Lincoln’s Wish: Perpetual Peace and Friendship Between the U.S. and Britain
Ted Bromund /
As the world honors Abraham Lincoln on the 200th anniversary of his birth, it’s worth recalling one of the less well-remembered moments of his career: his letter on January 19, 1863 to “the Workingmen of Manchester,” responding to their earlier address and resolutions in support of the North.
This was one of Lincoln’s earliest public letters, an art form he used to increasing effect throughout the remainder of the Civil War. The Manchester letter, though not as well known as his later letter on Clement Vallandigham, the ‘wily agitator’ and Copperhead, concerned the vital subject of British recognition of the Confederacy.
At a minimum, this would have heartened the South; at worst, it could have led to war between Britain and the North, and the defeat of the Union. Lincoln therefore treasured the support of the Manchester workers, hoping it would balance the intense suspicion of the free, liberal, capitalist North that prevailed among the British establishment.
It was, Lincoln pointed out, often claimed that
the attempt to overthrow this Government, which was built upon the foundation of human rights, and to substitute for it one . . . on the basis of human Slavery, was likely to obtain the favor of Europe.
But Lincoln rejected this claim. He refused to believe that the common people in Britain would accept the legitimacy of a power founded on slavery: to do so would be to refute all principles of “justice, humanity, and freedom.” And what Britain rejected, the rest of Europe would never accept. (more…)