The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-12-19
Mr.. Golden on American Affairs.

his annual address before his constituents
at Manchester. Three thousand persons
were assembled, and the Mayor of the city
presided. Mr.. Golden devoted the greater
part of his speech to consideration OF
American affairs, especially in relation tc
the attitude of the British Government to-
wards the United States. After few pre-
liminary observations on the necessity OF
Parliamentary reform, and of the compile
ton Of the free trade system, he spoke as
follows:
THE ADVOCATES OF INTERFERENCE IN
AMERICAN AFFAIRS.
At the present moment there is a party
in this country actively advocating an in
reference in the affairs of America. Hear,
hear.] When ! say interference, j mean
we have party here who are advocating
either recognition or something which
means interference, if it means anything.
Hear, hear / have seen lately report
of two meetings of constituencies in the
west of England-at Bristol and Plymouth
at which liberal members, representing
popular constituencies, have been recon-
mending that the Governnnent should en-
ter into arrangements vita some foreign
country in Europe, in order that they may
recognize the South in America, and inter
fere to put an end to the war in that country.
[''Very proper and NO, no.
! observe that the idea which pervades
those members and their constituents was
this, that this affair in America was to be
settled in peculiar way, according to the
dictates of those particular parties. Hear,
hear.l From the beginning OF this Ameri-
can war; this lamentable CONFUSION, from
which you have suffered so much, one great
and fundamental error in the conduct of
statesmen and governments, and in the
conduct Of large portion of the influential
classes in this country, has been, that they
l. Il hat
be but one issue to this civil war in Amer
lea, and that is a separation between the
North and the South. [Cheers.l ! told
you when was here last, when that spirit
was, if possible, even more ripe than it is
now, that I did not myself believe the war
would issue in that way. have stated the
same opinion since in the House of Com
mons; yet / declare to you that taking
what is called by cant phrase in London
society which means that upper ten
thousand with which members Of Parlia-
ment are liable to come into contact in the
clubs and elsewhere, nineteen-twentieths
of the ruling classes tifI may use the phrase)
that you meet in those purlieus in London,
have been firmly convinced from the first
that the civil war could only end in sepa-
ration. Hear, hear How far the wish
was father u that thought will not pre-
tend TO say. lCheers.l / believe the con-
viction has been sincere; / believe it has
been founded on the belief that, looking at
the vast extent Of territory occupied by the
insurgents in this war, il was impossible
that they could be suhjugated by any forces
that could be brought against them by the
North.
IGNORANCE OF American AFFAIRS.
But there has been a most lamentable
display of ignorance amongst those classes
TO which | refer, if we may Judge by the
conduct of the organs Of the press which
may be considered the opponents Of their
views. There here have been errors in
mighty rivers, to which those
in England can bear no comparison, with
hundreds of miles Of steam navigation,
have been described in those leading or
gans as running into one river and into
another, in utter disregard of the rules of
There are a number OF
great cities in America-cities Of one hun
bred thousand and one hundred and fifty
thousand inhabitants-which are among
the largest shipping ports for raw produce
in the world, in the interior of that coun-
try. In one of them have seen a mile of
steamboats, moored side by side, and yet of
those great cities. and that great commerce,
part of the strength and resources
of North America, the ruling classes in this
country know nothing. You don't find
them in books at Oxford and Cambridge,
where your undergraduates are obliged to
study before they can pass their examina-
tons.
SUCCESS CIR THE REBELLION IN AMERICA.
1t is i'll utter ignorance OF those resources
that the opinion of the ruling classes in
England has been cume to. But ], whom
accident, perhaps, more than anything
else, has made as we'll acquainted with the
politics and geography OF that country as
with nay own, l have never believed-and
! believe now less than eyer-that ! shall
ever live, or that any one here will live, to
see two separate nations within the con-
fines of the present United States of Amer
lea. [Cheers.1 l will tell you caudidly
that if it was not for one cause, l should
consider as hopeless and as useless the at
tempt to subjugate the Southern States of
America as the parties do upon whose
views l have been committing. 1t is the
object with which the separation has been
made that, in my opinion, renders the sue
cess of the secessiOnists absolutely impos-
sible-Lhear, hear and if the moral and
intelligent population of this country had
not been systematically misled upon that
question they would have been unani-
mously Of that conviction. Hear, hear.
We We're told in the House of Commons by
one from whom it was almost incredible
that it could have come-once the great
champion of Democracy, once the great
advocate of all the rights and principles of
the unsophisticated millions-that this
civil war originated because the South
wished to establish free trade principles
and the North would not allow it. Laugh
teri
THE FALSE PRETENsES OF THE REBELS.
l travelled in the United States in 1859,
the year before that fatal shot was fired at
Fort Sumter which has had such terrible
reverberations ever since. visited Wash
ington during the session of Congress-
Now 1 carry a flag wherever 60 when
travela broad, whetherin France, America,
Austria or Russia. / at once become the
centre ofall those who have strong convic-
tons and purposes with reference to free
trade principles. Hear, hear.l While
was at Washington was disappointed at
finding there was so little interest felt on
the free-trade question. There was no par
ty formed, no public agitation, no discus
sion whatever upon tue subject. The
around, the political field, was wholly DC
cupied by one question, and that question
was slavery. Hear, hear.l will men
ton an illustrative fact, which I have not
seen referred to, and to my mind it is con-
elusive on this subject. In December, when
Congress was sitting, and when the coun-
try was in the agony Of suspense, fearing
this impending rupture, Congress appoint