[Extracts.]
Mr. Adams to Mr.
Seward.
No. 358.]
Legation of the United States,
London,
March 27, 1863.
Sir: After I had sent my note to the committee
of the Trades Unions declining to be present at their proposed meeting,
I received a private letter from Professor Beesley, of the London
University, suggesting the propriety of sending some person on whose
authority I could rely to make me a report for the use of the government
of the state of feeling among the important class there represented. * *
* * * * *
That report I now have the honor to transmit in the precise form in which
it was made to me.
I likewise transmit their resolutions adopted on the same subject at two
different meetings held at Bradford on the 19th and 20th instant, and
also those from a meeting at Great Horton on the 18th instant. These are
places in Yorkshire where it should be observed there is no distress
among the operatives; on the contrary, being mostly engaged in the
woollen manufacture, they have been uncommonly prosperous. I also send a
copy of the Blackburn Times of the 21st, containing the proceedings of a
large meeting held on the 18th instant at that place.
It may be as well to add that a debate is not unlikely to take place in
the House of Commons this evening on an inquiry proposed by Mr. Forster.
I am rather inclined to expect that Lord Palmerston may respond to it,
and that the solicitor general (Sir Roundel Palmer) will express his
sentiments somewhat at large on the topic. Should such prove to be the
case, I shall take measures to transmit a report of the proceedings by
to-morrow’s steamer, outside of the bag, via
Queenstown. My assistant secretary (Mr. Moran) proposes also to attend,
and, in case anything should occur deserving of mention that is not to
be found in the newspapers, I shall forward his report at the same
time.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
Public meeting at London.
[Extract.]
The meeting called by the London Trades Union, in St. James’s Hall,
on the evening of Thursday, 26th March, comprised between two
thousand five hundred and three thousand persons, all, with the
exception of a few invited guests, the members of the working
classes, or, technically, skilled laborers. This character was very
strongly marked in the appearance of the audience, which consisted
of men and women, very respectable in appearance, but generally
bearing the mark of labor in the workshop, and of intellectual
cultivation rather at the expense of physical strength The meeting
was strictly one representing a particular and distinct class of
popular sentiment.
The audience received Mr. Bright, on his taking the chair, with great
applause, which was probably intended to be the more significant, as
the conduct of Trades Unions has not always met the approval of Mr.
Bright, and he has not
[Page 186]
always received their cordial co-operation. This enthusiasm followed
his speech throughout, even when he hinted at their causes of
disagreement. Especially the extremely strong language used by him
in speaking of the late cotton war and southern armaments received
long and continuous cheering. When he closed, the same earnest
applause followed his taking his seat.
It is said that the extraordinary numbers collected there were only
brought together by their curiosity to hear Mr. Bright. That this
was not the case must have been evident to every person present. In,
fact it was only after he had closed that the real business of the
evening began. His presence and his speech were significant as
showing that on this question of the safety of republican
institutions in America the radical classes of laborers who have
hitherto devoted their energies to the contest with the power of
capital, and have assumed a position of advanced hostility to it,
were fairly brought to co-operate heartily with a capitalist, and to
ask him to act as their representative in political action. This
junction once effected, it became the business of the members of the
Trades Unions as such to speak for themselves, and to lay down their
own position and opinions. This was done in a systematic and
thorough manner. Mr. Howell, who moved the first resolution, was a
bricklayer. He made a constitutional argument against the right of
secession. Mr. Odgers, who seconded the motion, was a shoemaker, and
secretary of the Trades Council—a shrewd, effective speaker, who
took up and commented in succession upon the various arguments most
commonly urged against the north. Mr. Mantz, a compositor, followed,
and was himself succeeded by Mr. Cremer, a joiner, who was bitter
against Lord Palmerston, and whose argument upon the popular idea
that the north were indifferent to slavery, evidently made a
considerable impression as answering a charge most strongly urged
against the Union by the friends of the insurgents. The speech of
Professor Beesley, of the London University, who now followed, was
an exception to the rest, as it bore the same character as the
speaker himself, who does not belong to the Trades Unions, but to a
socially higher order. This speech was, however, perhaps the most
effective and radical of all, and by placing the issue of the
struggle clearly before the audience as a question of free labor,
the result of which must directly affect their own cause by raising
or lowering the price of labor and the condition of laboring men
socially and politically all over the world, he made the discussion
practically one of domestic politics, and went on to treat of the
whole as one contest. The success of the north, the enfranchisement
of the working classes, the abolition of slavery, and the reform of
the church and the House of Lords, were held up by the speaker, and
were accepted with energetic sympathy by the audience as one single
and inseparable cause.
Mr. Conally, a mason and an Irishman, whose almost unintelligible
accent and thoroughly hearty and earnest manner threw the audience
into shouts of laughter and incessant applause and cheers, resumed
the discussion, taking it from an Irish stand-point; and, finally,
the address was moved by a joiner and seconded by an engineer. No
opposition was made to any of the resolutions, nor to the address,
nor did there seem to be any disposition in the audience to
interrupt the unanimity of the proceedings.
* * * * * * * * *
Meeting at Great Horton, England.
Resolutions of a
public meeting of the inhabitants of Great
Horton, North Bradford, York, held
March 18, 1863.
This meeting declares that the recognition of any state founded on
the assumed right to perpetuate and extend slavery would be an
outrage on humanity to be denounced by every true freeman.
[Page 187]
This meeting, while cordially supporting the declared
non-intervention of the British government in the American war,
condemns the allowed building and fitting out of vessels-of-war in
English ports for the aid of the pro-slavery conspirators, and
heartily wishes success to President Lincoln and his emancipation
policy.
Henry Snowden, esq., worsted manufacturer, in the chair.
Resolutions moved by J. B. Hallatt, foreman, and Councillor
Haley.
Meeting at Bradford, York, England.
Resolutions of
public meetings held in Bradford,
York, March 19 and 20, 1863. Carried unanimously by both
meetings.
That this meeting heartily sympathizes with the people of Hungary,
Italy, and Poland in their struggles to throw off the yoke of
foreign usurpation; but they as heartily condemn the rebellion of
the Confederate States as an atrocious conspiracy against a free and
national government for the defence and extension of the most odious
tyranny and the most impious violation of human rights with which
the earth has ever been afflicted.
That this meeting, therefore, views with strong disapprobation the
tacit allowance by the British government of the building and
fitting out of vessels-of-war in British ports for the use of the
southern confederacy, under the pretence that evidence on oath of
the intended purpose of such ships is required; and this meeting
condemns the introduction into this country by foreign houses of the
proposed loan to the Confederate States as a direct aid to slavery,
and hopes that no Englishman will stain his hands and disgrace his
country by giving it countenance.
Councillor Woodhead in the chair.
W. S. Nichols, merchant, in the chair.
