British Labour and the Confederacy

Royden Harrison

doi:10.1017/S0020859000000833

British Labour and the Confederacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008

Royden Harrison

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There are few legends relating to the history of the Labour Movement which have enjoyed the influence and popularity of the story of how British workmen responded to the American Civil War. Their supposed unanimity in opposition to the Slave Power and their resistance to every ruling class project for intervention on its behalf were thought to be a serviceable example and inspiration, not only by the stalwarts of the International and the Reform League, but by the organisers of the anti-war campaigns of 1878 and after. Even today a writer on „Peaceful Co-existence” finds it an instructive example of the power of the working class in international relations.

Type: Research Article
Information: International Review of Social History , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , April 1957 , pp. 78 - 105

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000000833 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1957

References

^{page 78 note 1} Rothstein, A. Peaceful Co-existence, 1955, p. 14.Google Scholar

^{page 78 note 2} Koht, H. The American Spirit in Europe, 1949, p. 138.Google ScholarGreenleaf, R.British Labour Against American Slavery, Science & Society, Vol. XVII, No. 1 1953.Google Scholar

^{page 78 note 3} Park, J. H.The English Workingmen and the American Civil War. Vol. 39, 1924Google Scholar: Political Science Quarterly.

^{page 79 note 1} Dr. Macoby in his English Radicalism (Vol. II, p. 78, note 5) points out that the response of the working-class to the Civil War was more complex than has commonly been supposed. Pratt and Johnson in their English Public Opinion and the American Civil War make incidental reference to one or two Pro-Southern meetings, which were supported by workmen, but no authorities are cited and working-class opinion is generally neglected. Historians who come from below the Mason-Dixon line have tended to minimise the importance of British working-class opinion rather than to point to the conflicts within it. This applies, for instance, to F. W. Owsley's King Cotton Diplomacy. As for the supposed opinions of the working-class press, Max Beloff in History for February 1952 refers without qualification to its “pro-Northern sentiment”. (Historical Revision CXVIII). Martin P. Claussen in an article entitled Peace Factors in Anglo-American Relations (The Mississippi Historical Review, Vol. XXVI, No. 4) states that “the anti-war attitude of British Labour was a cardinal point in the struggling labour sheets of the time, such as the Bee-Hive and the Miner and Worker (sic) Advocate; the files of these papers portray a threatening protest against those who would support the Confederacy for a bale of cotton…”

^{page 79 note 2} John Bright to Richard Cobden, 6th. August 1862. Bright Papers, British Museum: Add. MSS. 43, 384, Folio 296.

^{page 80 note 1} Harrison, F. Operative Stonemasons Friendly Society, Fortnightly Return, June 1862.Google Scholar

^{page 80 note 2} Bee-Hive, 19th. October, 23rd. & 30th. November 1861. As quoted in handbill reproduced in Miner and Workman's Advocate, 6th. May 1865.

^{page 81 note 1} Odger, V. Potter. Decisions of the Committee of Enquiry and comments, Bee-Hive, 24th. June and 1st. July 1865.Google Scholar

^{page 81 note 2} Dunning, T.J. Trades Unions and Strikes: Their Philosophy and Intention, 1860.Google Scholar

^{page 81 note 3} Dunning, T. J. On Politics and Trades Unions, Industrial Magazine No. 1, 1862.Google Scholar

^{page 81 note 4} See pp. 83–85.

^{page 82 note 1} Dunning T. J. National Character of the Federal States, Bee-Hive, 16th. May 1863 et seq.

^{page 82 note 2} Leno, J. B. Autobiography, 1892.Google Scholar

^{page 82 note 3} Reform League Minutes, 21st. April 1865. Howell Collection, Bishopsgate Institute.

^{page 82 note 4} Howell, G. Reynolds News, 29th. November 1896.Google Scholar

^{page 82 note 5} Operative Bricklayers Society Circular, October 1861.

^{page 83 note 1} Marx, K.English Public Opinion. New York Daily Tribune, 1st. February 1862.Google Scholar Reproduced in: The Civil War in the United States by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, New York, 1937.

^{page 83 note 2} Jordan, H. D. The Daily and Weekly Press of England in 1861.Google Scholar The South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. XXVIII.

^{page 83 note 3} The Working Man, 7th. September 1861.

^{page 83 note 4} Cudden, A. C.Article discussing Theory Of Value, The Co-operator, July 1860.Google Scholar

^{page 84 note 1} Claussen, M. P., Peace Factors in Anglo-American Relations. Mississippi Historical Review, Vol. XXIV, No. 4.Google Scholar

^{page 84 note 2} He was Secretary to the Conference which launched the National Association of Miners in 1863. Miners’ National Conference at Leeds. The Miner and Workman's Advocate, 14th November 1863.

^{page 84 note 3} The Position in America. The British Miner (Subsequently The Miner and then Miner and Workman's Advocate), 28th. February 1863.

