILLIONS emancipated from the "new empire"
built out of the quarried materials from the infernal regions.
Manacles struck off from the gored limbs of slaves by a —
Proclamation, " done at the City of Washington, this first
day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the
United States the eighty-seventh." Once more, blood,
wealth, energy, have produced an abundant harvest— -free-
dom ! Revolutions and Rebellions, apparently unsuccessful,
are not failures but instruments — are not horrors but bles-
sings — are not the Devil's luxuries, but God's unerring means
of bringing man back to the Garden of Eden. Every tear
shed in times of civil war is a jewel dropped into the diadem
of universal Civilization. Every heart's throb hushed on
gory plains is the arranging of elements that will fill the
valleys of National life with harmonious forms, ever emitting
sweet perfume and rich odors that blend with a purified at-
mosphere, where the Psalms of Freedom are everlastingly
trilled-forth amidst Beauty and Clearness — amidst Spiritual
Beauty and Moral Clearness. God ! we adore Thee for
this second rebellion — this Southern scourge, but greater
blessing.
10 GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
" Let men do wrong upon system, and they will soon imbibe a passion
to do wrong — and a passion to do wrong in one form, has a natural affinity
with propensities to do so in other forms." — R. Vaughan, D. D.
" One of the Southern leaders, speaking about the institution, said, in
1849 : ' If left to the tender mercies of the Federal Government, its fate
is doomed. With the prejudice of the age against it, it requires for its
kind development a fostering government over it. It could scarcely sub-
sist without its protection !' "
" The Democratic party sympathizes with us, and some of its influential
leaders are pledged to our side. Thej' will sow division there [in the
North], and paralyze the Free States." — Among the Pines.
" Education the criterion of the right of suffrage, not property. I do
not believe in a government of ignorance, whether by the rich, or poor,
the many or the few." — Hon. R. J. Walker.
After emancipating the slaves, the next great good coming
from the Southern Kebellion is the breaking-up of the old
political cliques and parties. The Woolly-Heads, the
Whigs,* the Silver-Greys, the Know-Nothings, the Barn-
* " Yer an Abolisherner, aint ye ?"
" No ; I'm an old-fashioned Whig."
" What's that? Never heerd on them afore."
" An old-fashioned Whig, madam, is a man whose political principles
are perfect, and who is as perfect as his principles."
That was a " stumper " for the poor woman, who evidently did not
understand one half of the sentence.
" Right sort of folks, them," she said, in a half-inquiring tone.
" YES; BUT THEY'RE ALL DEAD NOW.'— Among the Pines.
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. 11
Burners, the Free Democrats, are all non est. The great
Democratic party is shattered — the party that in Baltimore,
in June, 185*2 —
" Resolved, That the Democratic party will resist all attempts at renew-
ing in Congress, or out of it, the agitation of the Slavery question, under
whatever shape or color the attempt may be made."
The great Democratic party that assisted Southern slave-
mongers to become all-powerful in Congress and the creators
of Presidents, is shivered. When Pulsky was in America
in 1852, he declared that —
" No President can be nominated or elected without the concurrence of
the Southern States ; no statesman, therefore, who does not share the
opinions of the South, can ever aspire to the highest post in the Union,
whatever might be otherwise his statesmanship or his talents ; though the
population of the Free States amount to thirteen millions, and that of the
whites hi the South only to six millions."
That great Democratic party that supported Southern
bullies to frighten, intimidate, and coerce, must be converted
or annihilated. When in power, the Southerners demoralized
their country and bullied the world. The latter fact was
not forgotten when the revolting Confederacy went begging,
imploring, and beseeching to Euroj^e. Kussell jogged the
memory of the South in the following paragraph :
" The people in the seceding States, aware in their consciences that
they have been most active in their hostility to Great Britain, and whilst
they were in power were mainly responsible for the defiant, irritating
and insulting tone commonly used to us by American statesmen, are anx-
ious at the present moment, when so much depends on the action of for-
eign countries, to remove unfavorable impressions from our minds by
declarations of good-will, respect, and admiration, not quite compatible
with the language of their leaders in times not long gone by."
12 GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
The Democratic party has supported the foes of intellect
and the friends of ignorance. Take a solitary but signifi-
cant fact from the history of the rule of the slave-oligarchy
in the South. Here it is —
" In a population of 524,000 freemen, there are 41,000 white adults in
Georgia (in 1852) who cannot read, and the number of children, whose
parents are not able to send them to school, is upwards of 38.000."
It should, also, be remembered, that in the State named,
the Old Dominion, in " 1677, no printing-press was allowed
in Virginia." A royal governor had previously (in 1671) said,
" I thank God, there are no free schools and no printing ;
and I hope we shall not have these hundred years." On
this revolting desire by a royal barbarian, W. P. Atkinson
pertinently remarks — " The present condition of that State
(Virginia) is a striking commentary on the sentiment."* 1
The ruling passion of the South for repression of opinion
and despotism was strong in the hour of death, for a trav-
eller down South during the death-rattle, says :
" Charges of abolitionism appear in the reports of police cases in the
papers every morning ; and persons found guilty, not of expressing opin-
ions against slavery, but of stating their belief that the Northerners will
be successful, are sent to prison for six months."
The same writer says :
" In the South, the press threatened me with tar and feathers, because I
did not sec the beauties of then domestic institution."
Can the foreign traveller expect any other treatment from
men whose stolid hearts and ruthless brains were impervious
to the solvent influence of the sufferings and tears of little
* Classical and Scientific Studies. Pub. by Sever & Francis, Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts.
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. 13
children ! Eead this affecting incident that affected not
Southern society :
" The little negroes who ran about were smart, but some of them came
into violent collision, and were cuffed incontinently. One mild-looking
little fellow stood by my side and appeared so sad that I asked him, ' Are
you happy, my boy ?' He looked quite frightened. ' Why don't you an-
swer me ?' ' I'se afeered, sir ; I can't tell that to massa.' ' Is not your
master kind to you ?' ' Massa very kind man, sir ; very good man when
he is not angry with me,' and his eyes filled with tears to the brim."
The South is very good when not angry with freedom,
knowledge, and progress ! But when has it not been angry
with these angels of the earth ?
The Democratic party has countenanced and supported
debt-repudiating scoundrels. Jeff. Davis grinned at the
losses of the confiding who had lent their money to the State
of Mississippi, and termed their tears " crocodile." The
Confederacy was based on repudiation — repudiation of prin-
ciples, of freedom, morality, and debt. At the commence-
ment of the war, the Special Correspondent of The Times
(London), was obliged to declare —
" The North has set out with the principle of paying for everything,
the South with the principle of paying for nothing."
The Democratic party has supported the degraders of
public sentiment and the debasers of public opinion. The
historian says :
" The tone of public feeling in the United States has retrograded in the
course of a couple of generations." — J. M. Ludlow's Hist, of United
States.
In characterizing the tendency and tone of society in Mis-
sissippi, from 1840 to I860, the Hon. R. J. Walker uses
these words : " The incredible extent to which the publie
14 GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
sentiment of that day was debased " — " the moral waste
and desolation of that dreadful period." Shall we be sur-
prised, when even the " high-blood " of Virginia poured from
the fountains of English crime. Read —
" Nor must we forget, as a set-off to the high blood of which Virginia
boasts, that that Colony was for a length of time a place of penal trans-
portation."
After such depressing recitals, it is refreshing to be told
that —
" The legislature of Massachusetts passed a Bill which practically de-
feated the surrender of fugitive slaves, and this step had beenfollowed by
Connecticut and Vermont."
Ah ! those horrible New England States, they are not the
garden of liberty — they are full of " insult and wrong," and
they work " with the energy of devils incarnate to make the
world believe their absurd statements." So says Anti-Abo-
lition Tracts, No. 1.
The Democratic party has tenaciously supported the ene-
mies of well-paid labor. Africans were brought to America
so that labor could be effectually and for ever capitalized.
White men wanted to become rich out of the degradation of
black men, women, and children. The desire was " mean,"
the act was barbarous. On this important topic we will cull
a few facts from history. Dr. Robertson informs us {Hist,
of America) that —
" As early as the year 1503, a few negro slaves had been sent into the
New World. In the year 1511, Ferdinand permitted the importation of
them in greater numbers. They are found to be a more robust and hardy
race than the natives of America. They were more capable of enduring
fatigue, more patient under servitude, and the labor of one negro was com-
puted to be equal to that of four Indians."
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. 15
The docility and strength of the negro made him an easy
prey for the greed and tyranny of Godless men. Not always
is the literal reason assigned for making the negro a slave.
In the following passage a climatorial reason is assigned for
covering an infamous wrong. We quote from Mary How-
itt's work {Hist, of America) —
" Governor Yeamaxs introduced negro slavery (into South Carolina),
bringing with him a cargo of slaves from Barbadoes. The heat of the
climate rendering labor very difficult to the whites, and from its first set-
tlement, South Carolina was a slave state.
" The climate of South Carolina was not only congenial to the negro, but
the temper of the people made them willingly avail themselves of slave
labor — and very soon the slave population far outnumbered the whites."
This passage is open to merry criticism, but our space is
too limited for us to indulge in the luxury. But what has
slavery done for South Carolina ? The Hungarian traveller
thus answers :
" The plantations in South Carolina, along the railway, seemed much
poorer than in any other part of the South we had visited, and the cabins
of the negroes looked little better than kennels."
This observer wrote in 1852, and in 1860 Russell thus
described the negro kennels :
" The huts stand in a row, like a street, each detached, with a pantry
house of rude planks behind it. No attempt at any drainage or any con-
venience existed near them, and the same remark applies to very good
houses of white people in the South. Heaps of oyster-shells, broken
crockery, old shoes, rags, and feathers, were found near each hut. The
huts were all alike windowless, and the apertures, intended to be glazed
some fine day, were generally filled up with a deal board. The roofs were
shingle, and the whitewash, which had once given the settlement an air
of cleanliness, was now only to be traced by patches which had escaped
the action of the rain. I observed that many of the doors were fastened
by a padlock and chain outside."
16 GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
The atrocious cruelty practised in South Carolina for the
maintenance of accursed slavery is related in the Appendix.
We now turn to the opposition to and final adoption of slav-
ery in Georgia. The founder of Georgia was a brave and
God-fearing man. He affirmed that " slavery was contrary
to the Gospel, as well as to the fundamental law of England.
We will not permit a law which allows such horrid crimes."
The early religious conscience of Georgia resisted the adop-
tion of slavery.
" The Moravians opposed slavery as contrary to the Gospel
Slaves were at first hired from Carolina for a short period or during life,
and a sum equal to the value of the slave paid in advance. Thus, by de-
grees, Georgia became a planting state, with slave-labor, like Carolina." —
Mary Howitt's Hist, of America.
American authors declare that "idlers and enemies of
the industrious whites" transformed Georgia into a slave
state. We quote the following passage by T. S. Arthur
and W. H. Carpenter :
" But evil counsel prevailed. The idlers far outnumbered those who
worked, and although the trustees stood out for a long time, slaves were
eventually admitted, and the energies of the industrious whites corre-
spondingly paralyzed." — Lippincott's Histories, Georgia.
Another able writer (Goodell) insists that —
" The first introduction of slaves into Georgia was in direct violation
of express statutes of the colony itself, until slaveholders gained the as-
cendency and repealed the laws. Into the other Colonies slaves were in-
troduced a long time before there were any Colonial enactments authoriz-
ing it, and consequently any show of legal sanction."
These facts, and the revolting influence of these facts, are
supported by the Democratic party. Will workingmen, will
Americans, continue to countenance this party, unless it
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. 11
speedily changes the objects of its affections ? In Mary-
land —
" Black slaves, as being cheaper, were preferred to white laborers ; an
act, therefore, was passed in 1671, for encouraging the importation of ne-
groes, which, in consequence of the intercepted trade with Holland, had
almost ceased."
To make men constantly drudge, to make them do so
cheaply, are primary objects of the slave-mongers. Listen
to one of slavery's admirers, who unblushingly declares
that —
" The coercion of slavery alone is adequate to form man to habits of
labor. Without it there can be no accumulation of property, no provi-
dence for the future, no taste for comforts, which are the characteristics
of Civilization."
Here is a solitary sample of the : ' comforts " that colored
laborers have bestowed upon them :
" All that a slave possesses belongs to his master, he possesses nothing
of his own except peculium ; that is to say, the sum of money or moveable
estate which his master chooses he shall possess." — Civil Code of Louisi-
ana.
The slave must not have any of the fruits of his industry,
the master alone must have the whole of the golden harvest.
How unlike the motive that induced Prince Henry to order
negroes into slavery. He did so for the supposed benefit of
the enslaved, not to feed the greedy savageness of white men.
The fact is worth repeating in this century of demoralized
party politics :
" Prince Henry of Portugal orders that if Goncalvert should not be
able to obtain so many negroes (as had been mentioned) in exchange for
the three Moors, yet that he should take them ; for whatever number he
shoidd get, he should gain souls, because they (the negroes) might be con-
18 GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
verted to the faith, which could not be managed with the Moors." — Conq.
of (lie New World.
The negroes' conversion from Heathenism to Christianity
did not improve their temporal condition in South Carolina.
An extract from the Code of South Carolina proves this as-
sertion. Will the reader carefully peruse this horrible para-
graph? :
" And it is hereby declared lawful for any negro, or Indian slave, or any
other slave or slaves whatever, to receive and profess the Christian faith,
and to be thereunto baptized ; but notwithstanding such slave or slaves
shall receive or profess the Christian religion and be baptized, he or
they shall not be manumitted."
The Democratic party has enabled the South to consoli-
date and extend slavery. It has made the United States a
nursery of abominations. It has reproduced Heathenism in
the modern world. It has, for a time, fastened Heathenism
on a continent that should be devoted to Christianity. On
what other spot could Heathenism have taken fresh root, and
exerted renewed energy ? A profound thinker shall give the
summing-up of evidence in answer to this question —
"Had not America afforded a market for slaves, we hardly see
where else it could have grown up, and if it had not grown up there,
legitimate commerce would have come in its place, and prevented any
such trade. Black slaves might have been for some time a favorite part
of the grandeur of a great household, but we do not see how they could
have occupied a country already stocked with hardy laborers fitted for the
soil, as was the case with Europe."
And here we end this section of our work.
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. 19
" Thy birthplace where, young Liberty ?
In graves 'neath heroes' ashes.
Thy dwelling, where, sweet Liberty?
In hearts, Avhere free blood dashes."
The old party political terms must cease, sectioDal politics
must disappear. Political rivalry produces jealousy, and
jealousy begets strife. The monarchies of Europe did not
become strong until provinces, counties, and cities, became
consolidated into nations. The theological Provincialisms of
France deluged her with blood. The county-quarrels of
England covered her broad acres with anarchy. The fierce
contentions of Ireland made her an easy prey to the invader.
The bitter hatreds of opposing Poles, palsied the power of
Poland, and made her a miserable wreck. The vanities and
enmities of the Greek republics broke the spell of the noblest
minds, and covered a fair region with broken monuments,
amid which the scholars of all times lament, and patriots
mourn. It is the thought, the sentiment, the aspiration of
Nationality that make a jjeople grow in strength, extend in
knowledge, and increase in grandeur. It is an ardent love
for country (not "sections") that makes the family a home of
patriotic felicity. The cry for unity of parts is a psalm set
to divine music. Under the dome of a nation, Washington
becomes the type of a people — within the precincts of a sec-
tion, he becomes a governor, representing local littleness.
2
20 GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
To produce a nation there must be principles, sentiment, and
aspiration — and a political nomenclature that does not de-
grade principles into expedients, nor sentiment into anarchy,
nor aspiration into mere materialism. The principles must
result from wisdom grounded in virtue, the sentiment must
arise from affectionate enthusiasm, and the aspiration must
be produced by Christian culture. Under such conditions, a
people will become a nation, and the nation will become a
moral and industrial power. No better illustrations could
be cited of the soundness of the above statements than the
condition of the Southern and Northern States. In spite of
many deviations, the Northern States have steadily moved
in the orbit of morality, industry, and prosperity — morality
graced with religion, industry sanctified with philanthropy,
and prosperity preserved for the world's advantage and
progress. Without deviations, the Southern States have
wildly inarched to absolutism, degradation, and limitation of
power.* The North has tended to unity, the South to
* These assertions are verified by facts gathered by English travellers
and historians. In Chamber's work on American Slavery and Color, we
read — " At the opening of the Revolutionary war, there were slaves in al
the revolted Colonies ; even in Massachusetts, the land of the 'Pilgrim
Fathers,' there were slaves, and sales of slaves, too ; though it is proper
to add, that Massachusetts was the first to set the example of passing an
act of general emancipation." But, at the same time, what was the South
doing ? Mary Howitt will give the answer. She says : " The same year
(17l2) that Massachusetts passed her prohibitory law, South Carolina
enacted her first slave law." (See Hist, of America.) And the following
relation, by the same historian, shows that the North has steadily but
firmly advanced while the South was receding into complete barbarism :
" When the Constitution of the United States was passed, in 1789, the
slave-trade was formally prohibited after the year 1808, and it was gen-
erally assumed that the emancipation of the Africans in America would
take place in a short space of time through voluntary manumissions by
the slave-owners themselves. But it was acknowledged that they needed
some time for so managing their affairs that a sudden transition might not
endanger their economical welfare. Washington himself held this opin-
ion, and proved his desires practically by freeing his slaves in his last
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. 21
anarchy. The North has opened-up her resources, the
South has gradually buried her treasures in the grave of ig-
norance. It is not necessary to prolong the references, the
facts stare upon us like the eyes of a basilisk ! The results
produced in the North and emerging in the West, must be
realized all over the continent. No withered leaves should
be permitted to shade the beauty of a stately tree. No
storms must wash away the sweets from Flora's perfumed
lips. No cloud must veil the harvest moon from gleesome
husbandmen. No discordant note should mar the softness
of a lover's melody. One hope, one faith, one destiny, must
be the watchwords of Americans — and a nation, a people, an
example, must be the thrilling echoes.
Sectional terms will have to be abandoned, sectional no-
tions will have to be denounced. Words that sound-forth
National thought, sentiment, and aspiration, will have to be
the language of the future of this people. Materialistic ab-
solutists, who "cant" with theology and blaspheme religion
with shallow hypocrisy, must never again be permitted to
disgrace Congress and degrade the country. The young
Hercules of freedom should rise from his cradle of indiffer-
ence and crush the serpents. Oh ! what multitudes on dis-
will." A few more facts may be cited with advantage : " Indiana and
Illinois have a series of Black Laws, which deprive the Negro of political
privileges and the validity of his oath. Ohio repealed her Black Laws a
few years ago. In Iowa, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, Ne
groes were deprived of political privileges. In New York, Negroes can
vote if they have real estate of the value of $250. In New England
States (except Connecticut), Negro votes are equal to the whites. In
Massachusetts, Negroes are eligible to the highest offices." " Slavery was
abolished in New York in 1825 ; but in New Jersey, Rhode Island, and
Connecticut, not till 1850." And as a proof of advance, real advancement
in the North, and of dismal receding into barbarism in the South, note
this astounding fact : " The churches in New York equal in value all
the churches in all the fifteen Slave States."
22 GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
tant shores will rejoice when the deed is done. The air will
resound with the plaudits of up-risen pauperism and unfet-
tered energies.
To have a healthy human being,, there must be perfect
freedom of function of each part or organ. To have a nation,
there must be absolute freedom for each adult member of the
population. Freedom, not license, for each one, not solely
for one hundred or one million — to the terribly disgraceful
exclusion of the rest of the community. Each son of God
must be, or should be, a man on earth, not a slave, for " if
slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong." Each son of God
should be a man, not a tyrant, not an isolated monster
draped in the splendor of infamy, whose music is the groans
of the oppressed and the curses of the poor. And no pre-
text, no pretence, no shuffle, no subterfuge, should be per-
mitted to prevent an organ or man from fulfilling its or his
function. Let not one man usurp the functions of another
man. Let not one man think, and feel, and aspire for
another — let each man think, feel, and aspire for him-
self.
" Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," are con-
ditions of existence. Unless we exercise those functions, we
become diseased, a part of our body-politic perishes. It is
liberty that makes the life of a man, and life should be
strong enough to guard and maintain liberty. The pursuit
of happiness flows from freedom of action. When a govern-
ment or monarchy regulates the volition of a people, an out-
rageous presumption is committed, and desolating ojmression
is enforced. The country where such is done, stagnates, the
people become mere machines, and madness or inanity be-
comes the living death of the multitude. The child thrives
only when allowed to talk and to play. When its voluble
questions are a prattle about mysteries that philosojmers can-
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. 23
not penetrate — when it romps and shouts, jumps and roars,
flings toys about and breaks the dear-bought crockery — how
very happy is the daring creature, how its whole forces are
rapidly developing into proportions that will make the man
of bravery and wisdom ! But chill the little thing into si-
lence, forbid its wild antics, hush its merry shouts of bud-
ding joys — and what a wretched, shrinking, withering, pas-
sionless, stunted mass of adult imbecility the creature will
become. The seed-germ must be free to put-forth and en-
large the area of its root-fibres, or it will die, or become de-
formed in its developments, and that is partial death. But
let the seed-germ have freedom and space, and it will be-
come useful and beautiful. It is liberty, clear liberty, that
giveth the increase. It is liberty that makes clouds and
skies alike captivating to the free. It is liberty that tills the
rocky ground, and covers the seas with argosies. It is lib-
erty that increases knowledge, and makes the circles of
fancy bright and manifold.
It is " life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," guaran-
teed to each individual that constitute a nation. Not the
number of a population, not the vastness of mountains nor
out-stretching plains, with uniformity of intellectual stag-
nation, that produce a nation — though they may make an
empire of gilded iniquity. It is fecundent life revelling in
liberty that transforms bodies into men, and men into na-
tions. This fact is well stated by a Boston preacher, who,
in charming eloquence, thus speaks :
" In estimating the value of a nation, you must not merely count the
men, you must weigh them. You must not barely weigh the dollars, but
gauge, and measure, and scan the quality of the men who own the dollars.
An armful of Hebrews, a handful of old Greeks, have been of more value
to the human race than all the four hundred millions of Chinese, with their
Tartar and Malay progenitors. A single Moses, Socrates, or Jesus, would
weigh down whole provinces of the Celestial Empire."
24 GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
Just as Boston and Lowell " weigh down " the whole of
the Southern States, though having a more generous soil,
and greater material resources to bless the energy of man.
Energy of man ! Down South ? No ! Stagnation of
man, you mean — perishing of soil, you mean — darkening
fair regions with the breath of ignorance, you mean.
Ignorance is the strength of a tyrant, but it is the pauper-
ism of a people. Ignorance can only be dissipated by lib-
erty. Liberty is the instrument through which knowledge is
obtained. And every man must be free. " This country,
with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it."
Not to one man, not to one State, but " to the people."
Who are the people ? Those " who inhabit it." Whoever
dares to dispute this position is a Heathen — the advocate of
Paganism. But are ignorant negroes to have liberty ? Yes !
liberty that is nestled in political power — and that power
will, in time, protect them from ignorance. We must be a
nation, not of the dead and living chained together, as here-
tofore. The dead are to be buried, and we are to be a na-
tion all-alive, strong, and energetic. Our only source of
power, progress, and perpetuity, is to make of each male
body a man in social life and political relations ; and to
make of each female a woman of love, refinement, parental
affection, National aspirations, and piety tinctured with
toleration ; not to deprive us of brain-power, not to strangle
intellectual activity. An opponent to emancipation declares
that " negroes withdrawn from the plantations are set to
work ; among them there are excellent mechanics." So
skilled in slavery are many — what would the whole be in
freedom ?
"Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — that, to se-
cure those rights, governments are instituted among men,
deriving their just powers from the CONSENT of the gov-
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. 25
erned." These explicit words are from the decalogue of our
country. Here is Nationality emphatically enunciated. No
reservation about color, no exclusion on the pretence of ig-
norance. This is to be the anchor of our State, if we are to
continue as a State, a Nation, and not as a series of diverse
fragments. All political questions that involve principles
must be settled by a reference to the Declaration of Inde-
pendence. This document proclaimed for us a Nation, and
the right to be a nation was conquered for us by Washing-
ton. But political ruffianism trod on the Declaration,
struck down those who were inspired by the principles of the
Declaration, and, at last, caused our fair valleys to be red-
dened with the blood of the brave and the gentle. A second
time we have won the right to be a nation — a second time
the best of the people have shed their blood, and spent their
treasures to be a nation. A second time the laurels deck
the sword — a second time maimed heroes hobble through
peace to their fathers' grave — a second time the prayers of
the just have been answered — and now we will, WE MUST
be a Nation.
This country cannot be republics, like Greece. The Dec-
laration and the Constitution alike forbid such structures on
this continent. We can be only a republic, " one and indi-
visible." The States are not republics — they are only parts
of a great whole. They came into the Union, after grave
deliberation, to be parts of a nation. The origin of the
Union is the very cradle of American Nationality. Divide
the nation, and. each section will have supposed interests to
protect, and supposed wrongs to avenge. Has it Dot been so
in the pggt ? And shall it be so again ? A third conflict
would end disastrously, for the moral forces of the country
would be weakened. An increased amount of indifference to
principles and brutal selfishness would ensue. Even now, it
26 GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
will be long before the tinge of slavery will fade from the
prejudices of a certain portion of our people. Custom is a
tyrant not easily changed. The disastrous consequences
flowing from division, supposed wrongs, and disregard of
Unity and Nationality, were prophetically seen by Washing-
ton. His words cannot be too often presented to the com-
munity — hence, we reprint them here, for they form an ex-
cellent commentary on the Declaration and Constitution.
The reader is urged to read them more than once.
" In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs,
as matter of serious concern, that any ground should have been furnished
for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations. Northern and
Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing men may endeavor to
excite a belief, that there is a real difference of local interests and views.
One of the expedients of party to acquire influence, within particular
districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. Tou
cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburn-
ings which spring from these misrepresentations ; they tend to render
alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal
affection.
" To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a Government for the
whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict, between the parts
can be an adequate substitute ; they must inevitably experience the in-
fractions and interruptions that all alliances in all times have expe-
rienced.
" The unity of Government constitutes you one people ; it is a main
pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tran-
quillity at home, your peace abroad ; of your safety ; of your prosperity ;
of that very LIBERTY which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to
foresee, that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains
will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your mind the con-
viction of this truth ; as this is the point in your political fortress against
which the battering of internal and external enemies will be most con-
stantly and actively (though often secretly and insidiously) directed, it is
of infinite moment, that you should properly estimate the immense value
of your national Union to your collective and individual happiness ; that
you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it ;
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. 21
accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as the palladium of your
political safety and prosperity ; watching for its preservation with jealous
anxiety ; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion, that
it can in any event be abandoned ; and indignantly frowning upon the
first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country
from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the
various parts."
Almost unnecessary seems the task of writing about
Union and Nationality after these wise and earnest words of
the first President of the United States. The lofty tone,
the profound patriotism, the mournful solemnity of the ex-
hortation, should he sufficient to imbue the people with a
never-ceasing love for American nationality. On the sword
of the first President is suspended the Proclamation of
Emancipation by the Martyred President, to save the
Union ! Freedom for white men through Washington —
freedom for all men through Lincoln ! And here, in clos-
ing this division of our labors, devoted to a great and grave
theme, however imperfectly though lovingly entered upon —
we resolve to
" do our duty iu our shop, in our kitchen, the market, the street, the office,
the school, the house, just as faithfully as if we stood in the front rank
of some great battle, and we knew that victory for mankind depended on
our bravery, strength, and skill. When we do that, the humblest of us will
be serving in that great army which achieves the welfare of the
world." *
* Lessons from the World of Matter and the World of Man. By T.
Parker. Boston : C. W. Slack.
\
28 GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
" The blessing of Almighty God will come down upon the noblest
people the world ever saw — who have triumphed over Theocracy, Mon-
archy, Aristocracy, Despotocracy, and have got a Democracy — a govern-
ment of all, for all, and by all — a Church without a Bishop, a State
without a King, a Community without a Lord, and a family without a
Slave." — T. Parker.
" The blessed revolution is begun ; but it must be carried forward, by
officials and private citizens." — The New York Times, Aug. 2, 1865.
England and France have become nations through nu-
merous internal conflicts. They have progressed through
murder and rapine to Constitutions that have consolidated
energies and concentrated power. A tendency to unity has
graduated to fixity, and fixity has produced oneness — or, in
other words, a people and peoples. The grand periods of
England's greatness were under Henry the Eighth, Queen
Elizabeth, and the Commonwealth — the grandest period
is notv, under Queen Victorta, because the feeble lemains
of despotism are being grasped by freedom to be hurled into
oblivion. England's Magna Charta, Petition and Bill of
Rights, and her Reform Bill, are stages in the process of
forming a Constitution for freedom, equity, and progress.
As England's children become more free, they become more
active and more prosperous. The pauper-dullness of her
agricultural counties gradually diminishes as freedom ad-
vances — and the fierce roughness of her manufacturing dis-
tricts subsides as prosperity spreads over freedom's pathway.
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. 29
And then the people become intensely national — proud of
their being, because of their achievements. They boast — for
they have done something — something creditable to them-
selves, and ennobling of mankind.
The American Colonies had no tendency to unity, had no
conception of nationality. They could not, by their own in-
ternal volition, have become a nation. Their rival opinions,
their rival politics (resulting from strange diversity of origin)
prevented oneness of power. A common outward danger
was needed to arouse to a sense of the necessity for common
action through common organization. Despotism made
active the Kepublican convictions of the Northern people,
and made timorous the conduct of Southern lovers of
monarchy and theological uniformity in ecclesiastical bonds.
The irrevocable destiny that impelled Colonists and the
mother-country to deadly strife, was the cradle of American
nationality. Eocked in the cradle of political passions and
social anomalies, the puny infant grew to have a Constitution
of tolerable strength and vast recuperative forces. The
Revolution transformed the Colonies into States, a transfor-
mation of significant importance — but the significancy of the
wondrous change has not, that we are aware, been ade-
quately dwelt on by either American or foreign writers, and
no distinct book has been devoted to this precious subject in
America's history and progress. Changing the Colonies into
States was the inception of Nationality — it was a fruitful
germ of astounding results, vitalized by war's fructivious-
ness — wisdom and disinterestedness had placed manifold
glories and blessings in the cradle — intended for the
future.
In political geography, the "shires" of England correspond
to the states of America. Since 1832 in England and
1788-9 in America, how different has been the progress
30 GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
in the two countries in consolidating and methodizing na-
tional power ! England's shires have been harmoniously
arranged into parts of a nation — their municipal rights
and privileges have been clearly defined in public opinion,
in public sentiment, and calmly realized through a sense
of public duty. In the States, the anarchy of political
opinions and sentiments has caused confusion in internal
arrangements, and an absence of completeness and perfec-
tion in the parts. Public usefulness, convenience, and com-
fort, have been sacrificed in the mad rage for sectional
sovereignty. Everything has been projected and attempted,
to be abandoned and left as wrecks of " good intentions."
While ranting for sectional power and arrogance, the finely
chiselling into the symmetry of a nation the massive
rocks that were quarried by the sword and the cannon has
been unwisely neglected — fragments of strength and beauty
have been scattered in profuse confusion, shocking the ap-
preciative and sensitive taste of the artistic, and annoying
the prophetic insight of the patriot and the philosopher.
It fs harmony of arrangement that produces grandeur, and
methodical action that produces irresistible dynamics. The
ripening process of Nationality out of chaos cannot be
effected by chaos of opinions and anarchy of sentiment.
Order is strength — strength in a Nation is the product of
harmony of parts.
To be a Citizen of America, not of a state, will have to
be the proud prerogative of each man on this continent —
if this Republic is to be (as indeed she ought, and God's
mercies to her manifest that Heaven desires she should be)
the Ark of free Civilization in future for the whole world.
The vanities of states will have to be absorbed into the
pride of being an American, inhabiting a land not cursed
with sacerdotal robbery and the gilded tricks of monarchs.
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. 31
The wide range of fertile soil must be trod by Americans
— not Western, nor Eastern, nor Southern men — but
Americans, born, nurtured, and protected by republicanism.
The fir-stretching rivers must be covered with the argosies
of American toil, talent, and genius — not of the East, nor
of the South, nor of the West — but of America, of prolific,
fertile, glorious America ! The storms that burst forth with
splendor and stupendous magnificence on this continent
must inspire the souls of Americans — not cow the minds
of men filled with sectional arrogance and dwarfed into
imbecility by sectional conceptions. God's canopy of un-
ceasing beauty must be spread over the proud mien, the
glowing hearts, the pure souls, the profound minds of
American Citizens. The streams must run to refreshen, the
fruits must tempt with luscious nutriment Americans dwell-
ing in the unsullied temple of American republicanism.
Then from behind bright stars brighter spirits will rejoi-
cingly sing over an American Nation, made and perfected —
over a people wise and Christian — " Hail ! Columbia."
Heartiness of sentiment, clearness of object, and steadiness
of purpose, are necessary to make a Nation. Sentiment in-
duces public virtue ; an object is something to realize ; and
a purpose is the volition of public thought that ever works
to realize the object of national existence, permanency and
prosperity. From the days of the Eevolution, the sentiment
of the largest portion of the population has been, and is,
freedom for all its inhabitants. The sentiment will have to
be extended and intensified until the ivhole people are influ-
enced by its Christian vibrations. The object of the fathers
of Independence, and of the wise men since seeking sustain-
ing strength at our fathers' graves, was to make the States —
once Colonies — into a strong and compact Republican Na-
6)i GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
tioQ. The number of the wise has greatly multiplied
through and since the " atrocious conspiracy ;" but —
" Thauks to fortune, those days of darkness, and anxiety, and doubt,
have gone for ever. The dawn has come at last. After that long and
fearful night, shaken with tempest and pregnant with terror, watched
with throbbing hearts and suspended breath by every loyal American, the
sun of freedom has re-arisen, and its glory is streaming over a regene-
rated land." — Four Years in Secessia.
We shall have to agitate and educate until the object is
seen and adopted by each man and woman who presses our
generous soil. Among them a steady purpose must be in-
voked, — an unfaltering purpose, a never-lessening purpose,
to make this land the happy abode of American Republi-
canism. At work, or in pleasure, or in dreams, the stern
resolve, the mighty purpose, must be present to the mind.
It must be the ritual of our politics, as the object of Nation-
ality must be the cardinal religion of our politics, and the
sentiment must be the Heaven-born prayer of our politics.
We must imitate the operations of nature. They never
cease, never lessen, never tire. We must watch and strive to
imitate (as far as He will give us the power) God, who never
slackens His mercies nor diminishes His blessings. Ever
the stars shine, ever the sun warms, ever the waters re-
freshen, ever the breezes bring the perfume of flowers to
kiss our ready lips ! men ! Americans ! for your chil-
dren's sake — for the sake of the oppressed, groaning in all
lands where kings, and emperors, and aristocracies, darken
the panting energies of mind — never cease to have a mighty
purpose, a steadily operating purpose, to make these States
the greatest Nation, to save, to succor, to sanctify (through
Christ) the afflicted of mankind. No spasmodic operations,
no furious but only momentary zeal, no mild " campaign" —
but a purpose steady, regular, unfaltering as tire tides, pier-
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. 33
cing as the lightning, strong as the seas, grand as nature, be-
neficent as religion. " A strong pull, a long pull, and a pull
altogether," for a perfected American Nationality.
Who will give their money, their time, their energy — in
difficulty, in adversity, in storm, till the harvest is reached ?
We appeal not so much to the many as to the few who have
faith, zeal, and wisdom, for a National party will have to be
organized. Not at present, perhaps, but ultimately. Our
energy and ability must be devoted to drawing men and
women together to give their money and time for the great
and necessary work. May these lines prepare the way !
A new party will have to combine the elements of National
Unity and permanency. A movement in this direction has
already commenced among the Germans in New York City.
Their Manifesto shows that they are animated with the
deep importance of the views we are urging. Their efforts
are confined among their German brothers. We write to
impress the topics most urgently and impressively upon the
staid Americans. They are questions of paramount import-
ance to every politician, to every divine, to every merchant
and manufacturer, to every publicist. We are sanguine of
results, but not hasty — we are fired with zealous faith, but
we are not uncalculating. When friends are gathered to-
gether, great efforts will be made to thwart their opera-
tions, to discourage them, to baffle them, to disband them.
Courage ! the laborers for American Nationality will Triumph,
just as patriotism and energy Triumphed over a revolting
and fiendish rebellion. Through dark and weary nights we
may have to watch, through dreary days of lowering
clouds — but beyond the nights and the clouds is the golden,
cheering, and everlasting sunshine.
One greater than us (though not greater in desire, in zeal,
in purity of motive) — one greater than we can ever aspire
34 GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
to be — lias spoken words of encouragement very appropriate
to the theme that forms the concluding part of this section.
We transcribe the words of the Thinker in preference to pro-
longing our own. We give with pleasure pearls from a wise
man's tray, instead of sand from our own poor sack. We
present a large tray, but take them all, dear reader, and wear
them constantly around your heart and mind. There they
will shine, and attract the observers whom we require. Let
them be seen ! There is no vanity manifested in displaying
such costly, such never-fading ornaments. Behold ! for
here they are —
" What has been done in the last half-century is a great achievement
looked at as history — we may thank God for that — but I had rather look
at it as prophecy. The progress in material things in America, the in-
crease in power over nature throughout the Christian world, the rapidity
of communication, the desire for freedom of body and sold, the improve-
ments in political institutions and ideas, the progress in churches, and of
the laws, and in the great philanthropies of our time — these to me are a
prophecy of a noble triumph of mankind, a greater victory of religion
than the highest sages ever dared to foretell in their inspired oracles.
They all point to a time when man shall be deemed the noblest of God's
works, and shall have dominion over nature, and shall develop his spirit
to the fulness of the stature of a perfect man. They point to a society
where the qualities of a man shall be deemed more and greater than the
property of man, or society where the strong shall help the weak ; to a
church where respect is paid to human nature, where man reverences the
free spiritual individuality of man, where God is worshipped as the
Infinite Father, not with fear, but with love ; where religion is supposed
to be free piety, free goodness, free thought ; where nature, material and
human, is recognized as the scripture of God ; where truth is the creed,
and faith and works are the two great forms of communion with God and
man ; a church which like this great soul of Christ, goes to seek and
save that which is lost, and under him sees Satan falling as lightning out
of heaven ; to a state whose statutes recognize the unalienable rights of
all men to life, liberty, property, to a free development of their nature ;
a state whose law is justice, and the welfare of the negro's child is as
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. 35
carefully cared for as the welfare of the whole state, and any insult
offered to it by a man is as promptly redressed as an insult by a nation to
the majesty of the state. But, I think history points to a world where
the nations shall learn war no more, nor count men of other speech as
strangers, but shall seek to make a Christian world where nations shall
dwell together, one great family, in love and peace. All this must come.
Ideas which are now but sentiments, which are nothing but a tendency
will one day be a fact ; as Christ's Sermon on the Mount, this will make
a new literature, church, state, and world ; they will make all things
36 GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
" Believing that Political Science has its truths no less than moral, I
cannot regard them with indifference, I cannot but wish them to he
seen and embraced by others.
" On the other hand, it must not be forgotten that these truths have
been much disputed ; that they have not, like moral truths, received that
universal assent of good men which makes us shrink from submitting to
question. And again, in human affairs, the contest has never been be-
tween pure truth and pure error. Neither then may we assume political
conclusions as absolutely certain ; nor are political truths ever wholly
identical with the professions or practice of any party or individual. If,
for the sake of recommending any principle, we disguise the errors or the
crimes with which it has been in practice accompanied, and which, hi the
weakness of human nature, may perhaps be naturally connected with our
reception of it, then we are guilty of most blameable partiality. And so
it is no less, if for the sake of decrying an erroneous principle, we depre-
cate the wisdom, and the good and noble feelings with which error also is
frequently, and in some instances naturally, joined. This were to make our
sense of political truth to overpower our sense of moral truth ; a double
error, inasmuch as it is at once the less certain, and by far the less
worthy."— T. Arnold, D. D.
There are six elements that are the basis of all the com-
binations that constitute a free, permanent, and progressive
nation. The absence of one, or more, of the elements, will
produce tyrannical, unjust, or absurd arrangements. Under
imperfect combinations from deficient elements, a country
can become great, sections of the people prosperous — but
not the whole people, not the physical toilers. Of such a
country, these words of A. Cochin are fully applicable :
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. 37
" Without doubt, free communities are acquainted with wretchedness ;
charity entered into the world together with liberty ; and charity does
not suffice for all. But I wish to know whether sick slaves are every-
where treated better than our poor, in Christian hospitals. Is the artisan
alone exposed to begging ? May it not also become the lot of the million-
aire ? Why does not the author of the argument become himself a slave,
through prudence, in order to avoid the risk of dying in a hospital ?"
To no Christian and absolutely " free communities" can
Cochin's words be applied with correctness of facts and judg-
ment. They can be to all old nations and empires — and to
our past history and present practice. The mighty changes
we have commenced are not completed. The great arch of
perfected Republicanism has yet to span our country. A
free people, a wise people, a prosperous people, a progressive
people, have yet to dwell upon our shores. It may be (it
ought to be) the generation of to-day — but if not this, it
must be that of to-morrow. Almost (apparently) every law
of development of material forces has been studied, largely
comprehended, and its science declared. Utopias have
been dreamed of by sages and poets, milleniums have been
wildly announced by fanatics in the immaturity of unfledged
knowledge. New Views, New Lights and "."systems," have
plagued or aroused communities — but the elements of Repub-
lican Nationality, the comprehending of their forces, has not
been declared as a science, not even by the best and bravest
of our country. "State Rights" doctrine has marred the
conceptions and application of National grandeur. Monarchy
is the superstition of English politicians, and " State Rights"
are the ghoul of our politics. There is a passage in Her-
bert Spencer's First Principles that somewhat expresses,
on other subjects, what we are insisting upon in relation to
the production of American nationality. Our Derbyshire
philosopher affirms that —
38 GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
* * * « The faults of both religion and science have been the faults
of imperfect development. Originally a mere rudiment, each has been
growing into a more complete form ; the vice of each has in our times
been its incompleteness ; the disagreements between them have through-
out been nothing more than the consequences of their incompleteness,
and as they reach their final forms they come into entire harmony."
To make this passage logically expressive of our views, for
" imperfect development," we would say deficient combina-
tions of elements, and that " imperfect development" was the
result, and then " incompleteness" would necessarily be the
"vice" of deficient combination of elements. Men prate
about politics as men palaver about theology, in the folly of
ignorance, or in the cant of hypocrisy, or in the narrowness
of personal aggrandisement. If there was practised the same
charlatanry by professors and students of physical science, we
should be still living in the age of " pack-horses," stage-
coaches, brimstone matches with flint and steel, blunder-
busses, pig-tails, and pretty lasses without life-saving crin-
oline ! There are fixed laws in politics as in chemistry,
physiology, and astronomy — as there are fixed laws governing
all combinations and conditions that have a potency in the
worlds of matter and of mind. But whoever may be the
" guiding star" of politics, the people will have to real-
ize the problem. And where the people are not wise enough
to do so, a perishing empire is the frightful finale — a " land
of desolation" is the inevitable consequence. In the lapse of
ages, the ploughshare is driven by the stranger over the
buried foundations of once boastful cities. Alas ! may such
never be the fate of this people and of this country.
Since the foregoing part of this section was written, we
have alighted on a passage by an American author that
affirms what we have here somewhat dogmatically indicated.
The passage was delivered from various platforms in 1848.
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. >39
Ik
At the risk of being charged with repetition of thought and
tautology of expression, we reprint the passage on account
of the great importance of the subject (for it cannot be too
often mentioned) and the eloquent conciseness of the writer's
style. He states that,
" The most marked characteristic of the American nation is a love of
freedom, of man's natural rights. This is so plain to a student of American
history, or of American politics, that the point requires no arguing. We
have a genius for liberty ; the American idea is freedom, natural rights.
Accordingly, the work providentially laid out for us to do, seems this, —
to organize the rights of man. This is a problem hitherto unattempted on
a national scale in human history. Often enough attempts have been made
to organize the powers of priests, kings, nobles, in a theocracy, monarchy,
oligarchy, powers which had no foundation in human duties or human
rights, but solely in the selfishness of strong men. Often enough have the
mights of man been organized, but not the RIGHTS OF MAN. Surely
there has never been an attempt made, on a national scale, to organize the
rights of man, as man ; rights resting on the nature of things ; rights de-
rived from no conventional compact of men with men ; not inherited from
past generations, nor received from parliaments and kings, nor secured by
their parchments ; but rights that are derived straightway from God, the
Author of Duty and the Source of Right, and which are secured in the
great charter of our being."
We have taken the liberty to emphasize certain words in
the above quotation- — words that enunciate the fact and
the thought that we are here declaring with all the energy of
our pen and the deep emotions of our heart. It is the rights
of man in opposition to the wrongs of color, of privilege,
and of property, that we urge the people to establish — not
partially, but completely — not in one State of our Union,
but throughout the entire Eepublic — until its proportions,
strength, and beauty, grow into a Nation, never to decay.
Over the altar of American freedom let the Cross glow
with Heavenly approval, and around it gather the ardent
devotees of American Nationality. Let Nationality become
40 GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
part of the practical religion of our lives. Let it animate us
with Puritanical firmness, divested of, or rather not to be
associated with, narrowness and bigotry. With ports wide
open to receive the oppressed, but making the oppressed as-
similate themselves with us — to become cells in our large or-
gans, leaving their intellectual as well as their physical rags
behind them — we shall be the only organizers of the rights of
man on the inimitable rock of Christianity. Then we shall
have completed and perfected the political work commenced
by the temporary English Commonwealth. Then the " roll-
call" of nations will be read here, and answered-to by all the
nations. God ! hasten the day. Let the serpent's head of
ignorance, and despotism, and Imperial absolutism, be crushed
beneath the car of American Freedom, in/which reposes Na-
tionality. Let the Satan of man's crimes against man, and
against Thee, G-od ! be put to confusion and to flight.
" Sin-bred, how have ye troubled all mankind
With shows instead, mere shows of seeming pure,
And banished from man's hie — his happiest life —
Simplicity and spotless innocence."
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. 41
The elements of Nationality for American Bepublicanism
are —
(1) UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE.
(2) UNIFORMITY OF NATURALIZATION.
(3) NATIONAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION.
(4) UNIFORM SYSTEM OF CURRENCY.
(5) UNIFORM SYSTEM OF POSTAL-INTERCOURSE.
(6) UNFETTERED PRESS AND PULPIT.
