Page:The Civil War in America - an address read at the last meeting of the Manchester Union and Emancipation Society.djvu/86

80 At this critical period the Union and Emancipation Society was organised; “to give expression, on behalf of the population of this district, to their earnest sympathy with the cause of Freedom, and fraternal regard towards their kinsmen of the United States; and to resist all recognition of the Slaveholding Confederacy.”

The inaugural address of the Society soon elicited an approving response, both in this country and in the colonies. Adhesions were enrolled of representative men, eminent in thought and action, from all parts of the kingdom, along with many thousands of the industrial classes.

The Executive disseminated, by means of the press and the platform, the most accurate information upon the political and social history of the United States; the powers of the individual states; the prerogatives of the Federal Government; and particularly as to the causes and objects of the Rebellion.

It was soon demonstrated that the people were emphatically true to their ancient love of freedom and constitutional government, and that the heart of England was sound on this great question.

Although the contest here, against the manifold agencies of the Slave Power, was severe and varying, ultimately the conscience and common sense of the people triumphed, in and out of Parliament, and the public mind became steadfast in favour of the policy of neutrality and non-recognition, and confirmed in the belief that slavery was doomed.

The progress of the conflict on the other side of the Atlantic, between the friends and foes of human liberty, was watched by the Executive with deepening interest, but with unwavering confidence in the final triumph of freedom and civilisation.