^{page 85 note 1} Marwick, W. H., Scottish Social Pioneers, VI, The Scottish Educational Journal, 26th. February 1932.Google ScholarMarwick, W. H., The Campbell Testimonial, The Glasgow Sentinel, 6th. July and 13th. September 1862.Google Scholar Obituary notices of Robert Buchanan (Sentinel, 17th. March 1866) and of Campbell (Sentinel, 19th. February 1870). Campbell in reminiscences of Sentinel readers. Sentinel, 30th. August & 15th. November 1862. Campbell's testimony before the Parliamentary Committee on the Master and Workman Act, (Sentinel, 30th. June 1866). G. J. Holyoake on relation between Campbell, Howarth and the Rochdale Pioneers, The Social Economist, 1st. November 1863.

^{page 86 note 1} This was a reference to a workers’ meeting held in Stockport. However, The Stockport Advertiser, 27th. June 1862, reported strong opposition from the floor. -The Glasgow Sentinel, 5th. July 1862.

^{page 86 note 2} Ibid. 11th. October 1862.

^{page 86 note 3} Cowan, R. W.M., The Newspaper in Scotland.

^{page 86 note 4} Ludlow, J. M., Some of the Christian Socialists of 1848 and the following years. Economic Review, January 1894.Google Scholar The Glasgow Sentinel, 25th. July 1868.

^{page 87 note 1} The Jersey Independent and Daily Telegraph, 29th. November 1862.

^{page 87 note 2} His journal, The Propagandist, was favourable to the Confederacy.

^{page 87 note 3} London Letters, Glasgow Sentinel, 1863–64. Obituary of Robert Buchanan, (Sentinel, 17th. March 1866).

^{page 87 note 4} Glasgow Gazette, 25th. January & 28th. June 1862.

^{page 87 note 5} Ibid., 6th. September 1862.

^{page 88 note 1} Ibid., 9th. April 1864.

^{page 88 note 2} Mackenzie, P.: Reminiscences of Glasgow and the West of Scotland, 1866.Google Scholar

^{page 88 note 3} The Saturday Review, 31st. August 1861.

^{page 88 note 4} The Weekly Budget, 22 November 1862.

^{page 88 note 5} Holyoake, J. G. Life of J. R. Stephens (1872?).Google Scholar

^{page 88 note 6} The Oldham Standard, 3rd. January 1863.Google Scholar

^{page 89 note 1} Saville, J., Ernest Jones: Chartist. 1952. Appendix IV, p. 272.Google Scholar

^{page 89 note 2} Jameson, J. F., The London Expenditure of the Confederate Secret Service, The American Historical Review, July 1930.Google Scholar

^{page 89 note 3} The Index, 8th. December 1864.

^{page 89 note 4} Mediation in the American Quarrel: Meeting of Operatives. Blackburn Patriot, 5th. July 1862.

^{page 89 note 5} Ibid., 9th. August 1862.

^{page 90 note 1} The political quality of the stoicism displayed by the Lancashire operatives – particularly in the early years of the Civil War – could be subject to more than one interpretation. Thus, while the National Review (January 1863) found that the absence of any agitation for intervention in America signified that the operatives were “readier to endure wrong than to commit it”, Marx was remarking to Engels (17th. November 1862) on the general passivity and lack of initiative on the part of the operatives, their “sheep's attitude”, their Christian Slave nature. Such observations – although directed to working-class response to conditions of relief – raise the question of how far the workers’ silence on the American War was informed by political understanding and how far Marx was intending to revise his own earlier estimates (New York Daily Tribune, 1st. February 1862) and on “the indestructible excellence of the English popular masses” (Die Presse, 2 February 1862).

^{page 90 note 2} The Labour Test, The Preston & County Advertiser, 2nd. August 1862.

^{page 90 note 3} The Co-operator: A Record of Co-operative Progress: Conducted Exclusively by Working Men”, June 1863.

^{page 90 note 4} Circulars and monthly reports of the Engineers, Carpenters, Bricklayers, Stonemasons and Bookbinders have been examined.

^{page 91 note 1} Guedella, P., Gladstone and Palmerston (1928. p. 245).Google Scholar

^{page 91 note 2} Gladstone's Memorandum of 25th. October 1862. ibid.

^{page 91 note 3} The Times, 28th. March 1863.

^{page 91 note 4} Adams, E. D., Great Britain and the American Civil War, Chapter XVI, p. 223.Google Scholar

^{page 91 note 5} F. H. Morse to Secretary of State Seward, 17th. January 1863. Despatch No. 11, Consular Letters, London, Vol. 31, Department of State Records. Cited by Claussen, Peace Factors…

^{page 91 note 6} Jameson, J. F., op. cit.Google Scholar

^{page 92 note 1} F. Engels to K. Marx, 5th. November 1862 (See also Engels to Marx, 15th. November 1862). The Civil War in the United States by Marx and Engels, p. 259. 1937.

