The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1863-03-19
The American War in England.
y Address TO President Lincoln.
NUMBER Al.

On the evening of Thursday, February 18th
an immense meeting of the citizens of Liver
pool was held in the Ampitheatre, to express
sympathy with our Government. An address
to President Lincoln, which we give below,
was adopted. The Liverpool Mercury, seces-
sion organ) devotes nine columns Of small type
to a report Of the proceedings. & .
Thefollowing strong resolutions were adopt
l ed:
Thatthe wal now raging i'll the United
l States of America originated in the institution
? of slavery there.
That in its emancipation policy, the FEEDER
al Government is entitled to the generous sym
pathy of every Englishman, and to the moral
support which such sympathy always affords
That this meetings abhors the attempt, now
ttmade for the first time in the history Of Christ
endom. to establish an empire vowedly found
ed on slavery 'as it's chief corner stone"
That the following address to President Lin
coin be signed by the Chairman, on behalf Of
t of this meeting, and forwarded to the Hon.
Charles Francis Adams, the United States
} Minister in London, for transmission to his
Government.
ADDRESS TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN.
AN ADDRESS FROM II INHABITANTS OF LIVER
POOL, ENGLAND, TO THE HON. ABRAHAM LIN
coin, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA.
SIR: Some two hundred and forty years ago
a Dutch man-of-war entered the James river,
in Virginia, and landed twenty negro slaves,
the first ever imported into the continent OF
the New World.
In the year 1860, by continued importations,
and by natural increase, that number had IN
creased to four millions.
These two facts describe an evil which has
been ever since pressing with accumulative
weight upon the honor and prosperity of your
country.
It is with mingled pain and pleasure that
we remember the existence OF negro slavery
in our own West India colonies-with pain
that England should have ever sOiled her fame
with that accursed institution-with self grat-
ulation that her free spirit at length broke all
the bonds of vested interests and babe the OPP
pressed go free. -,
But our slavery was only colonial. 1t did
not pollute the life-blood Of the people at large
bv actual contact. AT home it was regarded
as much in the light of an error OF our statute
book as the crime of our nation. 1t occupied
but a small portion of England's vast posses
sions, and did not affect the organization OF
labor anywhere else. The interests of a class
were identified with its maintenance, but,no
those of the mercantile community. Even
thus limited, Englishman still blush to think
If was ever permitted in the realm.
Bnt the slavery of the United States is and
has been a far greater calamity, both at home
and abroad. The area Of its occupation is
UNNECESSARILY wider, the number of its VIC
Tins far greater, while it has become so thor
oughlv identified with national life in the
South as to be always styled the domestic in
stitution. And if on these accounts the diff
Guilty of it's abolition be greater, SO also IS the
danger of its maintenance.
The trainers Of a Constitution which was
expressly designed 'to secure the blessings
of liberty" in an evil hour recognized, from
motives of expediency, an institution which
thew too readily believed would soon die out.
Could they have ~foreseen the time when, so
far from perishing, it would have been endued
with more vigorous lfe-when their descend
ants would not only seek out new territory
for its extension, but would even carry it back
in icnominious triumph to lands whence, by a
feebler Government but with more enlighten-
ed policy. it had been expclled-hOw would
their noble hearts have been dismayed at such
sad degeneracy!
But SO it has been. The peculiar adaptable
ity of Southern soil for the growth Of cotton,
combined with mechanical ingenuity III sim
%plifying the process of its manufacture, has
not only given a larger value to the labor OF
the negro, but has created an Interstate slave
trade, from which the Fathers of the Revolu-
ton would nave turned away i'll disgust.
The Presidential chair and all the higher
offices of the State have, during a long sue
~cession of years, been occupied, with but few
exceptions, by slave owners. The influence
of the Government has been given to the eX-
tension and protection Of slavery. And though
it is true that each State III the Union has
long been responsible for the maintenance OF
slavery within its own limits, the nation has
identified itself with the institution by per
hitting it in the District of Columbia and the
Western territory, both alike common to all.
Worse than all, several OF the slave states
have broken out in open rebellion for the avow-
ed purpose Of founding an empire to be IN
definitely extended, and based upon the per
pctuaI organization of slavery as the natural
condition of the negro race.
To the national participation in the guilt
of slavery, one party i'll your country has al
wavs been opposed. With a holy and devot-
ed enthusiasm, they have tended the lamp OF
freedom, in full faith that, sooner or later, 1t
would scare away the darkness. Every fresh
~exaction of the slave power has only served
to deepen their earnestness; augment their
numbers. and increase their influence and
the nation has at length awakened to q sense
of it's responsibilities.
Your own election to the Chief Magistracy
was an evidence Of its determination that IN
voluntary servitude should, at all events, new
er exceed the limit it had then obtained. And
here we call to mind your own words, Il nave
always hated slavery. y x l believe the
Government cannot endure permanently hall
slave and half free" No longer harrassed by
those sectional proclivities III the Cabinet whlch
formerly prevailed, and pursuing a strlctly
constitutional line, Congress has aDollshea
slavery in the District OF Columbia, ana
throughout all the Territories OF the United
States it has recognized as sovereign States
the Republics of Hayti and Liberia, and II has
conceded to England the long withheld r1ght
of search, thus rendering a treaty FOR the sup
preston Of the slave trade something better
than an empty form.
from Congress, you sir, as FreSloent or Tio
: limited States and Commander-in-Chlef OF the
na+ionol forces. have forbidden the return Of
fugitive slaves seeking refuge within the fed
eraI lines. In September last you issued a
reclamation declaring that you would con-
secrate the new year to liberty, by decreeing
freedom to every slave within the limits OF
fine rebellion but, at the same time, tender
inc pecuniary aid for the immediate or grad
uaI emancipation of the slaves OF loyal States.
Both those promises you have faithfully
kent. and two slave States have since accep-
ted your proposal That the edict Of freedom
has not been universal in it's operation is owlng'
we know, to the limit placed upon your pow
faithfully to preserve, protect and defend
and under which treason alone can JUSTLY
YOU Tpu IN compulsory emancipation. But we
feel assured that, by the inexorable logic OF
events, the abolition Of slavery will speedily
taGn nlare in every one Of the excepted dis