Other conditions of nationality are merely evolved from
these six elements, as water is evolved from a combination
of oxygen and hydrogen gases. For instance, Banking
forms a part of a system of currency, and national currency
really includes Taxation. This will not be admitted by many
persons, but close scrutiny will produce the conviction. It
is not necessary that we should do much more than enume-
rate the elements. We do not desire to enter into the merits
of rival systems. The unsettled questions among European
currency-doctors we do not intend to pronounce upon. The
peculiar virtues of paper, and gold, and silver, or any other
article, as a medium of Exchange, we are not presumptuous
enough to attempt to determine. Our only purpose here is,
to insist on the necessity for sound and lasting combinations
of the elements of National power, progress, and per-
manency.
4'2 GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
But the present safety of our country requires that we
recognize and immediately adopt the first and third ele-
ments. DELAY is DANGEKOUS. The qualification for
Citizenship must be made National, not left to the whims or
tyranny of wealthy or even bigoted poor men in the States.
Men born on our soil are Americans, be they black or white,
and are to be endowed with political power, that is per-
manent. Where an American lives or travels to (in Amer-
ica) he should have and take with him the rights of
American manhood. Those rights should not be lessened
nor be abrogated because he leaves one State and emigrates
to another. He ought not to be a man in one State and a
non-entity in another State. The dignity of a free man
should clothe in righteous political power his footsteps and
his location. While he is untainted with a desire to injure
the life and property of another person, while he does not
desire to disorganize his country by violence, he is a man
entitled to all the honor and power that society can confer
upon him. But if he is more than untainted with crime, if
he has fought to save the country for other men, as well as
for himself, then he is doubly entitled to possess and enjoy
political power. If political power is refused to the maimed
hero, because God has made him black, or a cross between
white and black, then the community so acting is cursed
with a moral-leper that stinks in the nostrils of good and
wise men. A people so acting is doomed to infamy, and
will be terror-stricken with the thunders of God's holy
mountains. Will this proud American people immolate it-
self in political darkness ? Will it do so while yonder
watches the benign Spirit of Lincoln, over whose bloody
corpse but yesterday the people sighed-forth worship, rev-
erence, nay, even adoration for the Apostle of Emancipation,
because he had Emancipated the oppressed ! In thought, in
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. 43
sentiment, have they not inscribed on the murdered Presi-
dent's tomb —
" Whose proudest monument shall be,
The broken fetters of the slave"?
Will Americans become false to worship, recreant to rev-
erence, apostates to adoration ? Will they damn themselves
before their tears of anguish can trickle-off their features !
God ! forbid the sin, the crime, the shame. God ! let
not America be covered with a fresh woe, nor the Heavens be
veiled in the blood of more victims, nor the air be filled with
the moans of wronged heroes. No ! we will not entertain
the horrifying supposition. The soul of Lincoln will move
the great heart of the American people. Political justice,
" equal and exact," will sit in an American Republic —
crowned with universal approbation.
Not only must education be national, and not left to the
caprices of States, but it should be the qualification of natu-
ralization. An emigrant who cannot read nor write should
not be permitted to become an American Citizen until he
can read and write. Nay, a little more, he should be able
to give reasons for wishing to become an American Re-
publican, in preference to continuing to be the subject of
a monarch. If he cannot read nor write, nor give reasons,
he is a fool not worth having — whose presence as a Citizen
would be a peril to our country. It is not foreign fools, but
men, whom we should receive into our household Grown-
up children who come here must not be termed men, nor
treated as the equals of men. If they will come here while
they are mere children, they must be sent to and kept at
school until they are strong enough to be accepted in the
company of men.
We are glad that Charles Brooks (of Medford, Mass.)
is devoting his energies to the advocacy of a national system
44 GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS.
of education. Though he seems to have just now to bear
the danger of the battle and the burden of the expense, he
will, in time, see the only fruits he desires to contemplate —
America covered with an educated people ; for education is
the handmaid of freedom — Minerva is the faithful wife of
Liberty. blessed pair ! happy dispensers of earthly
joys ! And he who has long striven to bring you together
into " the holy bonds of matrimony" is one Chakles Brooks,
of worthy reputation.
It will be unfair to our readers, " too bad" to those who
give us their patience, if we pass from the subject of edu-
cation without informing them that the works of C. Brooks
are published in a reasonable form, and can be procured at
863 Broadway, New York City. Those who would like to
go over the whole question of national education, should pe-
ruse the earnest essays of the Medford publicist.
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS. 45
" The long sacrifice completed and accepted. Indivisible Nationality
and universal liberty bought and paid for — paid for with a heavy price —
but paid for. In the Past, the toil and sacrifice, the doubt and fear, the
blood and anguish, and in the Past, the sin. In the Future, peace, and
Union, and prosperity, and glory unspeakable." — Professor Searing's
Lincoln in History.
And now, farewell !
" A word that must be, and hath been,
A sound which makes us linger."
If we place many more pages before you, patient reader,
you will become wearied with our excess of zeal, earnestness,
and repetition of opinions. Yet the subjects are so import-
ant, involving the welfare of American Kepublicanism and the
progress of humanity, that we must still "linger." Though
chilling winds bbw strongly — though the dews fall thickly —
though birds hie away swiftly to retreats in green and shady
spots — though violets droop in the balmy regions of repose —
who can resist the charming temptation to remain gazing on
th.3 golden glories of the sun, as they fade into the purple
realms of Night's bright queen ? A mother's voice may call
to chide for careless exposure to unseen dangers, but for once
that call of devoted affection is unheeded. Day seems to be
giving its parting smile of satisfaction — its benison of Grood-
Morrow ! to all the earth — and we still linger to watch and
admire, though in so doing we are disobedient to her who
brought us forth in agony as well as in gladness ! When
46
GREAT AND GRAVE QUESTIONS
Tubal Cain lays down his hammer and himself, when
the mill-stream ceases to sing its song of gleesome industry,
when the plough reclines to rest itself against " the old oak
tree," when troops of fairies arrange to sleep in the pellucid
cells of aromatic flowers, and put on for night-robes the
gorgeous colors — when Neptune watches the good ship as she
moves along in starry rays, while hardy mariners are resting
from toils that are sweetened with honest purposes — we
muse in happy thought upon the blissful scene. And as we
look on America's achievements, her joys yearly outnumber-
ing her woes, her sublime victories in the midst of great perils,
her face gradually brightened with happiness, her strength
merging into beauty, her strifes into blessings, her noisy words
into heroic actions, the dreams of her poets more than realized
in the acts of her Congress of patriots, her Prosperity beck-
oning the world's Pauperism to revivifying "homesteads" —
who can look on such wonders without lingering, tenderly
lingering, and resolving to labor in completing and perfect-
ing the work that has been so nobly commenced ? Here the
dreams of the entranced poets of all times and climes are
destined to be realized, here the blood of the martyrs of all
lands will be transformed into fragrant flowers, here the toils
of patient and enduring scholars will be rewarded by the
banishment of ignorance from humanity, here all the right-
eousness of God's Word shall be produced when American
Republicanism is fashioned into a National American Re-
public.
My brother, clasp hands with me — my sister, stand with
us, and twine the garlands of freedom, of knowledge, of wis-
dom, of progress, of Christian sanctity around us — but so
twine them that, as each brother and sister comes, they can
be taken within the zone of happiness.
FAREWELL !
APPENDICES.
A TOPIC FOR AMERICA'S STATESMEN.
Amid the clash of arms, questions of profound importance
are not likely to be contemplated by the mass of the people.
Strong eyes are required to look through the smoke, and gaze
upon our nation's future. But the rebellion is near its unal-
terable doom, and we may pause to consider another grave
topic.
The tide of emigration rolls bravely to our shores. When
the rebellion is crushed, emigration will rush with feverish
desire and hope to this country. We do not object to the
emigrant-tide — we hail it with hearty greeting. But the
rubbish it washes from old countries to our cities we dislike.
Seething ignorance, fanatical prejudices, united to the bigotry
of creeds, spread a moral pestilence in our prominent cities,
and darken the glory of our nation's grandeur. The majesty
of this republic is imperilled by foreign ignorance and destitu-
tion. We have not only to feed the pauper multitudes of
monarchies, but we have to educate them, or be poisoned by
their presence. We turn not from the task of feeding the
honest, nor of instructing the willing ; but we dislike to be
pestered with the lazy, the brutishly ignorant, and the help-
lessly destitute, created by Europe, and flung upon our
shores. These mobs have been a trouble to us, and they will
be a trouble to us again if we are not wise in time.
The ragged mobs will come ; the wretched hordes of igno-
rance will come ; the vile herds of aristocratic misrule will
come here for safety and for succor. We cannot prevent
them. Our statesmen must accept the fact, and use it for
our country's permanent welfare. What will have to be done
48 APPENDIX.
is this — not allow monarchical mud to accumulate in our most
important cities.
What we have to dread is the concentrating of ignorance,
national antipathies, and unpenetrated bigotry. The power
of political parties, based on foreign ignorance, must no
longer be tolerated nor permitted. The emigrant-tide must
be directed to run into the arterial system of our country's
health. Every foreigner must be lost in his assimilation with
our healthy nation. Excrescences should be removed by adop-
tion into the blood of republican health. The task is an un-
gracious one, but our nation's safety requires its accomplish-
ment. The work of manuring land is not pleasant, but
necessary. And statesmen are political agriculturists, ma-
nuring and planting in season, so that the harvest of national
greatness and stability may be reaped for the whole future.
We write more to attract earnest attention than to pro-
pose plans. We have our own way of removing the evil,
but it requires money, industry, and iron firmness. The im-
portance of the subject is vast, and requires much thought
and more energy. The subject cannot be warded off ; it
must be grappled with. Emigrants we require, but not bad
ones. If people come here to thrive, they should come edu-
cated for thriving. If they will not come here prepared,
they have no right to complain if we treat them sternly, and
insist that they comply with our plans for their improvement
and our safety. " Ferocious philanthropists," who insult the
characteristics of nations, have not our sympathy. Men who
excite the passions of races are not the wise friends of this
republic. We would purge vices from us by an appeal to
the virtues of races and creeds. We will not denounce
names and good intentions ; but we will strive to destroy the
sins that would, otherwise, destroy this home of freedom.
We will not consent to feed famishing multitudes from Eu-
rope, at the sacrifice of our permanent progress on the high-
way of civilization.
W. W. B.
From The New York Citizen, April 1st, 1865.
APPENDIX. 49
FACE THE DANGER.
To the Editor of the Commonwealth :
It is cowardly to shrink from danger ; it is unpatriotic
to murmur at the necessity even of a constant outlay of time,
money, and energy. Great wisdom and devotion are neces-
sary for the reforming of great abuses and the suppression of
great evils. Success is a chaplet given only to patient labor.
First, cheerless toil — then the seed is sown and watched
anxiously in storm and sunshine — finally the harvest is
reaped — the corn is garnered under the inspiring influence of
the pipe and the tabor !
Old evils cannot be easily removed, but cleared away they
can be by those who combine in themselves the patriot and
the philosopher, and the Christian moralist.
To face a danger manfully is to comprehend its nature and
its power. Our weakness in extending and deepening the
power of goodness is in proportion to our ignorance of the pre-
cise nature and mode of evil. We must see an antagonist be-
fore we can measure him. We imitate the wondrous charms
and glowing beauties of nature after we have seen them.
The skilful general advances when from his scouts he learns
the position and number of his enemy's forces, and wins
when he knows his enemy's weakness. The shout of victory
is for the strong, because knowledge and wisdom give irre-
sistible strength. Knowledge, prudence, patience, and per-
severance, are the laws governing the elements and controlling
their combinations. Our country is now mighty, but a divine
magnificence is before us, and we can reach it if we are wise
and perpetually heroic in our conduct.
The concentrating of ignorant multitudes in cities is dan-
gerous to the morals and stability of a State. People can be
moral and unlearned, but they cannot be ignorant and moral.
There must be knowledge of some kind and amount to pro-
duce consciousness, and consciousness is the basis of morals.
Every extension of knowledge enlarges the republic of
morals. Clever men are sometimes dissolute, learned men are
50 APPENDIX.
sometimes depraved ; but as compared with the totality of
eociety, they are exceptional. A knowledge of the laws of
light, heat, and air, shows us the necessity of improving the
structure of our homes ; improved homes sustain and pro-
long our health ; health gives the power to think, and
thought generates wisdom and goodness, to be sanctified by
religion. Ignorance, however, is the producer of disease,
imbecility, and reckless depravity. It concentrates in sweat-
ing masses of human filth. It vegetates in " slums," it lux-
uriates in " alleys," in " closes," and " wynds," and in
fever-creating " tenements " of our rich city. It revels in
darkness and fatalism. It screeches around the stoves of
" night-houses " in rags, obscenity, and stinks. It brays
with savage joy, stimulated by rum and the " sweets of
office," under the influence of the cunning and hypocrisy of
party factions and wretched public tricksters. It is at the
call of every political knave, and gleesomely follows in the
trail of its own destruction. It is a pest and a nuisance —
appalling the timid and disgusting the wise. Such ignorance
we have festering in this city. It poisons our air, it stifles
our morals, it impedes our progress. It blights the infant's
growth, it makes a pestilence in our streets, and converts
political gatherings into hells of knavish passions. It adores
false gods, worships mere animality, and reverences political
scoundrelism. This is the kind of ignorance the pauperized
mobs of Europe bring to our shores. Here it comes for suc-
cor and for safety, and when both are obtained, it turns upon
its adopted mother to rend her for her kindness ! ingrati-
tude ! thy name is — Emigrants.
When war's dead blast has ceased, when treason against
national freedom and prosperity has ceased, then the peril of
our country will be the ignorance of emigrants festering in
our cities. It is a difficulty that puzzles many, for its foul
breath penetrates the whole atmosphere of our country's
welfare. Cannon-balls cannot scatter the evil, for it is intel-
lectual and social in its influences, and cannot be treated
with physical remedies. Yet the disease must be carefully
examined, carefully watched, and wisely doctored. The
APPENDIX. 51
emigrant patient is dangerously ill ; our health is jeopar-
dized by the continuance of the disease. Help ! or we
perish. This is an evil that all wise and good people should
help to remove. The danger to ourselves daily increases.
Every hour brings a fresh blast of moral pestilence to our
shores. In a few more weeks the nuisance will be trebled.
Prepare yourselves to face the danger.
W. W. B.
New York, June, 1865.
THE SITUATION.
Tired, after four years of energetic war, the people (as a
people) are not only in a state of torpor, but are rapidly be-
coming politically too oblivious. Rebels are pardoned hourly
who have not repented, nor changed their desires. The old
monarchical oppression of regulating wages is being done in
Georgia, and the lowest rate is being awarded to the emanci-
pated. Schools for little ones are closed through the brutal-
ity inflicted on the helpless by the Southern " chivalry." The
disintegrating doctrine of complete State Rights is being
preached in high places before rebels, and for rebels, who
lately murdered our soldiers and tried to crucify our republic.
" Let each state judge of the depository of its own political
power." A pretty doctrine to preach to unrepentant sinners !
A comforting creed to be adopted in rebel States ! Verily
the nation is drunk with victory, and blinded with a splendid
military success.
Street brawls, intimidation of Union men — because the
people are asleep, instead of being wide-awake to practise
justice and generosity. Aye ! generosity to the black men
who fought for us, bled for us, and may have died for us.
Heroism is not to be rewarded because it throbs for freedom
and nationality within an ebony casket. Oh ! foul injustice,
and withering wrong !
In every rebel State, loyal men will be outvoted, derided,
and subjected to intimidation. Who can prevent such pro-
4
52 APPENDIX.
ceedings ? Either there must be military occupation and
military government for at least the next twelve months, or
the black man must have the suffrage. The common sense
view of the position of affairs is unheeded. The military
forces are being withdrawn, the emancipated are not pro-
tected, and oath-breaking rebels are voting !
Earnest men are beings scared from giving the negro the vote
by the bug-a-boo, ignorance. It is the old trick of tyrants.
The same thing is being attempted in England just now.
There the fears of the middle-classes are being acted on, so
that they will shrink from introducing the operatives to po-
litical power. Those who think the colored people down
South are more ignorant than the whites in rebel States, let
them carefully read the guarded statements and cheering
facts given by the Rev. Charles Lowe in his " Discourse on
the Condition and Prospects of the South." The truth is
that the blacks are more intellectually inclined than the
whites — and the demonstration is that they are realizing, in
proportion to their means, the praiseworthy inclination. But
suppose they did not, what then ? Ignorance is merely a
relative term. We are all ignorant to each other, and we
are all wise to each other. The density of our ignorance and
the extent of our wisdom depend on training, natural volition,
experience, surroundings, and opportunities. Some blacks
are idiotic, and so are many whites. Many whites are great
mathematicians, and so are some blacks ! God alone, and
not presumptuous men, should strike down with thunderbolts
a man's rights and a man's manliness.
And we are to discuss this suffrage question persistently
and earnestly in the temple of American Republicanism ! The
Declaration of Independence is not yet understood, because
the people are too inclined to accept the plausible dogmas of
interested leaders.
So be it. We will discuss the question ; the discussion
shall be the question throughout the land. We will discuss
the topic till sinners are abashed, traitors disconcerted, and
hypocrites are made powerless. We will discuss the subject
until the wronged are lighted, the down-trodden are uplifted,
APPENDIX. 53
and God's laws are fulfilled — until the people are no longer
" blind, as though without sight."
W. W. B.
From The Commonwealth, July 8th, 1865.
INDEPENDENCE EVE IN A NEW YORK VILLAGE.
New York, July 10, 1865.
Slowly recovering from what appeared to be a bed of death,
not strong enough to endure the noise of Bowery, nor the
rushing, pushing, tearing, and roaring of Broadway, I resolved
to pass the fourth of July in the perfumed air of Morrisania.
Arriving there on the eve of Independence, I was invited to
the Congregational Church to participate in a "jubilee." I
went and had a treat. A respectable audience, of nearly
three hundred ladies and gentleman, was present.
The pastor of the church (Rev. Mr. Gladden) presided.
His face shone with enthusiasm, and his voice was musical as
evening bells. F. W. Tappan read the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, and, after he did so, gave a brief history of the Rev-
olution. His speech was discriminating and well arranged.
Col. 0. T. Beard followed. The choir then sent forth its
grand notes, that thrilled all hearts with a renewed devotion
to freedom and justice. When the soft charm for a moment
ceased, the Hon. W. T. B. Milliken rose to pour forth warn-
ing and encouragement in pellucid streams of unaffected elo-
quence. He told of the day when his children were insulted
for belonging to an Abolitionist ! — of the time when only one
pastor in the village dared to demand liberty for God's chil-
dren clothed in sable. And the speaker in fiery words insist-
ed that the negroes must have the same freedom and justice
as white men enjoy in this country. It was a treat to listen
to this old and earnest anti-slavery man, to this zealous friend
of Christian progress for all men, irrespective of creed and
color. As the Rev. S. Bourne rose to conclude the night's
speaking, it seemed that a divine sanction and blessing were
being given to Mr. Milliken for his powerful and noble words.
54 APPENDIX.
"Amen !" was the first word uttered by the reverend speaker.
" And it seems," he said, "as though I could only repeat
amen ! to Mr. Milliken's words of truth, freedom, and jus-
tice." And, reverend brother, we re-echo your most Godly
"Amen!"
The singing of the choir was excellent. " Koll on, thou
ship of state," " The Victory is Ours," and the following
hymn, were sung with feeling, taste, and delicacy of execu-
tion. This hymn was given immediately after the Declara-
tion of Independence had been read : —
" glorious Words ! we hail al last
Your pledge of Liberty !
It mocked our hope through all the past,
But now, the land is free 1
" glorious Day ! thy dawn shall sweep
The land from sea to sea ;
But touch no spot where bondmen weep,
For all the land is free !
" glorious Banner ! forth we fling
Thy folds triumphantly !
And 'neath thy blood-washed brightness sing,
' To-day the land is free !'
" Our trembling faith is changed to sight
*Of better days to be,
When Love shall rule and Peace shall right
The land whose soil is free I
" God ! we grasp Thy guiding hand ;
The praise belongs to Thee !
And, trusting Thee, our happy land
Shall be forever free !"
We returned to our old friends' home in Morrisania, and
went to sleep and dreamed of broken fetters, a king denied,
rebels conquered, and happy smiles gleaming across the once
sad faces of the emancipated. blessed dream ! happy
night ! for in our visions we saw rewards given in Heaven to
the angels who had worked on earth for the destitute and op-
pressed. W. W. B.
APPENDIX. 55
SUFFRAGE MEETING AT NEWARK, N. J.
Newark, N. J., July 11, 1865.
A very influential audience of ladies and gentlemen was
present last (Monday) evening, in the " Library Hall," in this
city. It had been announced in the press that Mr. W. W.
Broom, of the New York Loyal Publication Society, would
deliver an address on "Reconstruction." At the time ap-
pointed, B. S. Morehouse was voted to the chair, and intro-
duced the speaker in flattering terms.
Mr. Broom commenced by saying, " If there are any per-
sons present who have corns they do not desire to be trod on,
prejudices they object to have probed, bigotry they desire to
hug, they had better retire at once ; but if you wish for truth,
for earnest and unsparing investigation, I shall be pleased to
have you remain till I resume my seat." Not one left, but
many more swelled the audience.
Mr. Broom then proceeded to descant on the past and pres-
ent condition of the South, of the present incompleteness of
our military triumph, of the cruel treatment awarded to the
emancipated. During his long address, he frequently referred
to the Declaration of Independence and the preamble to the
Constitution. He answered the objections that are mooted
against the suffrage, proved their absurdity, and manifested
their injustice. He insisted that the nation should realize in
its practice the doctrines it had fought for upon every field ;
that pure republicanism should live and progress on this con-
tinent, not crumble away like the empires of old.
The speaker was often applauded, and when he sat down,
he was greeted with a perfect ovation of cheers, that was con-
tinued for several minutes. When the applause subsided,
Mr. Broom again rose and said, " Ladies and gentlemen, I
desire to have your vote on the opinions I have advanced. I
want to ascertain how many of you are for complete justice
for all men and women, irrespective of color." The Chair-
man proceeded to put the question to the vote, and there was
a unanimous and hearty response given for suffrage for black
as well as white men.
56 APPENDIX.
After a vote of thanks was awarded to the speaker, the
meeting was adjourned. Old and young crowded around the
stand and invited Mr. Broom to revisit Newark, and to assist
in the fall campaign in Jersey state. Mr. Broom cheerfully
consented to do so, as far as his feeble health would permit.
From The Commonwealth.
A LECTUKE ON RECONSTRUCTION.
New York, July 24, 1865.
An influential society of ladies and gentlemen in New
York city, requested Mr. W. W. Broom (of whom you have
before spoken) to give his views on Reconstruction. He did
so on Tuesday evening, July 18th, in the lodge-room, 835
Broadway. The chair was taken by J. H. Edgerley, and
the proceedings were opened with prayer by the Rev. Mr.
Stuart. After prayer, Mrs. L. M. Bronson (the gifted wife
of Prof. Bronson) read the following poem in her peculiarly
charming style : —
THE WAR CKY— "NO MASTER, OR SLAVE."
BY MRS. L. M. BRONSON.
! do you remember how bright the stars shone,
And girdled the Heavens, with glittering zone,
When (on electric wing) strange words came flying ?
" To arms ! ye Freemen ! The war-cry is ringing !
Awake ! sons of Freedom ! Arise in your might !"
Up ! Be ready all, to battle for the Right !
Lo, Treason hath stole in, with poisonous breath !
And Sumter's brave sons are now grappling with death !"
