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[67] accomplishment of that work, and the enormous advantage which thereby accrued to the American cause.1 But without the Proclamation of Emancipation to conjure with, the task would have been infinitely greater, if not impossible. On the eve of its issue, George Thompson wrote to Mr. Garrison as follows:

George Thompson to W. L. Garrison.

Evening of Christmas Day, 1862.
2 In the endeavor to arrive at a sound and unprejudiced judgment on the true state of public feeling in this country, certain facts should be kept in mind.

The sentiments of our leading journals, of a portion of our public men, and of the aristocratic circles, at the present time, on the subject of slavery, are precisely similar to those which prevailed in the same quarters during the struggle for the emancipation of our own slaves. In this respect, England is neither better nor worse. Blackwood's Magazine and the Times of to-day are the same as they were in 1832—the one the essence of Toryism, the other of Mammon. . . . On the vital question of slavery, the heart of the people is sound. It would be impossible to carry a pro-slavery resolution in any unpacked assembly in the kingdom. I could obtain a vote of censure from the constituents of every man who has vindicated the


1 ‘All the anti-slavery people, with here and there an exception, support the North; while the representatives of the old West India interests and the Conservative party generally remain true to their dishonorable traditions. . . . It has been the fashion of the Times to taunt the Emancipation Society with being deserted by all the old, well-remembered names. This is true of Lord Brougham, but not of Dr. Lushington. Several of the Buxtons, the Gurneys, the Croppers, and the Hughes have avowed their sympathy with the Northern cause; and . . . Mr. Henry Wilberforce, the younger son of the great philanthropist, is most earnest in his advocacy of sound views on the American question, and feels deeply the dishonor which some of his countrymen have put upon themselves by their pro-Southern sentiments’ (F. W. Chesson to W. L. G., Feb. 18, 1865, Lib. 35: 46).

2 Ms., and Lib. 33.11.

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