The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-27 00:00:00

STATES OF AMERICA..

"Honoured Sir,—A portion of the British press, led by
the infamous Times, an arrogant aristocracy, and some of
the moneyed classes of this country, having misrepresented
the wishes and feelings of its people with regard to the
lamentable contest between two portions of the great repub-
lic, of which you are the legal and constitutional chief, we,
the Trades Unionists and working men of London, in pub-
lic meeting assembled, desire to assure you and the people
of the Northern and loyal States of America that our ear-
nest and heartfelt sympathies are with you in the arduous
struggle you are maintaining in the cause of human free-
dom. We indignantly protest against the assertion that
the people of England wish for the success of the Southern
States in their diabolical attempt to establish a separate
Government on the basis of human slavery. However
much a liberty-hating aristocracy, and an unscrupulous
moneyocracy may desire the consummation of such a crime,
we, the working men of London, view it with abhorrence.
We know that s!avery in America must have an indirect
but real tendency to degrade and depress labour in this
country also, and for this, if for no higher reason, we should
refuse our sympathy to this infamous rebellion. The history
of our race has been the story of a long continued struggle
for freedom; and we prize too highly the liberties bequeathed
us by our fathers to desecrate their memories by descending
to associate with the conspirators who seek to sink the pro-
ducers of human necessaries and human wealth into soul-
less beasts. Though we have felt proud of our country, of
the freedom won for its children, by the sacrifices and blood
of our fathers, yet we have ever turned with glowing
admiration to your great republic, where a higher political
and social freedom has been generally established, but we
have always regretted that it, citizens, our brothers in the
great Anglo-Saxon family, should have allowed the foul
stain of negro slavery to remain a black spot on their other-
wise noble institutions. When you, sir, were elected chief
magistrate of the great American republic we hoped for the
inauguration of a policy which should cause slavery to dis-
appear from the soil of the United States, and we have
not been disappointed. Though surrounded by difficulties,
though trammelled by enactments made during the ascend-
ancy of the slaveowners, you have struck off the shackles
from the poor slaves of Columbia; you have welcomed as
men, as equals under God, the coloured peoples of Havti
and Liberia, and by your proclamation, issued on the first
day of this year, and the plans you have laid before Congress,
you have opened the gates of freedom to the millions of our
negro brothers who have been deprived of their manhood
by the infernal laws which have so long disgraced the civi-
lisation of America. We believe that the endeavours already
made by you are only intimations of your earnest intention
to carry out to completion the grand and holy work you
have begun, and we pray you to go on, unfaulteringly, un-
dauntedly, never pausing until the vivifying sun of liberty
shall warm the blood and inspire the soul of every man who
breathes the air of your great republic. Be assured that in
following out this noble course our earnest, our active sym-
pathies will be with you, and that, like our brothers in
Lancashire, whose distress called forth your generous help
in this your own time of difficulty, we would rather perish
than band ourselves in unholy alliance with the South and
slavery. May you and your compatriots be crowned with
victory, and may the future see the people of England and
their brothers of America marching shoulder to shoulder
determinedly forward, the pioneers of human progress, the
champions of universal lit erty 1"
A vote of thanks was then passed to the chair-
man, who briefly acknowledged the compliment, and
the vast assemblage then separated_