! God ! how our hearts throbbed and our brains ran wild
To see our old flag by rank traitors defiled I
It stirred the true blood to make it ever wave ;
To call no man master, and no man — a slave !
Borne on winged winds over mountain and glen,
Flashed the thrilling words, firing the hearts of men!
And grandly back again with majestic form,
(Like the sullen wrath of the dark gathering storm,)
Come with thundering and mighty tread sublime,
Ten hundred thousand men forming into line !
APPENDIX.
57
With calm and steady eye, with firm and loyal mien,
Around their Chief they stand ; "The flag shall wave again!'
They swear the immortal oath as Freemen only can,
To plant it on the grave of each traitor man ;
For roused is true blood, to make it ever wave,
To call no man master, and no man a slave !
List! the battle's rage! Lo, contest— hand to hand,
Bursting shells light the sea and desolate the land!
Never before, through the long line of Ages,
Hath such treach'rous war darkened history's pages ;
Flowing crystal stream, mountain, hill and plain,
Are crimsoned with the blood of our nobles slain ;
Earth drinks the loyal gore, and thirsts even yet.
She loves the precious rain, falling " warm and wet ;"
For it tasteth sweet, as in days by-gone ;
As it did on Bunker's Hill, and at Lexington.
For roused is the true blood to make the old flag wave
To call no man master, and no man a slave!
Words giving Freedom, most nobly were spoken,
They thrilled the whole land, as a Heaven-sent token,
White-winged angels heard the echoes afar
And came thronging in hosts to speed on the war ;
A march triumphant is heard throughout the land,
For the Lord God of Hosts hath stretched forth his hand !
Our fathers won victory ; we'll crown her again,
Though gory the wreath, with our thousands of slain.
Now, proudly, we hail our old banner, so bright ;
Whose broad folds are floating for Justice and Right.
And strong are our hearts, while the old flag shall wave
To call no man master, and no man a slave !
'Tis worth the great battles, 'tis worth all our pain,
To measure the strength of our nation again ;
We knew not its greatness, nor dreamed of its power ;
We felt not how sweet and how priceless the dower,
Bequeathed by great souls, who have passed on to God,
Till smote by the Lord with his chastening rod.
Then, great spirits arose with purposes high —
With the daring of soul, to conquer, or die.
Can we ever forget how nobly and brave
They have fought on the land and fought on the wave ?
How fixed were their souls to make the old flag wave
To call no man master, and no man a slave ?
58 APPENDIX.
After the poem was read, Mr. Broom was introduced to
the assembly amid hearty cheering. During more than an
hour, he dilated on the past and present condition of society
in the Southern and Northern States. He insisted that
" equal and exact justice to all men" must be the principle,
the rule, and the law of this great modern republic. He
urged that as a matter of permanent safety, of justice, of re-
ward for perils endured, loyal blacks should have the suffrage
given to them. On the ground of economy, of morality, of
republicanism, of religion, he said, we are bound to make
this continent a veritable New World for those who have
been pauperized and oppressed. He described how suddenly
the nation had become a magnificent naval and military
power, and now the people must become equally strong and
powerful in wisdom, justice, and progress. He gave many
facts about the emancipated with Saxon energy, and clothed
them in the graces of poetic language. Mr. Broom was fre-
quently interrupted with bursts of applause, and when he
resumed his seat, thanks were presented to him with great
enthusiasm.
From The Commonwealth.
SOUTH CABOLINA'S LAWS.
Act of 1820 declares, that no slave should hereafter be
emancipated but by an act of the Legislature.
By the Act of 1834, slaves are prohibited to be taught to
read or write, under a penalty, if a white person offend, not
exceeding one hundred dollars fine and six months' imprison-
ment ; if a free person of color offend, not exceeding fifty
lashes and a fine of fifty dollars. The same Act prohibits
the employment of a slave ox free person of color as a clerk
or salesman, under a penalty not exceeding one hundred dol-
lars fine, and imprisonment for six months.
In 1848, the Legislature declared, that any bequest, deed
of trust, or conveyance, intended to take effect after the
death of the owner, whereby the removal of any slave with-
out the State is secured, or intended, with a view to the
APPENDIX. 59
emancipation of such slave, shall be void. And that every
device or bequest to a slave or slaves, or to any person upon
a trust or confidence, secret or expressed, for the benefit of
any slave or slaves, shall be void.
Act of 1740, the owners of slaves to provide them with
sufficient clothing, covering, and food, and if they should fail
to do so, the magistrate is authorized to hear and determine
the complaint, and make such order as will give relief, and
may set a fine, not exceeding thirty dollars and sixty cents
on the owner. Hon. T. B. O'Neal, a Judge, states, " I regret
to say that there is, in such a State as ours, great occasion
for the enforcement of such a law."
" No master was to allow his slaves to have their own
time, nor to plant for themselves any corn, peas, or rice, or
to keep any stock of hogs, cattle, or horses."
" Death was the punishment of any person who, by prom-
ising freedom in another country, induced a slave to leave
the province, and the punishment, also, of the slave if taken.
Any slave running away for twenty days was, for the first
offence, publicly and severely whipped ; for the second
offence, the runaway was to be branded with the letter K, on
the right cheek ; if the master omitted to do this, he was fined
£10."— M. Howitt's Hist, of America.
ITEMS WOKTH REMEMBERING.
" In South Carolina, Virginia, and Louisiana, life may be
taken according to law, without intervention of grand or
petit jury." " In Louisiana, if the Court is equally divided
as to the guilt of a slave, judgment is recorded against
him."
" A free negro coming into the State (of Maryland) is
liable to a fine of fifty dollars for every week he remains in
it. If he cannot pay the fine, he is sold."
60 APPENDIX
UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE.
UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE IN THE REBEL STATES — JUSTICE TO
THE NEGRO — AND SAFETY TO THE REPUBLIC !
A MANIFESTO OF THE GERMAN "UNIONBUND" OF NEW YORK.
[Translated from the German for The ConvmonweaUh.]
The Reconstruction of the Union is the great problem of the
present. On its solution depends whether the blessings of
peace shall compensate the nation for all the sacrifices made,
or whether discord, or perhaps, even bloody struggles, shall
rage between the democratic republicanism of the North and
the aristocracy of the South.
State-sovereignty and slavery have been the enemies of
the Union. Our heroic armies have struck them down.
Shall now a blind policy uplift the prostrate foes and enable
them to again assail the republic ? Will the nation, better
informed than the fathers of the Constitution, allow that the
germ of the old evil be preserved in the reconstructed Union ?
Shall the essence of state sovereignty and of slavery, in the
disguise of State Rights and disfranchisement of the colored
people, be the basis of the new structure of the Union ?
That will be the case, if the people do not immediately and
with firmness declare and enforce their will.
The " Unionbund " therefore deems it a duty to submit to
the German-Americans its views and demands concerning
the Reconstruction.
The foundation of the Union was the work of a Convention
elected by all the free people, and — South Carolina and
Georgia excepted — without distinction as to race. Now,
scarcely has the enemy laid down his arms when the recon-
struction of the Union is undertaken by the executive alone,
and with a haste that does not admit a careful examination
and consideration of the state of things.
Congress is not called to co-operate in this important
work, nor is time given to the nation to express its will.
The Executive assailed (one might say conquered) by
APPENDIX. 61
swarms of delegates from the Southern States, so suddenly-
converted to loyalty, is about to reconstruct the Union with
the materials of the rebellion.
Let the cunning aristocrats of the South be jubilant, let
their Northern friends praise the wisdom of the President,
let politicians try to evade this burning question, — the inde-
pendent Citizens tell the whole truth of their conviction to
the public servant whom they have elected.
There is no space here for the examination of the question,
— " Has the Executive the right to establish the system of
reconstructing the rebellious States according to his own
views and without the concurrence of Congress ?" But it is
evident, that in assuming such a power, the Executive acts
contrary to the spirit of our institutions. The necessities of
the war claimed from the nation many concessions to the Ex-
ecutive ; now that peace is restored, the people have the
more firmly to oppose any extension of its sphere.
The convening of Congress for co-operation in the work of
Reconstruction seems to us to be a duty of the President, and
undoubtedly it would have been an act of wise statesmanship.
If slighted, Congress will act with a feeling of wounded pride
and violated privilege. To the inevitable conflict of views
there will be added the bitter conflict of passions. The im-
mediate co-operation of Congress and the Executive might
have led to harmony of views and unity of action, whilst the
self-willed proceedings of the President have already had
fatal consequences. The leaders of the patriotic party have
pronounced against the President's plan of Reconstruction ;
the Union phalanx is threatened with disruption, and the
enemies of the good cause prepare themselves to rush trium-
phantly through this breach.
Pregnant with disasters in the determination of the Presi-
dent of granting already now to the rebel States the right to
reconstitute themselves. They will have the power to decide
questions involving the welfare of the Union according to
their interested views, and independently of the national gov-
ernment. The result of the immediate reorganization of the
South, by the South itself, will certainly be of such a nature
APPENDIX
that neither the nation nor Congress can accept it. But
what a series of difficulties and struggles will be the conse-
quence of such a conflict !
Of so many ominous questions which may arise from a
conflict between the Congress and the Executive, let us men-
tion but one : — " What will be the state of the republic, if
Congress persists in refusing admittance to the represen-
tatives chosen by the reorganized States, whilst the President
sustains them as legally elected, and refuses to alter the state
of things in the South ?'"'
Not a hasty reorganization, but a thorough preparation for
a salutary Keconstruction of the Union, is what is needed
now for the conquered rebel States. A wise and energetic
guardianship, to which the National government is entitled
by the laws of war, is for a time the only regime applicable
to the South. The strong hand of the National power alone
can mould the rebel States into faithful members of the Union,
and harmonize them with the free people of the North.
Without the military protection of the federal government,
the truly loyal Citizens of the South will have no influence
in the Reconstruction of their States ; nay more — under the
system of Reconstruction, initiated by the President, they
will not have any more security of life than they had under
the sway of Jefferson Davis. This has been said to the
President by Southern men whose loyalty has passed through
the ordeal of persecution and exile.
If the Southern States are reconstructed on the President's
plan, the colored population, to whose protection and libera-
tion the nation is in honor bound, will fall back under the
exclusive rule of its enemies. But too many sad facts show
already what then will be for the colored people the value of
emancipation and the promise of equal rights ! Has not re-
organized Tennessee made of her colored people real serfs ?
Has not Holden, the Reconstruction governor of North Caro-
lina, declared, "The white race is the ruling race, and has
the right to remove the colored people from the State" ?
What is to be expected from Sharkey, the governor of Mis-
sissippi, — from that man, who, as a judge, committed the in-
APPENDIX. 63
famy of sending back to slavery a colored woman with her
child, the offspring of a repentant planter, who, by his last
will, had given them their liberty ?
Even now, under the flag of the Union, the aristocrats of
the South begin to exercise their old tyranny, because they
see in the policy of the President the return of their power,
restored by the immediate exercise of State Eights. For that
reason, the rebels, following the advice of Eeverdy Johnson,
hasten to take the oath of allegiance. These metamorphosed
rebels calculate already with their friends at the North the
time when they will again have the majority in Congress,
and the power in the White House, — even more, they dare
openly propose a bargain, involving political treason, to the
successor of the Martyr of the Union and of emancipation.
The President's policy of Keconstruction is the beginning
of reaction ; its consequences will be fatal, though he be
animated with the best intentions, and is, as many of his de-
fenders say, making now only an experiment of one system,
and is ready to be corrected by the course of events.
The President and the true friends of the republic will
perhaps in future struggle in vain against the accomplished
facts. What the nation wants is not a double-faced trial,
but a clear, firm system, answering to the feelings and the
convictions to which the free people of the North have been
elevated by the great events of the last four years. In the
loyal States, the liberal Citizens are already laboring to lay
the foundation of equal rights for the Reconstruction of the
Union. It is the duty of the federal government to do the
same in the South before the conquered rebel States can ex-
ercise again their rights as members of the Union.
The rebellion of the South, made by the States as States,
and by all their constituted authorities, has, as far as the
Union is concerned, abrogated all previously-existing Con-
stitutions and Laws of those States. In reconstructing the
Union, the national government has therefore to deal only
with their populations. To give them a Republican govern-
ment is the right and the duty of the federal power. But
this right embraces everything or nothing.
64 APPENDIX.
If the President thinks that he has the right to appoint
governors to the conquered rebel States, he has also the right
to call on their whole loyal population for the establishment
of a republican government. Still more ; a truly republican
government can only be established by the whole loyal popu-
lation, and not by classes arbitrarily selected. The Procla-
mation of Emancipation has made free citizens, endowed with
equal rights, of all the inhabitants of the South. The Pres-
ident cannot be permitted again to erect, with the help of
the abolished slave laws, the barriers formerly existing be-
tween the white and colored population. It is the duty of
the President to defend as faithfully the rights of the colored
people as those of the poor whites of the South, of whom
he considers himself the special representative. And never
more than in the present emergency will full justice also be
sound statesmanship. The exclusion of the colored popula-
tion of the South from the work of Reconstruction would be
a source of infinite evil, as has been the toleration of slavery
by the Constitution.
Under the guardianship of the federal government, exer-
cised over the conquered States, the emancipated people of
the South have to be transformed into Citizens, made free and
independent by labor and property, and capable of exercising
their civic rights, in order that they may co-operate with
their loyal white fellow-citizens in the great work of recon-
structing the Union, when the time shall come.
But the President has declared that there is no necessity
of Reconstruction, that the Southern States possess to-day all
the rights — that of slavery excepted — which they had before
the rebellion. Is this not surrendering the victory of the
National sovereignty, obtained by the sacrifice of the lives of
bo many patriots ? Is it not necessary that the supremacy
of the national sovereignty should be recognized and felt
for a certain time, by the South, in order that they may
learn that State Sovereignty is really dead ? Will not the
truculent and obstinate aristocracy of the South find, in the
declaration of the President, a reason for considering these
State Rights essentially the same thing — what they called
APPENDIX. 65
State Sovereignty before their defeat ? Should any one be
credulous or simple-minded enough to feel assured, by the
hypocritical promises now made by the Southern crowd
streaming into the White House, let him remember what
has been said of the Bourbons — " They learned nothing, and
forgot nothing \"
To destroy forever the spirit of rebellion it is necessary
that the words of the President should become a fact, —
" Crime must meet ivith its punishment !" It is. therefore,
to be regretted that, before even one single act of justice has
branded treason and rebellion, the pardoning power of the
President should be exercised with a daily-increasing rapidi-
ty, and in so many cases bestowing its benefits on persons
guilty of infamous crimes. Is it surprising that the people
begin to doubt the realization of the declaration made by the
President ?
These numerous pardons, the Constitutionality of which is
doubted by many, will soon have exhausted the list of ex-
ceptions made by the President himself. The Union will
lose thereby the legal means of destroying forever the real
power of the criminal aristocracy of the South. Those
enemies of the Union and of a truly democratic society must
be sentenced as guilty of high treason ; their property must
be seized in order to pay the expenses of the war which they
have originated. Thus only can the victory of the Northern
society of free labor over the landed monopoly of the South-
ern aristocracy be secured, and become a source of blessings
to the republic.
The emancipation and the granting of equal political
rights to the colored people are not sufficient to accomplish
the work of Reconstruction. The landless inhabitants of the
South — the whites as well as the blacks — must obtain post-
session, by purchase or donation, of the confiscated estates of
the aristocracy, in order that they become really independent
Citizens of the regenerated Republic.
The treasonable undertakings of the Southern aristocracy
have inaugurated not only a political, but also a social revo-
lution. The victorious arms of the Union have given the
66 APPENDIX.
Federal Government the right to close this revolution in a
manner which insures the welfare of the Republic. But if
this is not done now, the bloody war for the preservation of
the National Unity may be followed by the more terrible and
dangerous war of the oppressed against their oppressors,
which in this case will be the war of one race against the
other.
The people must, therefore, as in ancient Rome, tell the
government — " Take care that the Republic be not endan-
gered I" The " Unionbund" appeals to all liberal Ger-
man-Americans to join its ranks, in order to labor together
with the American-born Citizens of the same conviction for
the realization of the principles of our great revolution.
The " Unionbund'' remains faithful to the banner of
freedom and justice, borne in the new campaign by the
patriots, Sherman, Sumner, Ashley, Chase, Winter Davis,
Butler, Pomeroy, Wilson, and others.
On behalf of the " Unionbund," the General Committee.
Dr. Frederick Schuetz, President.
Dr. H. Gulecke, Recording Secretary.
New York, July 15, 1865.
WM. T. BLODGETT, ESQ.
Editor of Commonwealth : The genial patriotism and
solid worth of this eminent New York merchant should
be known to our Massachusetts citizens. He was the
originator (or mainly so) of the New York Loyal Pub-
lication Society, and has been, and still is, its labori-
ous Chairman of the Executive Committee. As President
of the New York Athenasum Club, his influence is con-
siderable and widely felt. His urbanity and exuberant gen-
erosity have been connected with every organization that our
late struggle called into existence, in the Empire State. He
is now on a lengthened tour in Europe to form a personal
friendship with the eminent friends of our country. A few
APPENDIX. 61
weeks since he was entertained at a dinner with John Bright,
and other active English Liberals. In one of his interesting
letters, Mr. Blodgett says :
" Since my arrival in London, I have had much to interest and amuse
me. One of the most agreeable and ardent friends of our country I have
found in John Bright ! He is thoroughly and intensely American, and
grasps the real beauty of opinion in America with more clearness than any
man I have met here, be he American or English.
" I hear but one thought and one feeling expressed since the capture of
Jeff. Davis. The first thing that is said, is : — ' What are you going to do
with Mr. Davis? I hope you are not going to hang him?' &c, &c. Not
one thought of the great principles at stake in our country for the pro-
gress of freedom and civilization! I don't pretend to argue with such
people, for there is no possibility of driving a principle into people's heads
who do not wish to be convinced of what we are doing in America. One
thing is dawning on the English mind, and that is shown everywhere
among intelligent minds here, and that is, that America is a great power,
and recognized as such among the nations of the earth. You will find that
we shall make a sensation when we sneeze, mark my words ! They can-
not understand us, and wonder to see the first steps being taken toward
Reconstruction, and ' stocks ' advancing daily — and the people of England
notice every minute detail.''
We hope to see published the important particulars of
travel by so shrewd an observer, whose sources of information
are so numerous.
W. T. Blodgett is an able and pleasing speaker, though it
is not often he can be induced to speak from New York
stands. He prefers to do "good by stealth," and blushes
when 'tis named. His speech in London, at the Fourth of
July banquet, struck melody, the melody of grateful affec-
tion, from every American who was present. What a sweet
theme he had to discourse about ! It was the women, it was the
gentle, loving, patriotic women of America ! He told of the
daring and precious deeds done by the daughters of freedom,
by the dear children of Republican progress. We reprint his
speech for the sake of the beautiful subject of his manly elo-
quence.
THE CHARACTER OF AMERICA'S LADIES.
He could not see the reason why, in a convivial meeting like the present,
the toast of " The ladies " should be last, when in men's thoughts they
5
68 APPENDIX.
were always first. At that late hour of the evening, he would not attempt
to enlarge upon the suhject of what the American women had done for
their country's welfare during the late four years' struggle for Union and
freedom. They were to be seen at those places where sufferings were
worst, volunteering aid to the sufferers, and helping the wounded as best
they could. A large amount of money was supplied by the Sanitary Com-
mission, nine tenths of which was contributed by the female sex. What
had been the accounts that had been received with reference to the*
conduct of the ladies during this long war ? The answer was well
known. Wherever battles had taken place, the ladies had flocked to the
depots ; had rendered everything that lay in their power, for the comfort
and happiness of the sufferers. Where would they find in the hour of
sickness and trouble consolation equal to that which woman could bestow ?
They could safely say that during the war the ladies had done as much
for the country's sake as the men had, and encouragement had been given
by mothers and daughters to their sons and brothers, even in the shape of
friendly and hearty "good-bys" and parting inspirations, when leaving
their homes to fight for the cause of this great struggle — liberty. (Hear,
hear.) It was woman who followed man from the cradle to the grave, and
it was woman who consoled them in their direst despair. Would that he
had the eloquence to do her justice. He concluded by asking for the ad-
dition of these words to the toast : " Woman who carries all the graces
and the smiles of life." (Cheers.)
May he and his gentle wife be spared to return home in
the fulness of health ! And when he does return, we hope
the ladies of New York will succeed in charming the elo-
quent and generous merchant to " the stand," for the Amer-
ican who can speak well in London, must not be permitted
to be silent when dwelling at home !
July 25th, 1865.
MANHOOD SUFFRAGE.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING NEWS.
(November 1st, 1859.)
" Bitter jest that the most Civilized portion of the globe should be con-
sidered incapable of self-government." — Disraeli's Cont. Fleming.
Sm : Intelligent politicians will not be satisfied with less
than Manhood Suffrage. They believe that Manhood Suf-
frage is a Right, that it must be had before justice to the
APPENDIX. 69
toilers can be realized. They look with contempt upon the
illogical subterfuges of their opponents. A deep-settled con-
viction has taken hold of the mind of the people upon the
suffrage. Under existing political conditions, we have no
chance of redress. M. P.'s may " beat about the bush" as
much as they please, they cannot destroy the facts that
abound.
We have more to dread from pretended friends than from
our foes. " Respectable" gentlemen abound who don't like
to go too far — who don't like to offend anybody. Rather
than do so, they would let the millions continue at starva-
tion's point. They do not dispute your statements, they ad-
mit your facts, they fully sympathize with you, yet they will
not assist to remove the rubbish that obstructs general im-
provement. Political pendulums ! They strive to be the
advisers of Liberals and on good terms with the oppressors
of humanity. It is too late in the day for such immoral pro-
ceedings ; we are not to be hood-winked any longer.
Professional men are obstinate impediments to political re-
form. Doctors do not like to interfere with politics lest they
should offend some weekly purchaser of blue pill — some
monthly sufferer from over-gorging. The lawyer constantly
comes in contact with iniquity : among the rich he sees
much dishonesty, intense immorality, and blind selfishness.
He infers that the poor are infected to a greater degree. The
inference is unsound. Comparatively speaking, there is less
immorality among the poor than among the rich. Sturdy
honesty is most frequently wedded to the greatest poverty.
Witness such men as Andrew Marvel, Samuel Johnson, and
the occasional finders of rich men's pocket-books, who are re-
warded with a " Thank you."
It is said that asking for Manhood Suffrage is wanting
more than can, just now, or even in a short time, be obtain-
ed. " Get a little at a time, is the policy of wise men."
True, when the reverse would be impossible. But to change
or inaugurate institutions you must change the convictions
of men. To accomplish such, you must expend time, wealth,
intellect, zeal, and continuity of effort. These must be
TO APPENDIX.
freely and constantly put into operation. Why not employ
such combination of forces upon a major, instead of a minor
object ? The cost is the same in either case. Similar
energy must be used — boldly, almost perpetually. For years
men have struggled for the Ballot, still it is far in the dis-
tance. Short Parliaments have long been considered an
important political necessity, still the subject is in the dis-
tance, and men have become tired of talking and writing
about the matter. These are minor topics, for good long
Parliaments could never be very inconvenient nor unjust to
the mass of the people, nor is the Ballot with an intelligent
people absolutely necessary. With all our agitation, we have
not obtained " a little" suffrage for working men. The polit-
ical work has to be accomplished, despite of the enormous
M wind-bag " that has been emptied.
Change of opinion is a gradual result. Slowly does con-
viction of a permanent character arise. Hence, you can as
easily change the opinions of men upon major as upon minor
subjects ; — as easily up-root their prejudices against Man-
hood Suffrage as you can those respecting the Currency.
