The national Republican., 1861-12-20


Of war ; poetry, &c.
THE ANTI-sLAvERY sENTImENT OF
ENGLAND.
To realize how deepseated and powerful the
anti-slavery sentiment Of England is, we have
only to reflect how strong II is In the free States
Of this Union, where the counteracting iniu
ences are so much more numerous.
At the North, where II has been strong
enough TO break down all the old political
parties, it has done 30 under an apparently in
surmountable accumulation Of adverse circum-
stances. Great amounts of Southern property
Qncluding plantations and slaves) were owned
Indebtedness 70 the North depended for their
security upon the maintenance Of the existing
social order at the South. The two sections Of
the country were connected by intermsrriages
and by those changes Of residence, which LETT
scarcely anybody without some near relatives
in both. The foreign commerce Of the coun-
try, in course Of things long established and
naturally enough believed to be incapable of
any change which should not involve ruin,
rested largely upon Southern staples. That
ships would rot, banks suspend, and grass
grow in our marts Of commerce, without cot
ton, was not quite so generally believed at the
North, as 1t was confidently asserted at the
South, but certainly had large hold upon the
mercantile judgment of the North, and upon
grounds by no means destitute of plausibility.
Slavery was . great political power, in .
party sense, ss we'll as . great commercial
bodies of men at the North to maintain South
srn alliance, and to that end to apologize for and
defend that which occupied all the thoughts Of
the South. 1t was an influence, too, affecting
the Church as we'll as the State, and doctors of
divinity as well as politicians have never been
wanting to soothe the public with !South.side
pie.cs."
Since we know that all these influences have
failed 10 eradicate from the popular heart Of
the free States its uncouqnerable repugnance
to slavery, it is easy to conceive how great that
rspugnance must be in the popular heart Of
Great Britain, where none OF those opposing
influences exist.
They have the same Teutonic passion for per
sonal liberty that We have have been trained
in the same reverence for the rules and max
inns which guarantee the sacrednsss of prop.
erty and of all private rights; have the same
family ties Of husband and wife, parents and
children and believe, as we do, in the i'm
mortal destiny Of the entire human race. The
appeals TO the humane and Christian sympa-
thies, In behalf Of the oppressed African, are
as potent with Englishmen on the other side
of the Atlantic as with their descendants on
this side, and in their case, are neutralized by
NO political, commercial, or social considera
tions.
1t is no mere matter of speculation, that th,
snti-slavsry sentiment in Great Britain Is NOR,
widely diffused and more powerful than with
US. The English abolished slavery in theil
own colonies more than a generation ago, a
an enormous cost to themselves; whereas, The
very name of abolition" has been with us an
epithet Of reproach Down to the commencement
OF this war; the utmost ground found to be tenabl,
In the free States was opposition to the extension
only begun to reconcile the popular mind o
America 10 It's abolition where 1t exists. s.
notorious is 1t that we are behind England il
convictions upon this subject, that 1t has lonl
been matter Of popular clamor in this coun
try, and not without color in point Of fact tina
hostility to slavery among us is Of English ori
gin, and is only an echo of what is called " n,
.tanatioism Of Exeter Hail."
1t 10, of course, true, that the English arit
tocracy view the institution of slavery wit
leniency, if not favor. Aristocracles, of wha
ever species, have natural sympathies wit
each other. But the same great middlin
classes of England, who forced the emaacipa
ton Of the 900 slaves 10 their colonies
against all the GOODNESS and opposition {
courts and Parliaments, are more powerful ia
day than they were thirty years ago. If even
In America had taken turn TO appeal to thei
love of freedom and hatred of slavery, th
blaze Of their enthusiasm would have extiI
guished all national rivalries, and instead {
being now menaced with war from Englan,
we should have had the moral aid Of ever
pen and every tongue from the Grampian Hill
to Lands End, and If the English Governmer
did not send US material aid more crusader
for liberty would have crossed the seas frol
the shores Of England, than we could have r.
ceived into our armies.
EzS- The IHtelligencer thinks that Gener,
Phelpss proclamation to the Southwest wi