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[47] son, were intended for those English abolitionists whose minds were still so befogged on the issues of the American war that they withheld their sympathies from the Federal Government. ‘Though,’ he wrote, “in view of all that has been written and published on the subject, I almost despair of removing that misapprehension in the slightest degree, yet, by the love I bear them, I feel impelled to address this letter to you—hoping it may not be wholly in vain.” Lib. 32.30.

‘As for yourself,’ he continued,

you need nothing from1 me, either by way of information or guidance, at this particular juncture. . . . Your mastery of American affairs is absolute: the key to unlock them is slavery, and of that key you took possession when you first came to this country in 1834, and have ever since used it with all possible skill, diligence, and success . . . . There are few Americans who are so well posted in the history of this country as yourself, while there is scarcely any one in England who seems to have any intelligent knowledge of it. Almost all your writers and public speakers are ever blundering in regard to the constitutional powers of the American Government, as such, and those pertaining to the States, in their separate capacity. Mr. Bright, in his masterly2 speech at Rochdale, evinced a power of analysis and correct generalization worthy of the highest praise, and has secured for himself the thanks and admiration of every true friend of free institutions. His case is as exceptional, however, as it is creditable.

These letters no doubt helped to illumine the clouded minds of some of the anti-slavery friends in England, but the same steamer which bore the last of them across the Atlantic, carried also a message of President Lincoln's to3 Congress, which proved of potent service to Thompson and the few brave men who were sustaining the cause of the North against the overwhelming tide of adverse sentiment in Great Britain. In this message-one of the clumsiest documents the author of the Gettysburg Address ever penned—Mr. Lincoln recommended the adoption of4 a resolution by Congress to this effect: ‘That the United States, in order to cooperate with any State which may ’

1 Lib. 32.30.

2 John Bright.

3 Mar. 6.

4 Greeley's American Conflict, 2.259.

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