Therefore, let us strive for the major of political Keform — let
us work to obtain the power that will enable us to work out
financial regeneration. Doing so will be most profitable.
We shall be great gainers. Only one outlay of wealth, time,
and labor, would be required, for through the possession of
Manhood Suffrage, you have the mightiest impeacher of aris-
tocratical imbecility.
The objection that the people would not know how to use
the suffrage is a piece of gratuitous impudence. How do
you know they " would not " until you have tried them ?
Eecent historical facts settle the absurdity of the attempted
objection. In fact, under Manhood Suffrage, capital punish-
ment was abolished in France. Here is a case of magna-
nimity exercised by the people — a case that cannot be paral-
leled in the history of priests and kings. The French people
declared the freedom of the Press, permitting knowledge to
be unshackled, expression of opinion to be "free as the soul
that dares to soar, free as the brain that dares to think."
APPENDIX. 71
Never have aristocratical governments manifested a similar
love for thought and knowledge. The people adored God as
revealed in books, reverenced the philosopher's researches and
the poet's dreams.
Villains who had oppressed the poor, who had cheated
industry, abused their power, degraded society, and who had
enacted the basest laws, were unpunished — were not injured
in the slightest respect by Eepublican France in "48. Clem-
ency was exercised to the fullest extent. Contrast such con-
duct with that of our legislators, who for years would not
permit a man, unanimously elected by a large and wealthy
Constituency, to sit in the House of Commons, because he
was a Jew. In a land that boasts of its freedom, a man's
Eights are measured by his creed. Pagan Rome never
adopted such disgraceful intolerance. Pagan Greece would
have scorned the enacting of such injustice. A people is
always more just than a sect, always more virtuous than a
class. Manhood Suffrage is the father of liberty, and is the
cause of national fraternity. In Italy, during '48, the people
did not commit a base act — did not violate a single virtue,
but extended the hand of mercy to the vilest members of the
community.
" Mercy droppeth like the gentle clew."
Print in letters of gold that " not a single condemnation
to death was pronounced by the Eepublican government* of
Rome ; not a single one under the Republican flag of Venice."
What monarchy can say the same ?* The purest intellect
is ever democratic ; the most sacred national sympathies are
always the result of domestic convictions. Despotism iso-
lates, democracy fraternizes ; despotism restricts and de-
stroys, democracy creates and extends. The first opens the
" Valley of the Shadow of Death ;" the second sheds divine
light.
* " Kings ! why, what's a king ? Why should one man hreak the equa\
sanctity of our race ? Is their blood purer than our own ?" — Disraeli's
Alroy.
72 APPENDIX.
The further a nation recedes from democratic institu-
tions, the more it has to " regret the past, distrust the pres-
ent, and fear the future." At the present time " Paris is a
comparative desert. No more life, no more animation, no
more movement in pleasure or in business." The more free-
dom the more ease, comfort, peace and prosperity. A free
people avoids tyrannous exactions, abolishes unjust restric-
tions, and diminishes or prevents extreme poverty. Business
flourishes, commerce expands, intellect grows strong, inven-
tive genius is stimulated. Generations arise from parental
comfort, wisdom, and citizenship.
Despotism is the world's night, with no solitary star to
beam and cheer ; no moon of love to cast around its lustrous
beauty ; no warming sun of labor with force intense to
warm and gladden the multitude. Under its deadening in-
fluence all hope is petrified, burning zeal and social emula-
tion are cowed, and sympathy, struck from the rock of di-
vine beneficence, becomes paralyzed with horror. Everything
among the people becomes withered, everything among coun-
tries becomes tarnished. The poet's voice degenerates into a
quaver, or else the harp is placed upon the wall, its notes of
sweetness being for ever hushed. The philosopher stands
silent before the objections of the priest and the commands
of the King, or rather Emperor. The results of ardent in-
vestigations must be proclaimed to — nothing ; profound
thoughts must be published to the mind that conceived
them ; the fervor of youth is nipped by the frost of disap-
pointment. Science is punished as a heresy, and Civilization
is pronounced detrimental to the people's welfare. Ven-
geance is the law, cruelty is the administrator, brute force is
the governor. We need not travel far for living illustra-
tions ; need not search musty records for facts to prove — we
have a demonstration across the water.
Governments of the very few are erected on huge pyra-
mids of human bones, they are decorated with the groans
of humanity, and guarded by the slaves of misery. Ignorance
teaches, hunger drives, terror obeys. A deathly stillness
reigns, and apathy drags its carcase through the abodes of
APPENDIX. 13
men, regardless of consequences, and often frightened at its
own haggard shadow.
The deliverer of the people from the thrall of power is
Manhood Suffrage ; for it is the golden gates of the City of
Freedom. Close the gates, not one single national wrong
and abuse can be remedied ; open them, you can never
traverse the blessed streets that will be revealed to you. In-
tellect presides over the City of Freedom and Plenty is the
evangelist. Go to it ; be not turned from its gates. Listen
not to deception clothed in " fine linen." Be not frightened
from your object ; like Bunyan's Christian, resist the many
temptations and allurements that surround you. Your
dwelling-place is the mansion of co-operation ; your friends
are knowledge, wisdom, and sympathy.
Leaving figurative language, let all Keformers unite to ob-
tain Manhood Suffrage, so that every abuse can be banished
from our land, and every institution that is necessary for the
people's welfare can be created. Put every other question of
home politics, at present, in abeyance. Petty details can be
settled when our Eights have been won, when we have more
leisure for trifles. Our work is to obtain, as speedily as pos-
sible, Manhood Suffrage. Financial Keform, even with the
powerful assistance of Cobden and Bright, can make but
little substantial progress as long as the majority of the
people have no political voice, no power on the floor of St.
Stephen's. As long as we are without Manhood Suffrage,
aristocratical " nooclleisrn" will drift us into wars, and prepare
an effective Channel fleet after a sullen and treacherous ally
has thrown his assassins (not soldiers) upon our shores, or
sent his " floating slaughter-houses" to harass, in far-off seas,
our commerce and our reputation. We must be constant,
persistent, undeviating, unflinching, and utterly regardless
of the whining cant of timid friends.
Yours, truly,
W. W. Broom.
Park Lane, Liverpool.
74 APPENDIX.
THE MAN OF DESTINY.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING NEWS.
{September 2d, 1859.)
" Le represent* devait vous un principe, une cause, une defaite. Le
principe, c'est la souverainete du peuple — la causa elle de l'empire — la
defait, Waterloo."
"He hated, he persecuted, he crushed everything which had a ten-
dency to excite the love of liberty." — J. A. St. John.
" There is a taint in his blood — he springs from a bad stock — he has
no sympathy with free institutions, no love for the people. All his lean-
ings are Dynastic, and by professing faith in Destiny, he has provided
himself beforehand with an excuse for any crimes he may commit. He
will always think it sufficient to attribute them to the overruling influence
of his star. Against such a man the citizens of a free country cannot be
too much on their guard." — J. A. St. John's Life of Louis Napoleon.
Sir, — Familiarity sometimes makes us intrusive. As
you were pleased on a former occasion to insert in your
columns a letter from my pen, I again intrude upon your
space. Once more, I hope I shall not be " rejected."
Just now, England is in alliance with a man who believes
in Destiny. Among all the monarchs who make freedom
tremble and humanity shudder, only one professes to act
under the guidance of a principle — of a principle as un-
changeable as are the laws of G-od. Eussia, like old Home,
dreams she will become an universal ruler, in secret — pub-
licly, as in the late war, she pretends to wait, to watch, to be
directed, as circumstances indicate or determine. One power
proclaims that its base of action is a fixity — the other power
avers that its base of action shifts with circumstances. The
measure of one you can take once and for all ; the measure
of the other must be taken frequently — -just as often as new
combinations of circumstances arise. The man of Destiny
must not be judged by what he has done (solely), is doing,
or what he promises shall be done : you must determine his
character by the object of his supposed Destiny.
The men of Destiny comprise two classes. One class be-
lieve that their Destiny will Tbe realized, without the slightest
APPENDIX. 15
effort or interference on their part. They are the patient
"waiters on Providence, intensely firm in their convictions ;
seldom bad of heart ; whose actions, being aimless, are not
often vicious The second class believe that they are alioays
to watch and work to accomplish the Destiny that is Destined
for them ! — their logic we have naught to do with here. To
this class, judging by his words, writings, and actions, be-
longs Louis Napoleon, the mystic monarch of the shambles.
To the second class (I shall no more allude to the first class
in the remaining portion of this letter) Mahomet and Loyola
were connected. How antagonistic were the objects of their
Destinies and results ? The Eastern mystic soddened the
earth with human gore ; the converted soldier went forth to
sweeten the earth with the fragrance of Christianity. Thus,
we learn, the man of Destiny with a good heart, allied to pro-
found thoughts, becomes a philanthropic hero, a national
blessing : the man of Destiny with a bad heart, allied to
egotistic crudities, charms with his promises the confiding,
cheats with his solemn silence illogical minds, till, like a
stealthy tiger, he becomes a destroying monster, not easily to
be caught and chained.
Bulwer hints (in Zanoni) that believers in Destiny are
not as potent nor as dangerous as generally supposed. He, I
think, makes a mistake. All earnest men are potent, and
dangerous when bad ; and the believers in Destiny are the
most earnest of earnest men. Intensify a thought until you
fancy or believe that the thought is to be made vital, by
using the lives of other men, for your sole benefit and
glory : how earnest, how potent, how dangerous you be-
come ! Such, in miniature, is a correct, I think, description
of the man of Destiny.
Let us apply the logical sequence to " the living pres-
ent."
I repeat, we are to judge the man of Destiny by the
supposed object involved in his Destiny. His words and ac-
tions may or may not be, at the time, a logical development
of his Destiny, but a mask to conceal his real development.
To him all acts and subterfuges are justifiable ; for he hears
76 APPENDIX.
only one command, " Fulfil your Destiny " — reads only one
sentence for his code of life, "Do anything to realize your
Destiny " — sees only one honor, Destiny accomplished !
Louis Napoleon has always believed himself to be a man
of Destiny ; born for one mission ; created to stamp his Des-
tiny on thrones, on peoples. When a vagrant in London
and New York, when gambling in " hells," when lounging
" at Blessington's," when writing for a radical publisher, he
always believed in Destiny.
And the object of his Destiny is the restoration of the
Empire. What is the Empire ? Unrestrained freedom
isolated in one man— that man is Napoleon — and slavery for
all the rest of mankind.
What was the Empire founded by the first Napoleon ?
Imprisonment, banishment, and death to opponents. The
press only allowed to admire the character, to applaud the
words, to adore the acts of one man. The existence and ex-
ercise of political and ecclesiastical power concentrated in one
palace, by and for one man. The nation crippled, corrupted;
subjugated — to prevent resistance, public spirit, and national
volition. When the nation was crushed into a mass of
slaves, then the one man turned his attention to the tearing-
up geographical boundaries, so that the world should be one
Empire — the Empire one man over a world of oppressed,
chained humanity. Glorious Empire ! — one ray of life
glimmering in a planet of death.
Such was the Empire ; it rested on a bar of steel, and
was broken by a still heavier and longer bar of steel. The
force that created became the destroyer of the Empire ; foul
wrong crushed, and right made triumphant, in spite of Des-
tiny encased in steel ! The Destiny of Louis Napoleon is to
restore throughout the world the Empire of the first Napo-
leon. Ought we to rely on the words, implicitly, of a man
with such an object fixed in his mind — ruling his life ?
Yours, truly,
W. W. Bkoom.
St. James's street, Liverpool.
APPENDIX. It
THE EMPIEE IN EXILE AND IN HARNESS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING NEWS.
October 25, 1859.
" In a mitigated form, it has been one continued reign of terror. Any
man's house may be entered at any moment, his most secret cabinets
may be searched — his papers (even the letters of his wife and children, his
marriage settlement, or the title-deeds to his estate) may be seized, sealed
up, and carried for examination to the office of a commissary of police.
Nothing is held sacred." — L. A. St. John's Life of L. Napoleon.
" I am now obliged to admit (whilst refusing to absolve crimes or for-
give corruption) that the Empire succeeded to the Republic because the
French nation mistook its aspiration towards liberty for liberty itself ; and
that Napoleon JJI. reigns by exactly the same right as other monarchs —
by the tacit consent of a people adapted to his rule." — B. St. John's
Purple Tints.
" Let Napoleon the Third become a free-trader, and all his crimes will
be forgotten. * * * There is imminent danger that England may yet
disgrace herself by a timid subservience to powers which will undermine
or overthrow all her institutions the moment they are able. The English
are too proud to fear this, or too ignorant ; at any rate, there is moral
mischief to themselves in their present position. Their forefathers bled
for liberty and bequeathed it to them. They enjoy it, but have no longer
to struggle for it." — M. Pulsky's While, Red, Black, in 1853.
Sir, — Despotism in its glory is brutal, in its decadence it
is cowardly, in its fall it is contemptible. In its days of
splendor it commands no respect, in its days of suffering it
commands no sympathy. It is fawned upon by the timid,
despised by the just, hated in the secret growls of vengeance
by the poor. Placing itself above all law, human or Divine,
it is feared when its claws are sharp, it is unpityingly crushed
when its powers are almost spent. Isolated in its prime, it
becomes doubly isolated in its dotage — isolated from its bru-
talizing ambition, from its bloody and plundering desires,
from the world's care, and from God's approval. It is a
huge mountain of ice, around which the dank, dark mists of
death constantly gather.
The Empire in exile became a coward and a blackleg. Con-
78 APPENDIX.
fined to an island for a time, it fretted, fumed, bewailed. Its
days were devoted to gnashings of the teeth, its nights to ab-
surd regrets. The dignity of silence, understood by the
philosopher and appreciated by the historian, was too majes-
tic for the Empire. Noisy and bombastic Proclamations —
noisy and regretful lamentations — were the vulgar character-
istics of the Empire in its power and in its powerlessness. The
Empire, baffled in its attempts for universal dominion, com-
plained of harsh treatment in the slang of cowards, and died
with a curse upon its lips and the love for assassination branded
on its heart. Thus the Empire was unworthy the historian's
pen, and only entitled to universal contempt. Soon men
ceased to contemplate the rotting carcase of a cowardly
butcher, and turned their attention and devoted their labor
to the building of freedom's altar on the ruins of despotism.
Resurrectionized in the dark, the Empire glided like a
stealthy burglar from place to place. It had no peace, and
wandered, like a doomed and troubled ghost in the midnight,
in the by-ways of the world. Shivering in the rags of past
glory, rags peeled from corruption, men passed with dis-
gust, contempt, avoidance, or forgetfulness. The Empire
wallowed in the lowest depths, without a golden crown to
dazzle, or imperial robes to conceal the revolting and destruc-
tive baseness of its nature. There was no repentance.
Troubles did not chasten the Empire in exile, nor soften with
purity its vileness, nor stem the torrent-tempest of its fiend-
ish passions. It bid defiance to humanizing tendencies, and
dwelt in the gutters of corruption. It amused itself by
repeating in miniature the art of plundering, the acts of
tyranny, and sullen obduracy to imblic opinion.
In London and New York gambling-houses, it chuckled
over its fraudulent accumulations, as, in its day of glory, it
had chuckled over its triumphs of blood. It il bilked" its
creditors, leaving the hotel-keepers " between two days," just
as once before the Empire had " bilked" small potentates,
and deceived great nations. It became a " special" constable
to prevent the imagined existence of a revolutionary out-
break — being true to itself, it resisted opinions with the
APPENDIX. 19
bludgeon, when not able to use the sword. It sneered at the
press, because the Press would not proclaim the existence of
greatness when no greatness was manifested. The Entire
would not or could not create a reputation out of noble
deeds — -it wanted a reputation made for it out of words —
mere words. In exile it wanted to repose, as it always has
reposed, on laurels grown and fashioned by other hands. The
Empire is lazy, knavish, deceptive, and murderous ; these
qualities were as strongly developed, under the circumstances,
in exile, as they have been in the chair of Imperial power.
The leopard cannot change its spots, nor thistles grow with-
out sharp-pointed thorns, nor despotism without being base,
brutal, and corrupting.
I have little space left to describe the Empire in Harness,
and must leap over, with a passing sentence, how the Em-
pire once more got in Harness.
France, full of faith and restlessness, fond of theories and
blood, priestly regalia and Imperial shows — panting for con-
quest without expense, and perpetual glory without a shadow
— glory sprinkled with sweetened water, and baptized with
human blood — threw herself into the arms of the Empire, a
second time, and has been well hugged. She joyously listen-
ed to words solemnly and oft-repeated, read proposed extir-
pating theories with eclat, and believed that the Empire that
had dispelled the dreams of a Robespeirre and a Condorcet
would eternally cover with the flowers of Socialism the land
of political stagnation. Some persons, we are told, never
learn, and some nations never remember. But the Empire
promised so finely, swore so well, went to church so regular-
ly, never missed mass, nor forgot confession ! Poor France !
She has got to learn what the poet knows, that
" He who is all faith is no faith at all."
Again, the Empire is in Harness, driving the chariot of
Despotism. For ten years it has luxuriated with a nation's
purse in its hand ; for ten years it has rioted with a nation's
faith in its keeping ; for ten years it has lived holding the
80 APPENDIX.
sway of a nation's power ; for ten years it has cajoled a peo-
ple — deceived great powers and tantalized small States.
Need the results he epitomized ? Intellectual death, pro-
gress put hack, war deified, successful villany sanctified by
vacillating traitors to the Cross, fair promises made to be a
mask for secret scoundrelism, slavery's chains covered with
rewards to cunning butchers and gambling financiers to con-
ceal disgusting moral rust, the temples of knowledge, the
wings of publicity, the halls of justice, the tribunal of legis-
lation, the schools of philosophy, the instructional abodes for
youth, are all being converted into a Pandemonium to minis-
ter to the brutalizing gyrations of a monster.
Yours, truly,
W. W. Beoom.
Park Lane, Liverpool.
"DONE TO PERFECTION."
THE FIRST PART.
THE SPECTRE.
A Spectre flits from place to place. Nervous, irritable,
feverish — it is ever restless, and knows not the soothing gen-
tleness of repose. Cold, icy, selfish — it seeks to become an
all-powerful Reality ! Born in the dark region of despot-
ism, nursed among political storms and dynastic convulsions,
it hates humanity, and would strike mankind with palsying
terror. It represents an Empire without land, and without
subjects — an Emperor without crown, without purple robes,
without a chair ! No home ! A miserable Spectre that
glides among the tents of strangers, unrecognized, unfeared.
Without a shirt, without a purse, after dismal wanderings —
succored by a woman's pitying heart.
Covered with the robes of pity — surrounded with the ele-
gancies of wealth — supported by Charity — still the Spectre
is grim, repulsive, devilish. Not warmed, though in the
mansion of affection. Not frank, though feasting at the
board of hospitality. Not easy, though every comfort is an-
ticipated. Generosity intensifies the Spectre's coldness,
APPENDIX. 81
gentleness deepens its feverish desire to " reign in hell/' It
gambles to learn skill, it prowls in gutters to study the
wriggling power of " black worms." It smells the fumes of
corruptions, and for a moment rejoices. It hears the bowl-
ings of " damned spirits," and for a day experiences a thrill
of delight. It sniffs the air of a million battle-fields (with
Caesar in the clouds), and swells in height and in bulk.
The only music that can charm the Spectre is — the sighs,
moans, and groans of the despised and oppressed.
But pity and charity dwelling in the heart of Beauty fed,
and clothed, and housed this monstrous Spectre. woe
supreme for the nations ! dreary disappointment for af-
fection ! The Shadow is becoming a Substance — the Spectre
is enlarging into Reality. It has cheated the poor, it will
cheat the rich. It has visited " Socialists," but it will make
an extinction of their hopes. Lodged in " the Tombs," it
will make a gilded tomb for freedom, and grow " green" as
it contemplates its genius. " It's only a Spectre !" mutter
the half-terrified fools. " It's only an unfortunate Spectre
made wretched by cruel adversity," apologetically breathes
forth the sweet voice of dear woman's sympathizing nature.
And while the people debate — the Spectre lives and moves,
and plots infamy. It is " Done to Perfection !"
THE SECOND PART.
THE MTJKDEEEE.
Years have flown away, how many it is bootless to count.
" Bilked" washerwomen have died. Abandoned democrats,
socialists, old friends and mistresses have wandered into Obliv-
ion. The haunts of politicians have been changed into
M dancing saloons." As you peer into " Coger's Hall," fresh
faces greet you with wondering eyes. Strange voices sound
forth the rhetoric of study. Afar off, rumbling sounds are
heard, lightning flashes across the valleys and twinkles above
the tallest mountain-tops. The earth shakes, thrones tot-
ter, and monarchs are pale with fear. More noisily booms
the thunder, more vividly flashes the lightning — and beneath,
the lurid rays above and the dark earth below, a Spectre is
82 APPENDIX.
borne along on Death's pale horse. More violently totter
the thrones, livid become the monarchs' cheeks. Destruc-
tion is moving among governments, and chaos is revelling
among coronets. Amid all, the Spectre is riding to save
" society'' — in time it will work to save Cesar !
Clearer is the atmosphere. The Spectre has been Deputy,
and is now President — pour quoi ! The Spectre has sworn to
save " society" (always " society" is the slang pronounced)
and " liberty, equality, and fraternity." It is arranging to
fulfil its promise.
Smoke, and fire, and blood — society is saved, saved by the
Spectre that has communed with CiESAR ! An oath has
been broken, justice has been derided and defied, the young
and the innocent have been MURDERED, philosophers and
patriots have been banished, dungeons have been filled — but
the Spectre has saved society !
Swing high the incense — chant boldly the harmonies — let
swords be rattled and muskets grounded — the Spectre sits in
a crimson room waiting to be crowned with Reality. The pale
horse now sleeps, Death has spread his pall over a nation's
sickness, no thunder booms, no lightning flashes — c'est
paix ! Was it not accomplished by the Spectre swiftly,
and " Done to Perfection" ?
The Spectre sleeps at last — and dreams. And here the
dream is mapped. — A woman's Spirit knelt beside the purple
bed, on finest carpet, beneath richest canopy. Crowns, and
sceptres, and a conquering sound (the sound of Cesar), and
a nation's revenues, shone upon the sleeper's sallow face. The
Spirit looked with mournful eyes. The beloved of pity and
of charity was the garotter of freedom, the murderer of national
conscience, and the breaker of a gentle woman's heart.
Around the kneeling Spirit appeared the souls of wronged
ones. Defrauded friends, orphaned children, deceived depu-
ties, defeated justice, outraged humanity, a bleeding generation
— a host of souls gathered around Heaven's kneeling Spirit,
once earth's joyous seraph. Still the sleeper slept soundly, for
APPENDIX. 83
he was under the "spell" inscribed upon a scroll held up at
the sleeper's feet by the Phantom of Cesar. But, in time,
the kneeling Spirit rose, and as it turned from the sleeper to
the Phantom, the souls departed and the sleeper woke ; woke
to hear a thousand, thousand curses hissing in his ears, and
to see his gorgeous room filled with dancing and grinning
fiends. He clutched the air, he writhed his body, he gasped
for u liberty," and as he spoke, the Phantom approached and
said — " Rise, take the pen, sit at the table, write my history
(Cesar's history !), then the fiends will depart, and for a lit-
tle while you may have peace ; but let the work be Done to
Perfection/' Was the command fulfilled ? Was the promised
peace obtained ? Or was it only and indeed a dream ?
THE THIRD PART.
THE SCRIBES.
In a splendid Cabinet a fidgety Scribe is giving peremptory
orders to engineers, librarians, consuls, antiquarians, type-
founders, and prefets of police. In a plain room, old and
new books on a common table, newspapers on the old-
fashioned chairs, a Student sits, contemplating his country's
misfortunes. Orders given, contemplation ended, the Stu-
dent becomes a Scribe, and the Scribes make notes and gath-
er materials — one for Julius Cesar, the other for Labienus.
One Scribe writes to appease his fears and dispel the world's
scorn ; the other Scribe writes to be the Nemesis of his coun-
try. The eyes of the first Scribe are furtive, canine-like ; the
eyes of the second Scribe are bright, peering, and mild. The
face of the first Scribe is dull and heavy as hate and crime
can make a Felon's features ; the face of the second Scribe is
bright and soft, beaming hope upon a nation's despondency.
As the first Scribe writes, his heart is filled with fears, his
mind with doubts. As the second Scribe writes, his heart is
filled with joy, his mind with confidence. The first Scribe
labors to produce a portentous Apology for Crime ; the second
Scribe works to scarify a people's shame. While the first
Scribes writes, the fiends watch and giggle ; while the second
6
84 APPENDIX.
Scribe writes, angels record the deeds of a good and bold
man's life. While the Scribes are writing (unseen by both),
an atmosphere from Gehenna gathers round the first, and
fragrant airs from Heaven encompass the other. Caesar looks
upon the one, Christ gazes upon the other.
The works of the Scribes are finished. The Spectre goes
forth as a Scribe and declares that he is the Ghost of C^sar,
and Labienus, in the garb of a Scribe, afiirms that the Ghost
is a mocking Fiend ! The world listens, hears both sides, and
judges that Labienus is right. The verdict pronounced is —
" The Spectre is a learned fool, a ponderous imbecile, made
ponderous through Absolutism, made imbecile through villa-
ny !" Verily the work of the second Scribe was
" DONE TO PERFECTION I"
THE LANASHIRE DISTRESS DURING THE AMERI-
CAN REBELLION.
LECTURE IN STEVENSON SQUARE.
Last night upwards of fifteen hundred people assembled in
Stevenson Square for the purpose of hearing a lecture de-
livered by Mr. W. W. Broom, on the " Present condition of
the operatives and shopkeepers of Lancashire." The lec-
turer spoke for an hour, and in that time passed in review
the causes that led to the present crisis. He was of opinion
that the war in America would last a considerable time
longer. He urged that Parliament should assist in keeping
the operatives now ; that the flow of liberality would not be
sufficient to maintain the people out of employment until
the crisis was passed ; and the Poor-Rates could not be in-
creased under the present unequal distribution of the work-
ing of the law. Not less than two millions of money ought
to be voted by Parliament. He intended carrying on the agita-
tion in favor of a Parliamentary grant until it was made.
The people, by a unanimous show of hands, expressed their
APPENDIX. 85
desire shat the lecturer should continue the agitation. This
meeting, which was quite orderly, is to be followed by others
on the same subject in the same place.
The Manchester Examiner and Times, March 24th, 1863.
MEETING OF OPERATIVES IN STEVENSON SQUARE.
Last evening Mr. W. W. Broom addressed a meeting of
operatives in Stevenson Square. The speaker announced
that he would "propose a plan to the rate-payers that would
save them from ruin, would rescue the unemployed from their
present perilous condition of dependence upon precarious
charity, and preserve Lancashire from physical prostration
and the country from moral degradation/' A cart was drawn
up near the lamp-post in the centre of the Square, and about
seven o'clock Mr. Broom made his appearance. There were
about fifteen hundred persons present. In the course of a
well-connected address, Mr. Broom urged the necessity of an
immediate grant of at least two millions pounds sterling from
the Consolidated Fund for the relief of the distressed, and con-
tended that the Lancashire operatives were as much entitled
to such a grant as the people of Ireland were^to the grant of
seven million pounds sterling during the period of the potato
famine. The whole of England had, he said, been enriched
by Lancashire, and in her nee ssity the county ought to be
supported by the nation. Much had been done by private
charity and by the machinery of the Poor Law, but they
could not expect a repetition of the splendid contributions
which had been made, and the poorer class of rate-payers
were becoming gradually impoverished. He would say to
the Guardians of the poor, and to the rich men of the city,
that if they did not fall in with his suggestion, and save the
small shopkeepers from beggary, the riot at Stalybridge was
but the sounding of the tocsin that would reverberate
throughout the whole county. He did not wish to excite any
prejudice against the Guardians or the Relief Committees, but
he contended that both would be brought to a dead-lock, and
that the only remedy for a national calamity was a national
grant. At the conclusion of his address the speaker asked
86 APPENDIX.
for an expression of opinion as to his sentiments, and received
an almost unanimous vote of approval. A man named
Fitton also addressed the meeting, which very quietly dis-
persed.
The Manchester Guardian, March 24th, 1863.
PROPOSED NATIONAL GRANT FOR LANCASHIRE.
Last evening Mr. W. W. Broom again addressed a large
meeting of operatives in Stevenson Square, in advocacy of
his proposal for a grant from the national Exchequer for the
relief of the distress in the manufacturing districts. He
said that hy the middle of next June two millions and a half
of money would be spent in feeding the unemployed opera-
tives. There must, however, soon come a limit to private
benevolence, and to the power of paying the Rates levied for
the relief of the poor. The Times told them that if Lan-
cashire was blotted out to-morrow, notwithstanding the
1,200,000 people usually employed, and the £8,000,000 float-
ing wages fund, England would still be plump and healthy.
It was cruel and insulting to talk in this way to people labor-
ing under misfortunes over which they could have no control.
The Times said that the people of Lancashire would degen-
erate into savages if they were well fed and had nothing to
do, and evidently wanted to drive the people to rebellion.
There would then be an argument against giving the people
any increase of political power. He regretted that misguided
boys should have acted so imprudently in Stalybridge and
Ashton-under-Lyne. In robbing the co-operative stores they
were actually robbing working men. The doers of these
deeds were poor fellows who were goaded on by men who
ought to know better. The working men of Lancashire who
countenanced the preachers of violence were countenancing
their own enemies. The behavior of the operatives in Pres-
ton and Blackburn, where the suffering was greatest, was a
better test of the good feeling that existed, than fifty places
like Stalybridge. The labor and wages of Lancashire had
helped to enrich all other parts of England. In their dis-
tress, the people of Lancashire were entitled to ask for national
APPENDIX. 87
assistance ; and he urged them to apply to the House of
Commons on its re-assembling after Easter for a grant of
£2,000,000 to feed the people until the return of employ-
ment. The speaker occupied the attention of the assembly
for about an hour and a half, and at the termination of his
address the meeting quietly dispersed.
The Manchester Guardian, March 31st, 1863.
PARLIAMENTARY GRANT ASSOCIATION.
Last evening, Mr. W. W, Broom again addressed a large
meeting of operatives, in Stevenson Square, in advocacy of
the proposed application to Parliament for a grant of
£2,000,000, for the relief of the distress in the manufactur-
ing districts. He stated that an Association had been formed
for the purpose of agitating the question. Two meetings
would be held in Manchester in the course of next week, and
a Memorial would be sent round for the signatures of the
rate-payers, asking the Mayor to convene a meeting of the
inhabitants. Arrangements were, also, being made for hold-
ing meetings in Preston, Blackburn, Bolton, and other places,
from all of which petitions would go up to the House of
Commons, asking for a national grant. The meeting, after
giving three cheers, as expressive of their agreement in the
sentiments of the speaker, quietly dispersed.
The Manchester Examiner and Times.
MEETING IN STEVENSON SQUARE.
Last night, a meeting of the unemployed operatives was
held in Stevenson Square, to receive a staterrent from the
Deputation appointed to wait upon the Manchester Board of
Guardians. Mr. W. W. Broom took the chair. Mr. Hart,
one of the Deputation, said the guardians had received them
courteously, and had referred them to the Mayor to endeavor
to get the Public Works Act put in operation. A similar
statement was made by Mr. Starkie, the other member of the
Deputation, and he gave it as his opinion that the Guardians
were not at all inclined to do anything more for them. The
88 APPENDIX.
Chairman then addressed the meeting. He blamed the rate-
payers of Manchester for their inaction in this matter. They
were very backward in paying the Poor-Rates. If they wished
to decrease those Kates, they should compel the corporation to
put the Public Works Act into operation. Those who had
now to live upon the relief granted by the Guardians would
then be enabled to subsist by labor. The unemployed ought
not to be put to stone-breaking and oakum-picking, as such
labor was only fit for criminals. When the Public Works
Act was made operative, the men would earn more money,
and be satisfied. It was ultimately decided that a Memorial
should be prepared to urge the Mayor to carry out the Pub-
lic Works Act in Manchester. A public meeting is to be
called to adopt the Memorial.
The Manchester Examiner and Times, Aug. 22, 1863.
MEETING OF UNEMPLOYED OPERATIVES IN STEVENSON
SQUARE.
A meeting of the unemployed operatives was held in Ste-
venson Square, last evening (Friday) r to receive the report of
the Deputation appointed to wait upon the Manchester Board
of Guardians. Mr. W. W. Broom was called upon to pre-
side. Mr. Hart, one of the Deputation, said the Guardians
had received them courteously, but had referred them to the
Mayor, to get the Public Works Act put into operation.
Mr. Starkie, the other member of the Deputation, made a
similar statement, and said the Guardians would do nothing
for them.
Mr. W. W. Broom then delivered a long address, in the
course of which he blamed the rate-payers of Manchester who
were very backward in paying the Poor-Rates, for not compel-
ling the corporation to put the Public Works Act into opera-
tion. If this was done, the Rates would be relieved, and
those who were at present in receipt of relief, would be ena-
bled to obtain an amount of pay for work which would serve
to maintain them. As the unemployed were only unfortu-
nate, and not criminals, they ought not to be put to the work
APPENDIX. oy
of criminals, stone-breaking and oakum- picking. They were
honest and unfortunate men who were being cruelly treated
at the present time. Let the Public Works Act be put into
operation ; they would earn more money, and would become
perfectly satisfied. Mr. Hart again addressed the meeting,
and said he had been surprised at the manner in which the
Guardians had treated their Memorial. He said the Guardians
reasoned that if they had starved the poor ten years ago, they
had a right to continue to do so. It was, in conclusion, de-
cided to draw up a Memorial to the Mayor, urging that the
Public Works Act should be put into operation. A meeting
would be called to confirm this Memorial, prior to its presen-
tation to the Mayor.
The Manchester Courier, Aug. 22, 1863.
ADDEESS TO THE EATE-PATEES OF LANCASHIEE.*
" The Central Executive Committee regret that the employment of work-
ingmen in cotton mills and loom-sheds has again undergone a considerable
REDUCTION."
" What is to be done next, we really do not know. We perceive that
at a meeting of operatives held in Stevenson Square on Monday evening,
Mr. W. W. Broom, in a remarkably temperate speech, urged the necessity
of an immediate grant of at least £2,000,000 from the Consolidated Fund,
contending that the Lancashire operatives are as much entitled to such a
grant as the people of Ireland were to the grant of £7,000,000 during the
period of the potato famine. Although there may be some doubt as to
the expediency of such a course, there is none as to its justice." —
Manchester Courier, March 28, 1863.
" The first point which is indisputable is, that funds will be forthcoming
in one shape or another, sufficient amply to meet the purpose ; and this
without laying any very grievous burden either on the county or the
nation. * * * But no one fancies that England or Lancashire cannot
maintain the unemployed operatives and those dependent upon them for
a year or two years if necessary, even although these should swell to
double their present number. Four or five millions, if properly levied
and adjusted, will not sink a ship like ours." — The Economist.
Kate-payees ! — The American war, that prevents Lanca-
shire from obtaining a full supply of Cotton, is still raging
* This address was written by W. W. Broom.
90 APPENDIX.
— the ranks of the unemployed are weekly on the increase —
public charity has diminished from £35,000 to £5,000 per
week — the Poor-Rate has been enormously increased, and
is still being largely extended — and, at present, before you
and the unemployed there is only a " dismal future." In
many towns, some of you are unable to meet the excessive
demands of the Guardians — nevertheless, the unemployed
must be fed. Numbers of you who are now paying the heavy
Rate will be unable to do so three months hence. As public
charity lessens, the Poor-Rate will be increased — and you
will be called on to pay, while your customers are disappear-
ing, and your business is dwindling away. If you can't pay
the enormous demand that the Guardians will have to make
within the next six months, your " stock in trade" and
household goods will be held in mortgage, or will be sold at
far below their value, and you will have to be added to the
mournful list of the unemployed. Such would be an accu-
mulation of calamities disastrous to the nation and fearful to
contemplate.
Until the American war terminates, your trade will remain
paralyzed, and a multitude of operatives and others will be
unable to earn the means necessary for life and health. You
must not be ruined by the mighty effort that is being made
to help those who cannot help themselves — nevertheless, the
people must be fed and housed.
There is only one way of extrication from the huge diffi-
culty — and the way is — a Parliamentary Grant of £2,000,-
000 (at once) for the Cotton District. The principle was
sanctioned by the late Sir Robert Peel, and was success-
fully adopted for the people of Ireland in the time of their
famine. Parliament adopted the principle of advancing
money to distressed agriculturists many years ago. What
was right in the case of Ireland cannot be wrong for Lanca-
shire. The unemployed ought to be kept by the nation, not
by a portion of the Rate-payers of one county. Lancashire
has enriched the whole nation, and will again do so when her
trade revives — hence, the nation is morally bound to contrib-
ute to her maintenance.
APPENDIX. 91
We earnestly urge you to join us, and subscribe to our
funds to enable us successfully to agitate throughout Lanca-
shire the necessity of an immediate Parliamentary Grant
for the unemployed, and for the preventing of your ruin.
Already Addresses have been delivered in the City of Man-
chester with marked success — the local and a part of the
London press have favorably reported the Addresses. We
desire to bring the subject before the attention of the House
of Commons.
Rate-payees ! — be wise and be firm, unite to save your-
selves frorn Ruin, firmly demand that the general taxation of
the nation be devoted to keeping the unemployed until the
Americans sheathe their swords, or until an adequate supply
of Cotton can be obtained from other Cotton fields, — then
our misfortunes will dissolve and disappear, like a cloud be-
fore the generous and majestic sun !
April 2d, 1863.
Committee-Rooms, 8, Port street, Manchester.
THE ANTI-SOUTHERN LECTURER.*
" Nothing would induce us to believe that Slavery was anything but a
foul blot upon the Southern institutions." — Lord Whaencliffe ; Speech at
the "Southern Soiree."
" Was their cause (the Southerners') so just, was their success so mani-
fest, that they were entitled to recognition ? Why, their cause, so far as
he had been able to discover what it was, was not one to recommend itself
to the sympathies of this country ; they had, apparently, by a wanton act,
broken up the greatest empire which the modern world has seen. They
* These reports are copied from the English press, as matters of his-
torical curiosity. They indicate the difficulties friends of the North had
to undergo, and the contemptible way in which Northern advocates were
reported. When facts could not be gainsaid, the proclaimer of the facts
was maligned — when arguments could not be refuted, the arguer was im-
perfectly, incorrectly, or scarcely reported. When the advocate persisted
in continuing his advocacy, intimidation and violence were resorted to,
while pretended liberals looked coldly on. All that has passed away. The
writer is satisfied with seeing the North victorious, and counts his strug-
gles and sacrifices as one of the bright eras in his life.
92 APPENDIX.
were, so far as any MANIFESTOES they put forth were concerned, wanton
revolutionists." — Mr. Massey, M. P. ; Speech in Salford, January ■ 8th,
1864.
" England would have* been for ever infamous if, for the sake of her own
interest, she had violated the law of nations, and made war in conjunc-
tion with the Slaveholding States of America, against the Federal States."
— Earl Russell ; Speech at Blairgowrie.
" Every prominent politician, and particularly those that belonged to
that district of the country, had thrown the whole weight of their powers
into the Northern scale." — J. M. Cobbett, M. P. ; Speech at Oldham,
January 28th, 1864.
We, the undersigned, have great pleasure in testifying to
the talents, consistency, and zeal of W. W. Broom, on be-
half of the Northern side of the American question. He
spoke continuously on behalf of the North, long before any
society was established in Lancashire. We gladly inform
those gentlemen who are strangers to Mk. Broom, that any
Subscriptions or Donations that he may solicit and obtain
(or that may be solicited and obtained on his behalf by
authorized persons), will be faithfully and honorably spent
in counteracting the designs and influence of Southern
agents.
J. C. Long, 247 Bradford Road, Manchester.
T. Crabtree, 2 Tiverton Place, Ardwick.
E. Thomas, Oak Bank, Sale Moor, Cheshire.
F. Crabtree, 92 Lord Street, Southport.
W. Hibbert, 4 Bank Terrace, Cheetham.
A. Crabtree, Bank House, Openshaw.
T. Morris, Fetter Lane, Manchester.
C. Hadfield, Radcliffe, near Bury.
Thomas Bostock, 4 Bond Street, Manchester.
MARYPOKT.
The American War. — The Liberals of Maryport engaged
Mr. W. W. Broom to give two lectures on the American
war, in the Athenasum. The chair each evening was judi-
ciously filled by Mr. Collins. There were as many ladies as
gentlemen present, who often testified their approval with
great applause. The lectures were elaborate — being histor-
APPENDIX. 93
ical, political, and moral. He termed slaveholders " human
pirates sailing on the high seas of humanity, under the black
flag of moral desolation." At the close of the lectures the
following resolution was moved by Mr. Collins, seconded by
Mr. I. Fletcher, and unanimously passed :
" Resolved, That in the opinion of this meeting the English government
must continue to observe a strict Neutrality ; but if, during the progress
of events, it is deemed desirable to express any opinion, the English peo-
ple will give their sympathy for Freedom and not for Slavery — for the
American Union, and not for the destruction of that magnificent home of
our brave and industrious offspring."
Appropriate remarks were made by Mr. Collins and Mr. I.
Fletcher.
Carlisle Examiner, Dec. 2, 1862.
OVER DARWES.
The American Question Again. — On Thursday even-
ing a meeting was held in the Assembly room, when Mr.
Broom, of Manchester, addressed the meeting, and criticised
the writings of Joseph Barker. At some length he noticed
Mr. Barker's very frequent change of opinions, and stated that
Mr. Barker was not a man to rely upon, and wrote and taught
according to the pay he received. Mr. J. Knowles Fish very
warmly replied to Mr. Broom, and stated that Mr. Barker
would again shortly be in Darwin. Mr. Fish became some-
what excited, and spoke with vehemence. Mr. J. Beckett,
who presided, had much difficulty in maintaining order. A
vote of thanks to Mr. Broom and the chairman terminated
the proceedings.
Preston Guardian, Aug. 29, 1863.
THE WRITINGS AND LECTURES OF JOSEPH
BARKER.
On Tuesday evening, Mr. W. W. Broom delivered an ad-
dress in the Temperance Hall, Hyde, " in reply to the writ-
ings and lectures of Mr. Joseph Barker on the ' American
War — the ivhole question explained ;' the character, false-
hoods, fallacies, and insults of this apostate to the cause of
94 APPENDIX.
freedom, exposed ; the imbecility of this pompous and false
prophet and slaveholders' advocate proved from his own Re-
view; the effects of slavery and freedom, the duty of Lan-
cashire, and the doings of the North clearly stated by impar-
tial witnesses." Mr. Willis Knowles occupied the chair, and
briefly introduced
Me. Broom, who opened his discourse by defining the
course he intended to pursue — to show that Mr. Barker was
an inconsistent man, and that he would utterly deny the in-
stincts of his heart, would utterly falsify the sympathies of
his own soul for the purpose of enriching his own pocket.
Before entering fully into the question he would give a speci-
men or two of Mr. Barker's inconsistency. Some time ago
they had a meeting in the Free-Trade Hall, Manchester,
and it was well known that Joseph Barker received money
to go and destroy the liberties of that meeting. The two
following nights Mr. Barker was announced to deliver two
addresses in the Corn Exchange, but was prevented from do-
ing so, because the people would not listen to him. The first
night Mr. Barker sat on the platform a long time, and to
pass time away, ate his supper before the eyes of his audience.
The meeting dispersed without hearing Mr. Barker ; and
the second night was as unsuccessful as the first. He (Mr.
Broom) made it his business to be present before the chair
was taken, and the whole of the audience were in the streets
again at a quarter past eight o'clock, with him (Mr. Broom)
at their head, on their way to hold an opposition meeting in
another part of the city. On looking over the pages of his
Review a fortnight after, it was found that at those meetings
resolutions were put and carried by overwhelming majorities.
Again, only a few weeks ago, Mr. Barker was lecturing in the
Unitarian School-room, Newton Heath, when the chair was
occupied by a gentleman who had voted that Mr. Barker
should have the use of the room. Mr. Luke Pollard rose to
move a resolution, when Joseph Barker objected, saying "I
will not allow you to speak ; I have taken this room ; the
room is mine." The chairman refused to put the motion,
being afraid of displeasing Mr. Barker. However, it was put
APPENDIX. 95
to the meeting in defiance of the chairman, not a single hand
being held up against it. It has been said in the Hyde
newspaper, that wherever Mr. Barker went he carried res-
olutions. Well, Joseph Barker went to Southport, and al-
though one of the richest men in Southport was in the
chair, the audience did not number more than sixty persons,
the majority of whom were Northerners. At the end of the
lecture, a vote of thanks was proposed to the lecturer. An
amendment was made that Mr. Barker should receive the
thanks of the meeting when he had proved the statements
he had made to be true. The amendment was carried.
When Mr. Broom's friend, Mr. Cooper, wished to say a
few words, he was tola he might ask a question, but not
make a speech. Was that fair and honorable discussion ?
At the commencement of the war it was stated that the
Kebellion would be subdued in ninety days, and when
Joseph Barker had a chance he would crack a joke over this
prophecy ; in fact it was the only thing he could make a joke
of. He would show them what sort of a prophet Joseph
was. In his Review of the 14th of December, 1861, he pre-
dicted that "it is all but certain that in less than thirty
days the Northern States of America, and England will be
at war." On January the 18th, 1862, he wrote, " There is
now no further prospect of a war between America and Eng-
land ;" therefore, when Joseph Barker ridiculed Northern
prophets, he should remember his own false prophecy. At
the present time Joseph Barker was very pious. He (Mr.
Broom) was not ridiculing true piety, but they knew how
quickly Joseph Barker's features changed when he was de-
picting with sublime pathos the sufferings endured by the
people of this neighborhood, during this horrible and dread-
ful war. It was a dreadful war, no doubt, but no one heard
Joseph Barker lift up his voice against the Crimean war ;
no one heard him speak of the sacrifices then made without
a single political object being accomplished. The lecturer
then entered at length into the American question, contrast-
ing the writings of Mr. Barker, which he denounced as
wilful misrepresentations when first written, or that he was
96 APPENDIX.
guilty of telling falsehoods now. We are sorry our space
will not allow us to continue our report, as the lecture was
a most instructive and eloquent one.
At the close of the address, discussions being allowed, Mr.
Kenyon made a few pithy observations on the American ques-
tion, which were replied to by the lecturer, and the meeting
terminated peaceably.
The North Cheshire Herald, Sept. 26, 1863.
STOCKPORT.
On Tuesday evening Mr. Broom was announced to deliver
an address in the Northern interest, «at the Oddfellows' Hall,
Stockport. The room was well filled, but Mr. Broom was
unable to proceed with his address, in consequence of the
uproar caused by the audience.
Manchester Guardian, Oct. 29, 1863.
A similar notice to the above (of the same date) appeared
in the Manchester Courier.
Public Meeting on the American War. — An amusing
scene was enacted at the Oddfellows' Hall on Tuesday even-
ing, on the occasion of a lecture being delivered, or, rather,
attempted to be delivered, by Mr. W .W. Broom, of Manches-
ter, in " reply to the speeches and letters of Mr. T. B. Ker-
shaw, and the lecture of the Rev. E. A. Verity." The hall
was far from being filled, but the audience manifested no
particular Northern proclivities. At the time appointed, the
lecturer made his appearance on the platform, and after a
brief pause proceeded with his address, dispensing with the
usual formality of appointing a chairman. The audience,
however, did not seem disposed to pass over the omission, and
interrupted the speaker with frequent calls to " Get a chair-
man/' &c, mingled with certain mysterious allusions to the
antecedents of the lecturer, intelligible only to those who were
in the secret. In vain the lecturer tried to get " on" his sub-
ject, and no sooner did he mention the name of T. B. Ker-
shaw than he was met with a round of cheers, and informed
APPENDIX. 91
" Kershaw's th' mon we want ;" others, somewhat curious,
asked — " Who sent thee here ?" while others again, appa-
rently anxious for his welfare, kindly admonished him to " Glo
whoam." At last, to the infinite delight of the audience,
the lecturer resumed his seat, saying that if they wanted ten
minutes' rest he would give it them. The opportunity
was not unimproved by the meeting, a great part of whom
began to chant the elastic American ditty of " John Brown's
Body," with a rattling chorus of " Glory Hallelujah." The
noise having a little subsided, the lecturer once moie rose and
complimented his hearers upon their musical abilities. He
assured them that he would listen to them if they would not
listen to him. He also told them that he was of "a most
amiable disposition," and that " it would take a great deal
to ruffle his temper," but the next minute proved the weak-
ness of human nature by getting into a passion and pouring
out a volley of choice epithets which we cannot sully our
columns with by repeating. This, of course, rendered " con-
fusion worse confounded," and at last the lecturer " packed
up" his papers and hastily left the room amidst mingled
cheers and groans. An attempt was afterwards made to
continue the meeting in one of the lower rooms of the Hall,
but the Southern element again proved too strong, and the
idea was abandoned.
The Stockport and Cheshire County News, October 31st, 1863.
The American War. — The internecine contest now un-
fortunately raging between the Federals and Confederates in
America seems to be furnishing pabulum for all the hired
spouters in the country, if they can make anything by the
spec. A j3erson with Northern proclivities, calling himself
W. W. Broom, a pseudo-writer about slavery, from Manches-
ter, came over to the Oddfellows' Hall on Tuesday night,
to riddle the letters and speeches of Mr. T. B. Kershaw and
Rev. Dr. Verity, made in this town in defence of the South.
The price of admission was one penny, and a companion
named Co well collected money at the entrance door. Mr.
Broom's antecedents ha vino; arrived in town before that in-
98 APPENDIX.
dividual was enabled to reach the Hall, a pretty sprinkling
of Southern sympathizers hastened to get possession of good
places. There was a fair muster of hearers, but in the end
Broom was not permitted to open his philippic ; and not-
withstanding the gravity which his spectacles gave him, and
the animated appeals for order, not a syllable could be heard
touching either Mr. Kershaw or the Doctor of Divinity.
The scene on the platform from the end of the room was a
sort of pantomime ; there was plenty of gesticulation, such
as moving of arm, heads, and legs, but not a word could be
heard. The contagion spread into the body of the room, and
here and there were knots engaged in animated disputations,
which lasted near an hour. This made " confusion worse
confounded," in the midst of which, the peripatetic lecturer
and his friend managed to escape — pennies and all — and
speedily these Northern spirits were on their way, per rail, to
Manchester. The only distinct voices in the meeting were
those who clamored for the return of the money ; and be-
cause they could not get it, or see any sign of it, they turned
round and " ratted" those who justified the visit of the fugi-
tive lecturer, " or any other man." The Police were fre-
quently sent for to preserve order, but the fragmentary meet-
ing eventually adjourned from the Hall to the room below,
where certain patriotic Yankee speakers were treated un-
ceremoniously. The porter at length contrived to clear the
building and close the doors ; but a few lessons on North
and South fisticuffs were given outside, though with no other
result than a hint from the Northerners that they will soon
be straight with their opponents for stopping the legitimate
proceedings of this meeting
The Stockport Advertiser, October 31st, 1863.
FREE SPEECH PREVENTED BY THE SOUTH-
ERNERS.
To the Editor of the Stockport and Cheshire County News :
Sie : Yesterday I visited Stockport to deliver an address
in the Oddfellows' Hall, in reply to the speeches and letters
APPENDIX. 99
of the Eev. E. A. Verity and T. B. Kershaw. Before
reaching the Hall, I was informed that a party had been or-
ganized to prevent me speaking, and to inflict personal vio-
lence upon me. At the time announced, I appeared on the
platform, and commenced my address by informing the au-
dience that it was my constant practice to allow any person,
at the close of my address, to ask any questions, and to reply,
if they chose, to my statements ; therefore, I requested a
calm and patient hearing. In five minutes it was evident
that the organized party was present, I was not allowed to
proceed, and, after making three efforts, I dissolved the
meeting.
I left the platform and entered the ante-room to receive
and settle accounts. While talking to a few friends, the
door was burst open, and the room was immediately filled with
the organized mob. During nearly two hours I was "block-
aded" by the ruffians of Stockport. At last, with difficulty,
two persons managed to leave the room, to take a message
from me to the Police Office, stating that my life was in dan-
ger. The police were sent, and, under their protection, I was
escorted to a friend's house.
Thus, in your town, the courtesy due to a stranger was not
aAvarded me — the privileges of an Englishman were denied
me — the rights of a Citizen were destroyed — the laws of our
land were broken — honest men, who had paid their money,
were not allowed to receive my address — calm and grave de-
liberation in public on questions involving the welfare, prog-
ress, and freedom of humanity, was prevented by an organ-
ized conspiracy against public morality, free speech, and fair
play.
How long will the people of Stock port submit to Southern
despotism ?
Yours, respectfully,
W. W. Broom.
Salford, October 27, 1863.
This letter has been freely posted on the walls of Manches-
ter and other places, with the following note appended :
7
100 APPENDIX.
" The above letter appeared in the Stockport and Cheshire
County News, and in the North Cheshire Herald, of October
31st, 1863. The friends of FKEE SPEECH, who are the
stern opponents of organized ruffianism and Southern despot-
ism, are requested to place this placard on the walls in the
towns they inhabit. Working Men ! Resist the enemies of
freedom, the foes of commercial enterprise, the obstacles to
manufacturing industry, and the haters of Well-Paid FREE
laborers. Do not allow free speech and public deliberation
to be garotted by the sympathizers with Slave-mongers ; do
not permit Slave-mongers to drive their blood-stained car
over the ruins of Christian Civilization. No longer have the
Heavens darkened with the Black banner of men-stealers ;
nor have the mountains startled from their majestic repose by
the hideous exulting shout of the receivers of stolen men, se-
duced women, and kidnapped children."
ME. BKOOM'S LECTUKE.
Last Tuesday evening, Mr. W. W. Broom gave a lecture
in the Temperance Hall, George street, which was announced
by a couple of placards distributed through the town, one of
which set forth that the lecturer would criticise the writings
of Mr. Joseph Barker and Mr. T. B. Kershaw, and the other
was addressed to the people of Hyde, as follows :
" People of Hyde ! For the sake of truth and justice, for
the sake of your dignity as subjects of a great and glorious
nation, for the sake of universal Civilization, it is necessary
that you should have ' correct information on the American
question.' You should, if possible, understand the objects,
comprehend the views, ascertain the movements of the South-
ern Independence Association. To assist you in the difficult
task, Mr. W. W. Broom will read the Prospectus of the
Southerners of Hyde, on Tuesday evening, Nov. 3, 1863,
in the Temperance Hall, G-eorge street, Hyde. He will
point out its morality — its grammar — its political economy
— its confusion — its ignorance — its peace principle — and its
selfishness."
APPENDIX.
101
Mr. Willis Knowles was appointed chairman, and briefly
introduced the lecturer, who said he felt somewhat pleased in
being present that night, because on a former occasion when
he visited Hyde he obtained a fair, patient, and a candid
hearing, and this had been the case wherever he had gone,
save and except the previous Tuesday evening at Stockport,
where the lovers of progress and the admirers of freedom had
conspired together to prevent him speaking ! Before he ar-
rived at the place where he was to lecture, he had heard of
the conspiracy, and was therefore aware there would be no
lecture. For two hours he was blockaded, and at last he was
compelled to call in the assistance of the police, as he had
stated in a letter addressed to the editor of the Hyde paper.
That letter he intended to have reprinted and posted on the
walls of Lancashire, so that it might be known by the work-
ing men the influence that was brought to bear by the South-
ern sympathizers in this country. Before proceeding with
his lecture, he would read a Challenge to some of the chiefs
of the Southern cause in England. He then read as fol-
lows :
A Challenge to Beresford Hope, Esq., James Spence,
Esq., and the Eev. E. A. Verity :
Gentlemen : As you are the Advocates for, and the Kepre-
sentatives of, the interests of the Southern Confederate States
— as you are trying to persuade the English people to Sym-
pathize with the Southern Secessionists, and are trying to in-
duce our Government to Recognize the Southern Confederate
States — I thus publicly Challenge each one of you to meet
me in public, to discuss, in London, or in Manchester, or
in Leeds, or in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the following propo-
sitions :
1st. That Slavery is the only cause of the Secession of the
Southern States, and that the Southern Confederate States
are being baptized in blood, for the purpose of maintaining
and extending Slavery.
102 APPENDIX.
2d. That to Recognize a Confederacy that is based on
Slavery, for the purpose of extending Slavery, would be a
crime against the progress of man, and blasphemy against
God.
I will undertake to prove the affirmative of these proposi-
tions, leaving to each one of you the task of negativing and
disproving them.
Gentlemen — If you sincerely believe that you are on the
right side — if you zealously believe that your opinions are
sound — you will not be ashamed to have with me a " free and
open encounter" before the people of England.
Hopefully inviting your acceptance of this public Chal-
lenge,
I remain, gentlemen, yours respectfully,
W. W. Broom.
Salford, Nov. 3d, 1863.
That Challenge he intended to have printed and posted on
the walls of Manchester and neighborhood next week. The
lecturer then analyzed the Prospectus issued by the Southern
Association, and declared that he would cheerfully meet any
of the gentlemen named in the Challenge to discuss the sub-
ject referred to, but he disdained to meet such a man as Mr.
Kershaw. The lecturer then alluded to the conduct of Mr.
Kershaw at the Mechanics' Institution last week, when he
attempted to palm upon his hearers a spurious document.
At the conclusion of the lecture, the meeting was thrown
open for discussion, but no person availing himself of the
opportunity given, Mr. Broom made a few more observations,
in which he made some very grave charges against Mr. Ker-
shaw. Votes of thanks to the lecturer and chairman con-
cluded the proceedings.
North Cheshire Herald, Nov. 7th, 1863.
MIDDLETON.
The American War. — On Monday evening a lecture
was delivered in the Temperance Hall, on the fallacies and
APPENDIX. 103
falsehoods of Mr. J. Barker with, respect to the American
war. The lecturer was Mr. Broom, of Manchester ; and the
address consisted of extracts read from Mr. Barker's recent
publications on the civil war in America, which were con-
trasted in order to show their inconsistency and consequent
unworthiness. Mr. Broom spoke about two hours, and was
repeatedly applauded. At the close, a vote of thanks was
passed to him.
Rochdale Observer, Oct. 10, 1863.
THE AMERICAN WAE AND MR. JOSEPH BARKER.
On Monday evening last a lecture was delivered in the
Temperance Hall, Middleton, by Mr. W. W. Broom, of Man-
chester, on the above subjects. The lecturer, on rising to
address the audience, began by observing that some time ago
he read in one oi* the Oldham papers a very long account of
the state of feeling in Middleton upon the American question.
It was an account which made one imagine they were all a
set of gladiators in this neighborhood, so strong was the
feeling. It went on to say that families had become
unsettled, friends separated, and he came to the conclu-
sion that they were in a state of disorder. Judging from
the audience that night, he imagined that the inces-
sant rain had made many afraid to turn out, and that
their courage was cooled. Since he had entered the
town that evening, he had ascertained that some of the
Southern gentlemen had manifested their great love of public
investigation, and full public inquiry, in some cases, by de-
stroying the placards placed on the walls. A placard was to
have been read in the Hall, but some one of Southern pro-
clivities had destroyed it. A placard exhibited in a certain
place in town had met with a similar fete. After the above
remarks, Mr. Broom said they had to do that evening with a
gentleman of the Southern Club, who had been sent out, as
it was said, for the instruction of the people, but he (Mr.
Broom) would show them for the purpose of misleading the
people. One known not only in the manufacturing districts,
104 APPENDIX.
not only in the midland counties, but in all the counties of
England, as a man possessing influence on theological and
other questions. One who had been retained by the Southern
sympathizers as one of their champions. Mr. Broom said
there were ceitain qualities which a man should have when
he intended to appear before the public. In the first place,
he should be consistent, and secondly, when a false statement
was made, he should be able to recognize it, so that he might
be prepared to advocate and defend his opinions in season and
out of season ; but whatever might be the consequences —
whether poverty or riches ; whatever might be the opinions
of the public in contradistinction to his own, a man should
be firm in the principles he enunciated. The speaker then
charged Mr. Barker with having wilfully and malignantly
proclaimed falsehoods for the sake of obtaining money ; and
with publishing and causing to be published erroneous reports
of his proceedings at the various places where he had been
lecturing. Mr. Broom read an extract from a statement of
Mr. Barker's which said, " that the negro was treated as
badly in the North as South — was not allowed to vote," etc.,
whereas in the States of Vermont, Massachusetts, Khode
Island, and Maine, the negro was allowed a vote, not only
upon local matters but upon other questions concerning his
interests, without any property qualification. In the State
of New York the negro had a vote if he possessed a small
amount of property. Another statement of Mr. Barker's
was, " That the Old Republican Party had declared that they
had neither the intention nor the wish to give the negro his
liberty." When and where did the Republican Party say
this ? It was incorrect. After referring to the Fugitive
Slave Law, Mr. Broom said that the Republican Party was
formed in L852. Before the commencement of the war Mr.
Barker prophesied, " That the North would never conquer
the South," and was continually ridiculing the old u ninety
days." In 1861 he said, " That in less than thirty days the
Northern States and England would be at war." And in
January, 1862, " There is now no further prospect of a war
between America and England," so that when Joseph Barker
APPENDIX. 105
took upon himself to prophesy, he ought to have remembered
that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
He was then playing one card. At the beginning of the
war the Southerners were going to thrash the Northerners.
Mr. Barker must have been talking with the senators at
Montgomery, and they had told him that there was plenty of
cotton — but they did not say where it was — and that if Lan-
cashire could not get it, she would turn out in a general
melee. He (Mr. Broom) might say that with all the contriv-
ances in support of the South, in the shape of ships for the
Emperor of China, Gregory's Pills from Scotland, etc., Slav-
ery was doomed. It was Vicksburgh to-day, Chattanooga
the day following, and so on, until all the South would be
conquered by the Federal arms. Joseph Barker was now
playing another card — appealing to the feelings of the men
and women of England — denouncing " This cruel war — this
barbarous war — this war of subjugation by the North. Never
was there the same number of orphans made ; never was
there such a war in the days of the Boses, and Puritans/'
War was horrible, they knew, but there was a time in the
history of nations when matters had to be settled by physical
force, to destroy despotism. Mr. Barker says, " John Bright
is a clever man, and has been delivering an address in Koch-
dale, but John Bright knows nothing about the American
question." So with Cairnes and Mill, but Joseph Barker
had been to America, and knew all about it ! He said (once
upon a time) the government of America was the best friend
of the working man ; no dukes nor earls there, pensioned on
the London docks ; no princesses nor kings ; no State Church?
grinding the people and robbing them ; there the poor man
could sit under his own vine and fig-tree. Thus Mr. Barker
wound his way into the hearts of the Working Classes of
England. Did he tell them to go to the South ? No, for
he said that " in the South there was despotism, tyranny,
and immorality ; where a man was not allowed to express
his individual opinions, but in the North there was honor.'
Now Mr. Barker said that he could go anywhere in the
South, and lecture upon any subject, and that he had done
106 APPENDIX.
so. Where did he go down South ? He went to New Or-
leans, and lectured upon slavery ; standing before French
Creoles and slaveholders, telling them " that he had re-con-
sidered the whole question (he was always re-considering
questions), and that the Northern Abolitionists had misin-
formed him, for he had found that slavery was a very com-
fortable institution." Mr. Broom read extracts from Bar-
ker's Review. Mr. Pollard, the editor of the Richmond Ex'
aminer, and Colonel SchafTner said that because the South-
erners were defeated in the elections, they resolved to secede.
By a similarity he might say that Lord Palmerston had suc-
ceeded in gaining the ascendency at the elections, whereupon
the Earl of Derby, who was the opposing candidate, would
endeavor to divest him of his office, because of his success,
by causing a tumult among the people. Mr. Lindsay had
the impudence to say that the North was not " sincere."
Mr. Roebuck had said that the North was the " greatest
bully in the world." He (Mr. Broom) wondered how any
man could have the audacity to denounce twenty millions of
people. " The Southerners were determined that if they
were not allowed to govern the country, they would at least
govern themselves." So that it was quite evident that slav-
ery was at the bottom, top, and middle of the war. Mr.
Barker was foud of talking about duty, and advising work-
ing men to do it, and said that, viewed in the light of the
Constitution, and in a rational light, the Southerners were
only doing their duty. Was it the duty of Floyd to send
arms down South from the arsenals in the North ? Was it
right to rob the public Treasury, or fire upon Fort Sumter ?
Was it right for them to proclaim that no cotton should
come to England until the government either Recognised the
South, or broke the blockade ? After quoting Mr. Barker's
views on the duty of the North, in contradistinction to what
he had previously said, and making extracts from Barker's
Review, Mr. Broom eulogized Northern partisans, and said
that the majority of those who were in favor of Southern
slaveholders, were against the interests of working men. It
was generally the Tory interest. The very paper in London
APPENDIX. 107
that was for the South, had its correspondent " Manhattan"
in New York, was the Tory Herald. The Manchester Cour-
ier, the Tory paper, had the folly to tell them that the North
was almost exhausted. They should remember that America
had been the home of poor Irishmen, who, not being able to
succeed in this country, had been welcomed there, and had
succeeded in gaining a comfortable livelihood. America was
the home of a vast number of Germans and others, who had
crossed the dancing Atlantic to flee from oppression and
poverty in Europe. Yet there were men in this country
trying to bury the free institutions of America in the very
depths of oblivion. Virginia gave birth to Jefferson, one of
the noblest men, and he, like Washington, bequeathed in his
will that the slaves on his estate should be set free at his
death. There was a certain entail on the property of Wash-
ington, but his noble wife acquiesced in her husband's decis-
ion. If the Southerners did not abolish slavery when cotton-
growing was not extensively carried on, was it likely that
they would do it now ? South Carolina, the first State that
seceded from the Union, was thoroughly honest in the Decla-
ration she set forth as her reasons for seceding, and they
must give her credit for that. She said that from the very
commencement of the Federal Constitution it was intended
to destroy slavery. That it was the general impression, at
that time, that Slavery would cease to be. The people had
gradually become imbued with Northern sentiments, by
the medium of public meetings, periodicals, newspapers, etc.
The weekly and daily Tribune penetrated the Southern
States. They were over-mastered by the press, the pulpit,
and by many States' laws. Such was South Carolina's Dec-
laration. Mississippi followed, and not a single orator in the
South has dared to say that Slavery was not the cause of
the civil war. — (Hear, hear.) Mr. Broom concluded by de-
nouncing Mr. Barker, as the Judas of freedom, who had re-
ceived the blood-money, and sold himself to the enemies of
mankind.
Previous to resuming his seat, Mr. Broom said that his in-
tention was to visit all the towns where Mr. Barker had
108 APPENDIX.
been, to expose his fallacious reasoning, but when there was
an insufficient attendance, he was obliged to canvass for pri-
vate subscriptions to defray expenses. He was not in the
pay of the Union and Emancipation Society, nor of any
other body, but depended upon private assistance.
It was moved by Mr. Commissioner J. Hilton, seconded by
Mr. Richard Holden, that a vote of thanks be presented to
Mr. Broom, and the proceedings terminated about half-past
nine. Q
Middleton Albion, Oct. 6, 1863.
CONFUTATION" OF THE STATEMENTS OF ME.
JOSEPH BARKER, ON THE AMERICAN WAR.
On Monday evening last, a lecture was delivered in the
Temperance Hall ; the subject in reality being the heading
above. Had it not been for a slight accident at the close of
the lecture, the lecturer's name would not have been known,
as it was not announced on the placard. There was no chair-
man, and the platform was occupied by the lecturer alone.
Prior to making any statement with regard to the lecture,
it may be well to clear up a small error which either the lec-
turer or the correspondent of the Oldham Times has commit-
ted. Subsequently to the commencement of his lecture, Mr.
Broom, for that was his name, said that he had read some
time ago, in the Oldham Times, a lengthy article on the
state of feeling in Middleton in regard to the American war.
He said that article set forth that the feeling in Middleton
was such that friends became estranged in consequence of the
opposite views taken, and thought that either the article was in
error, or the continued wet weather had " cooled the courage"
of the Middleton people. It may be said that the article re-
ferred to was the result of careful observation, and of infor-
mation received from reliable sources. That there ivas great
excitement was evident from the groups of people discussing
the pros and cons of the matter until midnight, and recom-
mencing when the day broke. Scores of people can testify
to the fact that blows were threatened. Indeed, our corre-
APPENDIX. 109
spondent himself had to beat an ignominious retreat in order
to escape a blow aimed at a prominent portion of his physi-
ognomy. It is absolutely necessary to make these statements,
— first, because the respectability of a newspaper rests, in the
main, on the truthfulness of the articles it contains ; and
secondly, to show the real error which caused the failure of
the meeting. The placards announcing the meeting were
posted on the walls of the town at or near midnight, and
they were of such a nature that the printer did not affix his
name, neither was the name of the lecturer read thereon. It
went on to say that a lecture would be delivered on the
American war ; " the whole question explained, in answer
to the writings and lectures of J. Barker ; the character,
falsehoods, fallacies and insults of this apostate of freedom
will be exposed ; the imbecility of this pompous and false
prophet and slaveholders' advocate will be proved from his
Review," &c, &c. The lecturer made some complaints that
some gentleman of Southern proclivities had torn down and
defaced his bills. This may be true ; but it is true that many
gentlemen of Northern proclivities condemned the said bill
as opposed to all forms of decency, and calculated to endanger
the plans they have marked out for the preservation of unity
in America, and for the emancipation of the slave ; for what-
ever failings the people of Middleton may have with regard
to this momentous question, they will at least see that their
cause is advocated honestly ; nor will they offer any undue
advantage to either side however weak, or suffer one immoral
action that may hurt the feelings of their antagonists. Any
course short of fair dealing and legitimate argument on a sub-
ject of such vast importance, is such as their sensibility can
never forget, and such as their self-respect can never forgive.
Therefore, those sympathizing with the South would not
countenance the meeting, and those of the North were asham-
ed to attend — hence the failure. It is certainly painful to
make statements diametrically opposed to views held ; but
the truth must be told. Kegarding the lecture, it showed
that Mr. Broom confined himself chiefly to contrasting state-
ments made by Mr. Barker one with the other. This was
110 APPENDIX.
the work of two hours, during which time Mr. Broom was
frequently applauded ; and, at the close of the lecture, the
thanks of the meeting were accorded to him.
Oldham Times.
W. W. BROOM'S REPLY TO JOSEPH BARKER.
On Monday and Tuesday evenings (July 6th and 7th,
1863), Mr. W. W. Broom, of Salford, delivered addresses in
the Co-operative Hall, Oldham, on the American question,
in answer to the Writings and Lectures of Mr. Joseph
Barker. During the latter end of last week two or three
attractive placards were issued for the purpose of calling at-
tention to the lectures, and on Monday a counter placard
was issued by the Southern Independence Association, calling
upon the friends of the South " not to attend the meeting."
The charge for admission was Id. each, reserved seats 6d.
About 1,000 people attended on Monday night. There was
no chairman.
The Lecturer, on rising, said : Several months ago there
was a great want felt, and the want originated thus : — In
the town of Liverpool there was a gentleman residing, and
that gentleman had become an agent for the Southern
Confederacy. He had also indirectly on behalf of the
Southern Confederacy, or directly on behalf of the Southern
Confederacy, appointed an agent in the city of Manchester
as his coadjutor in the work they had to accomplish. They
had to do two things — first, to raise cash (a very necessary
thing in our day), and next, they had to try and create an
opinion among our own countrymen in favor of the South.
Besides the cry of getting cotton, there have been other ques-
tions involved in this conflict now raging in the United
States, and the difficulty was this — they had two tasks to
perform ; so they required assistance, and cast about to ob-
tain men who could both talk and write, in order that there
would be sufficient mental power either for the platform or
elsewhere in favor of the South. Time wore on, but the
APPENDIX. Ill
friends of freedom were not asleep. They had preceded the
Southern gentleman in Liverpool in organizing their forces,
and London and Manchester had set the example of organi-
zing for the express purpose of teaching the untaught
in this country regarding the true nature of American
politics and American tendencies. The result was, the
formation of a Union and Emancipation Society. Counter
to this was formed — first the Southern Club, and subse-
quently its brother Society, under the title of " The Society
for the Precognition of the Southern Confederacy." There
are two or three facts worth noticing respecting these two
Societies. I have had it from a gentleman, who has received
it directly from Mr. T. B. Kershaw, that the Southern Club
was founded for the rich Southern sympathizers ; but as it
was necessary to have working men in their ranks, and as
working men are not always deemed fit objects to sit side by
side with the gentlemen in broadcloth, a Society for the
Kecognition of the Southern Confederacy was formed, which
Society working men are to join, and their richer brethren
are to join the Southern Club. (Laughter.) Moreover, the
subscription to the latter is 2s. 6d., but to the former it is
Is. if you have got one, and if you have not, they will be
glad to take your name gratis. After these Societies were
formed, they required certain officials ; and, after a time,
succeeded in getting them. They have got a clerk whose
name is well known to you all, no doubt — that is Mortimer
Grimshaw. (Hear, hear, and cries of "Shame.") Some of
you know a little about Mortimer Griinshaw's connection
with the Preston strike, and some of you know a little about
his connection with the Bolton strike. He sold the Bolton
strike for £100. He went to London to try and sell the
Builders' strike. He went to Liverpool and received £5
to try and break up a meeting that was held in Ste-
venson Square (Manchester), on the day the Prince of
Wales was married. Instead of returning to Man-
chester, he and his pal got drunk, spent all the money
they had obtained under false pretences, while unpaid
men did what Grimshaw had contracted to perform. He is
112 APPENDIX.
the workman's enemy and the oppressor's tool. After the
Club had got him, they wanted an advocate — a man who un-
derstood and could work upon the masses, and in process of
time up sprang " Simon Pure," in the person of Joseph Bar-
ker. (Laughter.) I am not going to deal with Joseph's re-
ligious character, but shall deal simply with his teachings on
the American question, and leave his theology, good, bad, or
indifferent, as it may be, to the care of others. You know
that Joseph is a man who has had a broad coat made of
many pieces and many colors. Some of the pieces have been
true blue, some have miserably faded, and others have had a
color that it would require a double magnifying glass in the
hands of a philosopher to say what color they were. (Loud
laughter.) You will remember that Joseph went to America
once upon a time, and took up the business of a farmer, but
getting tired, he thought it necessary he should return to the
Yorkshire hills and to your own Lancashire breezes. And
when he came, what did he do ? Did he deliver New Connec-
tion Sermons ? No. Did he talk about the mercy of Christ ?
No. Did he talk about the necessity and importance of people
looking after their own souls ? No. What then did he tell
you ? That the United States of America was a paradise, and
advised working men to go to the land of promise. Told them
they could buy land cheap ; that there were no kings, no
princes, and no State Church to uphold. He also said, " You
will remember working men, that some time ago I wrote a book
about slavery, and all T wrote then is true ; therefore, for God's
sake, keep in the North ; don't go to the South at all."
(Cheers and laughter.) Well, many believed Joseph, clubbed
their money, and accompanied him to the United States.
But in course of time Joseph returned and wrote and talked
on behalf of the North ; never for the South. But now he
has become a strong advocate for the Southern cause, and
publishes a Review, in which he takes to himself much credit
for his cleverness, and considers that his opinion ought to su-
persede that of John Bright, P. Cairns, and others on the
American question, for the simple reason that he, Joseph
Barker, has been to America. (Laughter.) This Review by
APPENDIX. 113
Joseph Barker, happens to be the whole of the Standard Lit-
erature possessed by the Southern sympathizers in England.
(Loud laughter.) Now, as Barker considers this literature so
clever, if its contents can be disproved by its author's own
writings, we shall have accomplished our object. But before
we do that, let me tell you another thing or two about Jo-
seph. First, that he received money from the Southerners to
go to the anti-slavery meeting recently held in the Free Trade
Hall, Manchester, for the express purpose, of trying to create
a disturbance, and that he bound himself to do so. A mem-
ber of the Southern Club, who had some little regard for him-
self and for the reputation of the party with which he was
connected, met Joseph and said to him, " Mr. Barker, I would
not try to disturb the meeting to-night ;" to which Joseph
replied, " I am bound to disturb it." Yes, he had entered
into a contract and received money for that very purpose.
(Shame.) On the following Thursday and Friday nights,
Joseph got up meetings in the Corn Exchange. The
first night he stood from half past seven to ten and did
not get five minutes' hearing, while on the Friday night it
was a complete failure, and before half past eight the
doors were closed, and from fourteen to fifteen hundred
people were in the streets. Joseph had certain resolutions
which he afterwards reported had been proposed, second-
ed, and earned at those meetings in the Corn Exchange.
(Laughter.) But what will you think when I tell you that
nobody proposed, nobody seconded any resolution, for the
simple reason that nobody would have been listened to had
they attempted to read them, so that it is impossible they
could have been carried, and yet Joseph tells us they were
carried by " overwhelming majorities." (Laughter.) The
lecturer here adverted to another mistatement of facts on the
part of Mr. Barker with respect to a meeting recently held
at Farnworth, and observed that if the Southern Club could
not succeed by stating the truth they had better shut up. If
they were afraid of truth they would do well to get as many
Joseph Barkers as possible ; but if they wanted truth, the
sooner they got rid of such a Judas as Barker the better.
114 APPENDIX.
(Hear, hear, and applause.) But I had forgot to tell you
that the president, or chairman, of the Southern Club is a
gentleman who has been a filibusterer. Mr. Broom then sar-
castically remarked that the Southern societies were so strong
that no clergyman or dissenting minister would allow his
name to be published in connection with them, neither had
any catholic priest sprinkled them with holy water. (Loud
laughter.) The cause of freedom has on its side men of the
noblest stamp, who are not ashamed to have their names
published as friends of the North, including the Hon. and
Rev. Baptist Noel, Dr. Guthrie, John Bright, J. S. Mill,
Rev. Gr. Grilfillan, Rev. N. Hall, and others. (Hear, hear,
and applause.) And I (said the lecturer) stand here to-night
in a Representative capacity (as the representative of the con-
victions and sympathies of honest working men) and not as
the agent of any society. Upon coming here to-night I was
told that it had been pretty freely circulated that I was here
as the representative of a particular society, but I have to
tell you that if there is any loss upon this night's meeting it
comes out of my own pocket. (A voice : " And the gain
into your pocket." Laughter.) Yes, the gain into my own
pocket, and I hope there will be one. (Cheers.) I rely upon
the gratitude of the people, for in Manchester they raised me
a £5 note by subscription, with which money I have taken
this Hall ; and although we have not the room full to-night,
I intend coming to Oldham again, ere long, for the Oldham-
ites appear to have been sleeping in this matter. (Confusion.)
Although the Southern Association in Oldham can boast of a
few names, its agent is a broken-down schoolmaster. (A
voice : " And a drunken one too.") He tried to be a respec-
table bookseller, but failed in that because of his own bad-
ness. Reverting to Mr. Barker's writings, the speaker quoted
from Barker's Review for Saturday, December 14, 1861, in
which this sentence occurs : — " It is all but certain that in
less than thirty days the Northern States will be at war with
England." Now let us take Joseph in his Review for Satur-
day, January 18, 1862, where he says, " There is no further
prospects of a war between England and America." (Laugh-
APPENDIX. 115
ter.) Therefore, when Joseph laughs at other false prophets,
he should not forget that he once attempted to prophecy.
(Hear, hear.) Hear what he says in another place. " It is
probable, however, that the results (of the war) will be bene-
ficial in the end so far as England is concerned. By cut-
ting off our usual supply (of cotton) from the Southern
States, it is causing our colonies to give themselves to the
production of cotton, and it is probable we shall never again
be dependent on America for cotton to so great an extent as
we have been. In this case there will be little lost to the
world at large." And so this man discovered that the war
would be a blessing to our country, and would cause us not
to be dependent on the slaveholders for cotton. Yet he is
now going about and telling us that England and France,
and other parts of the continent, will be almost ruined if we
don't recognize the South. (Laughter and applause.) I pity
that man who, after growing grey in the cause of freedom,
sells his reputation for money, as Joseph has done, for a few
weeks before he became the agent of the Southern Club he
offered his services to the Northern party. Such a man is so
utterly worthless that I don't intend to discuss with him, but
I intend to follow him and undo what he has done. (Loud
cheers.) He names three causes for secession, the first of
which is the last election of a President. Mr. Barker is al-
ways telling that President Lincoln had an unconstitutional
majority ; but Mr. Pollard, the editor of the Richmond Ex-
aminer, says that Mr. Davis is an unconstitutional President,
and if Mr. Lincoln is so because Mr. Barker says so, then Mr.
Davis is an unconstitutional President because Mr. Pollard
says so. (Laughter.) Well, Mr. Barker tells us that the
South seceded because the North had an unconstitutional ma-
jority, so that if the North had had a constitutional majority
the South, I suppose, would not have seceded. But listen to
another reason which Joseph gives for the secession : " One
thing, therefore, which predisposed the Southerners to secede
was, that they had no great liking for the Northeners and the
Northeners had no great liking for them." Therefore, this
great war is purely the result of the South not liking the
8
116 APPENDIX.
North and the North not liking the South. (Hear, hear,
and laughter.) Hear another reason : "They (the Southerners)
had no confidence in the justice and generosity of the Northern
party, but believed that the Republicanism of the North meant
that they were pledged to violate their rights and sacrifice their
interests whenever it might suit them to do so." So that
before President Lincoln is in office, the South know all about
what he is going to do, hence the South secedes. Let us turn
to Joseph again. In one number of his Review, printed in
1861, he says: "They (the Southerners) thought that the
Anti- Slavery party was fast gaining power, and that their
favorite institution (I suppose you know what this favorite
institution is) was in serious danger/' It is not cotton here ;
it is not tariffs ; but it is SLAVERY. " Meanwhile," he
says, " the Anti-Slavery movement was rapidly gaining
ground, and when the election came, the Republicans gained
a victory." A little while ago he said the North had an un-
constitutional majority ; now, he says, the North gained a
victory.
After reading another quotation from Mr. Barker's Review,
some confusion took place on account of Mr. William Halli-
well, pawnbroker, Greenacres Hill, who at intervals threw
out some jeering remarks to the speaker, which caused sev-
eral parties to request his speedy ejectment. He still main-
tained his seat in the body of the room, amid the most deaf-
ening cries of " Turn him out ! Turn him out !" The
lecturer inquired who he was, and on being informed he was
a pawnbroker, observed, " He knows that freedom for work-
ing men would be a bad thing for his shop. He knows that
the pawnbroker lives out of the vices of society, the same as
the slaveholder living out of slavery. (Hear, hear.) Pawn-
brokers and publicans generally go hand in hand — the former
get hold of your goods, and the latter of your money." (Loud
laughter.)
Mr. Halliwell being unable to stand this, mounted the
platform, and in a state of the greatest excitement essayed
to address the meeting, but failed to get any further than
" He has assailed my private character — (a voice : " Thou
APPENDIX.
in
hast no character to defend 5 ') — and I come here to defend
myself." (Loud cries of " Turn him out ! Pull him down 1"
&c), during which the majority of the audience were stand-
ing, and evidently ready to take hold of Halliwell, and for-
cibly dismount him.
Halliwell now softened down a little, and said he would sit
down when he had asked the lecturer two questions. The
first was, " Were not the clothing you wear subscribed for by
the Northern party ?" The second question related to the
lecturer having placarded Manchester, but in the confusion
that existed we did not get the wording of it.
At this stage of the proceedings Mr. William Marcroft
was appointed chairman for the remainder of the evening,
and as soon as order had been restored, the lecturer said : " I
have just been informed that Halliwell is the son of a town
councillor. If so, I am glad his father is not here, to see
what a blackguard the son is making of himself. I hope the
father will have some control over the madness of his son ;
for a young man must be a madman that will rise up and
disturb a meeting because the opinions expressed don't meet
with his views. Never talk again of your ' Oldham rough-
heads,' for the only disturber of the meeting to-night is a
respectable middle-class man." (Applause and laughter.)
The lecturer then went on to examine the writings of Mr.
Barker, and at the close, the following Resolution was pro-
posed and carried :
" That as the professed object of the so-styled Confederate States is the
perpetuation and extension of slavery, this meeting declares its cor-
dial sympathy with the emancipation policy of the United States Govern-
ment."
SECOND LECTUKE.
Mr. Broom delivered his second lecture, as announced, on
Tuesday evening.
The lecturer prefaced his lecture by a few remarks on the re-
port which had gone abroad in Oldham as to his being sent
by some society. His reply to that charge was, that he
should be happy to receive subscriptions to make up the loss of
118 APPENDIX.
some £4 which these meetings would be to him. He also
referred to a placard that had been issued by the Southern
party, calling upon the people not to attend the lectures.
He considered that was a proof that the recent victory gain-
ed in Tommy-field was but of a temporary and superficial
character, or they would not be afraid of the public opinion
being reversed by his addresses. Adverting to the public
meeting in Tommy-field, he said the speech of Mr. Steeple
was one tissue of falsehoods, and so complicated that it
would take him a whole night to unravel it. He then an-
nounced that the Society for the Eecognition of the Con-
federate States were in want of a secretary, so that if there
was any young man in Oldham who had a character to lose
he might get rid of it advantageously by accepting that
situation. His own opinion as to Recognition was, that if
we recognized the South, without doing anything else, we
shall be laughed at ; and if we recognize it by breaking
the Blockade, we shall have a war with the North. After
talking for about an hour on general matters in connection
with this question, he at length came to his subject — namely,
Joseph Barker. Joseph had told them, in a recent work on
Eecognition, that he " did not know what were other people's
thoughts on that matter." Well, if after three thousand
books on the subject had been published in the Northern
States, and nearly that number in this country, and yet
Joseph does not know what other people think about the
matter — Joseph had better sit down and read some of those
books before he begins to write for the edification of the peo-
ple on the subject. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) But he
goes on to say, " The war has caused a depression in your
trade, the result of which is that I have seen in your streets
— (now mark what he says here, and I wish this place were
filled with the women of Oldham, that they could hear what
Joseph says of them) — I have seen (he says) more demoral-
ization, more vulgarity, and, above all, more indecency in
our streets than ever I witnessed before." According to
Joseph, the war has caused you to be more vulgar, more im-
moral, and more indecent than you were before the war.
APPENDIX,
119
Why, there never was a time when a greater amount of mo-
rality existed in Lancashire, or a more general respect to
superiors and love of order than at present ; and your pa-
tience is well known. Mr. Barker tells you further, that
" something should be done for the people of Lancashire, not
in the way of charity though." But in 1861 this same per-
son writes, " The people of England ought to subscribe to
keep the people of Lancashire." (Laughter.) Now I say,
and always have said, that the people ought to be kept out
of the Taxation of the country. (Hear, hear, and applause.)
Again Joseph says : " Men are driven to emigrate." It
would be a blessing if Joseph were driven to emigrate.
(Laughter.) The nation would then get rid of a hired liar
and a hired impostor. (Loud applause.) He is worse than
the Judas of old, for he received the blood money and then
hanged himself; but I am afraid Joseph will not do the
latter deed. (Loud laughter.) Again Joseph tells you that
" The North is waging a horrible war, a most cruel war."
In reply to this, the lecturer read extracts from The Iron
Furnace, and Pictures of the War, showing how the South
conducted the war. Mr. Barker asks, " Cannot something
be done in the case of this war, inasmuch as the North
can never conquer the South ?" Well, the North don't
want to conquer the South. The North wants to pre-
vent Southern slaveholders from extending Slavery. But
listen to a proposition by Joseph : " Might not Eng-
land and France demand a cessation of hostilities, telling
the belligerents they have fought long enough?" Just
catch, a man and his wife ceasing to quarrel because
somebody told them "they've done enough." (Laughter.)
The wife would just turn on her heel and say, "Let us alone,
if you please." Joseph says that "Justice, mercy, and
Christianity, seem to require a mediation, and the world
would not only justify, but applaud the act." Yes, the
world — that is, Joseph Barker, Mr. J. L. Quarmby (of Old-
ham), T. B. Kershaw (Manchester), and Mortimer Grim-
shaw — " would applaud the act." The lecturer then advert-
ed to arguments used by Mr. Barker with regard to recogni-
120 APPENDIX.
zing the South, because we had recognized Russia and Tur-
key, which had slaves. Mr. Broom said : It is a very long
time since Russia had any slaves, though she had had serfs,
but they were widely different from slaves, for they could not
be sold from the land on which they were, and if ill used by
their master, the land might be sold to other parties. And
as to Turkey, Mr. Barker should remember that she was a
nation long before we were, so that if there was any recogni-
tion, it was Turkey who recognized England. (Hear, hear.)
In conclusion, the lecturer said he should work night after
night in order to disseminate true ideas on this question in
opposition to those put forth by the greatest of modern scoun-
drels, Joseph Barker. (Loud cheers.) He would come to
Oldham week after week, provided it was no loss to him, un-
til he succeeded in gaining a greater victory for the North
than the one gained in Tommy-field for the South.
The meeting broke up about ten o'clock.
The above is a report that appeared in The Oldham Times.
In reprinting it, mistakes have been corrected, blunders ex-
punged, and quotations accurately worded. The mistakes of
the reporter were numerous, surprising, ridiculous, and in
some instances his sentences were imperfect. A complete
correction of the report would impose the task of re-writing
almost every sentence. The adoption of such a course would
altogether ignore the reporter. We have no desire to bury
the results of his labor. We are grateful to the Oldham
Times for its long though defective report. Nevertheless, we
strongly object to being reported as saying on the platform
words that we never uttered. We are prepared to be held
responsible {legally as well as morally) for the statements we
make with the tongue and the pen, but we will not be respon-
sible for the blunders of reporters, nor for the vagaries of
printers. Two sentences referring to M. Grimshaw, we have
suppressed ; in their place we have inserted five sentences
that were not spoken in Oldham. The conduct of this inces-
sant dabbler in strikes cannot be too thoroughly nor too wide-
ly known among the working classes. Vulgar "loafers"
APPENDIX. 121
should be avoided by working men. Such catiffs should be
spurned by wealthy men from their clubs.
W. W. Bkoom.
THE PKESIDENT'S NATIVE STATE.
Sir : One of your correspondents in last week's issue of
your impartial paper, informs your readers that Illinois is
" the President's (Lincoln's) native state." The statement is
a blunder. Had he said that Illinois was the President's
adopted state he would have approximated to " correct in-
formation."
The generation of the Lincolns commenced in Berks
county, Pennsylvania — a portion migrated to Kockingham
county, Virginia, where the father and grandfather of Presi-
dent Lincoln were born.
Lincoln's father, " even in childhood, was a wandering, la-
boring boy, grew up literally without education." In 1806
he was twenty-eight years old, and married one Nancy
Hanks, in Kentucky — the mother of President Lincoln.
On the 12th of February, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was
born, in Hardin (now the recently formed county of Lane),
Kentucky. Kentucky, says SchafTner, " was originally Fin-
castle county, Virginia," and " it was admitted into the
Union June 1st, 1792." But Illinois was not a state when
Lincoln was born, not until 1818 was it admitted into the
Union, long after the " hunting-ground " had reached its
prime.
I hope the foregoing will be of service to the members of
the Southern Independence Association, and to your readers
in general.
Before concluding, I will briefly state there is no good Life
of Lincoln. The English one is dear and disappointing ;
the one by Bartlett, of New York, is inelegant in style, and
clumsy in construction ; and Thayer's Pioneer Boy and How
he became a President, recently published in Boston, is only
fit to amuse children. Surely the materials for a good biog-
122 APPENDIX.
raphy of Lincoln must be abundant in America. Is there no
Plutarch in Boston, no Smiles in New York, who can nobly
tell the story of the heroic career of the Titan of the North ?
Yours, respectfully, W. W. Bkoom.
Salford, Nov. 8tk, 1863.
A LAKG-E stock of the Standard Literature of the
Southern sympathizers is still on hand. Great quantities
would be freely given away if people would ask for it at the
waste paper offices. While " a discerning public" is buying-
up the stock, the author is carefully preparing a Key to the
work, that will explain the contradictions, prove the false-
hoods, and vindicate the slanders that are so numerous in
the Standard Literature. As the notes of editors are gen-
erally larger than the works they edit, the Key will be. more
voluminous than the Standard Literature — its price, there-
fore, will be three pence !
Mr. KEKSHAW is energetically engaged in printing
another hand-bill. When published, the work can be obtain-
ed at all the hoardings in Stockport. In consequence of Mr.
Morton's generosity, in having introduced Mr. Kershaw to
the public (converting a non-entity into " a public man"),
Mr. Kershaw intends to make a well-assorted selection of
his hand-bills and present them to Mr. Morton, bound in —
calf's shin.
A TELEGKAM via Halifax announces that a million
bales of Cotton, from the Southern Slaveholders' Confed-
eracy, are on their way to Liverpool, as part payment of the
Confederate Bonds. — A later telegram states that the vessels
containing the cotton will pass Holyhead the day after — the
Day of Judgment.
JU
I3ST PREPARATION:
LITTLE BITS
MANY SUBJECTS,
EVERYBODY'S TASTES
DESIRES.
B"X" -W. "W. BROOM
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