^{page 92 note 2} The Working Man repudiated its early Southernism by the middle of 1862. The Bee-Hive's editorial policy – as will be shown – was subject to more than one change. These two journals were indisputably “working-class”. Reynolds, The Sentinel, The Miner and Workman's Advocate and the Glasgow Gazette were all consistently hostile to the North throughout the War and, whether judged by their content or the associations of their editors or proprietors, should surely be described as “working-class”. Whether a pro-Federal journal such as the Reformer and South Wales Times had less claim to be described as a “workers‘ paper” than the Weekly Budget is a nice question. However, it seems most improbable that a sufficient number of these marginal cases could be found to alter materially the general judgment respecting the Confederate proclivities of the workers‘ press.

^{page 93 note 1} Solly, H., These Eighty Years, Vol. II, 1893. p. 247.Google Scholar

^{page 93 note 2} The Weekly Budget, 22 November 1862.

^{page 94 note 1} The Working Man, 5th. October 1861.

^{page 94 note 2} Burgess, E., Wages Slavery, reprinted in: The Republican, 15th. May 1871.Google Scholar

^{page 95 note 1} Troup, G. E., George Troup: Journalist, 1881.Google ScholarMarwick, W. H., The Scottish Educational Journal, 16th. March 1934.Google Scholar (Neither of these works describes Troup's association with the Bee-Hive. For this purpose it is necessary to consult the records of the Trades Newspaper Company and the files of the paper).

^{page 96 note 1} Troup, G. E. op. cit.Google Scholar

^{page 96 note 2} Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, August 1859.Google Scholar

^{page 96 note 3} Shepperson, G., The Free Church of Scotland and the South, Journal of Southern History, November 1951.Google Scholar

^{page 97 note 1} Minutes of the London Trades Council, 17th. December 1861 –(Beesly and Stansfeld to discuss “the steps likely to be taken with reference to politics”) 20th. May 1862. (Frederic Harrison and the development of political association with Italian workers). Annual Report of the London Trades Council, 1862.Google Scholar (Congreve and correspondence with French workers).

^{page 97 note 2} Hinton, R. J., Chapter on George Odger, in English Radical Leaders. New York, 1875.Google Scholar

^{page 97 note 3} Hinton was not the most reliable of chroniclers and there are numerous errors on points of fact in his book. For this reason his account of how Odger outwitted the Confederate agents should be treated with some reserve. It is, however, quite consistent with certain other facts which can be independently established. The Bee-Hive's financial difficulties were acute at this time, and they complicated the struggle over the policy to be adopted on the War. The Confederate agent, Henry Hotze, was particularly interested in influencing the newspaper press.

^{page 97 note 4} The Working Man, May & June 1862. W. P. Wallrage on the American Labour Question.

^{page 98 note 1} Harrison, F. Autobiographic Memoirs, Vol. 1, p. 165.Google Scholar

^{page 98 note 2} Glicksberg, C.I., Henry Adams Reports on a Trades Union Meeting. New England Quarterly 1942.Google Scholar

^{page 98 note 3} Lancashire Distress: Middle Class Relief Committees, by “SCOURGE. The Bee-Hive, 27th. December 1862.

^{page 98 note 4} Verity, E. A., The Bee-Hive, 3rd. January 1863.Google Scholar

^{page 99 note 1} Liveing, S., A. Nineteenth Century Teacher: J. H. Bridges. 1926.Google ScholarBeesly, E. S., Lancashire Discontent, Bee-Hive, 28th. February 1863.Google Scholar

^{page 99 note 2} Verity, E. A., The Secularists and the East Lancashire Relief Fund, the Bee-Hive, 28th. March 1863.Google Scholar

^{page 99 note 3} Adams, E. D., op. cit. p. 133.Google Scholar

^{page 99 note 4} Hinton, R. J., op. cit.Google Scholar

^{page 99 note 5} Trades Union Deputation to the American Minister, Bee-Hive, 9th. May 1863.Google Scholar

^{page 99 note 6} Ibid.

^{page 99 note 7} Bee-Hive, 11th. April 1863.

^{page 100 note 1} Reynolds News, 7th. June 1863.

^{page 100 note 2} Great Meeting of Trades Unionists, report of speeches by Bright, Beesly etc., Bee-Hive, 28th. March 1863.

^{page 100 note 3} Reynolds News, 10th. May & 2nd. August 1863.

^{page 100 note 4} Adams, E. D., op. cit. Chapter XV.Google Scholar

^{page 100 note 5} ibid.

^{page 101 note 1} Editorial Comment: The Bookbinders Trade Circular, 2 March 1864.

^{page 101 note 2} ibid.

^{page 101 note 3} Trades Intelligence, in: Bee-Hive, 28th. February 1863.Google Scholar

^{page 101 note 4} Report of Lodge Meeting: Bookbinders Trade circular, 2 March 1864. Not all the Southern sympathisers or adherents of the “No Politics” school in the trades union movement delayed their protests about the St. James Hall meeting for as long as Dunning. Thus, “Unionist”, writing in the Oldham Standard of 9th. May 1863 stated: “I cannot conceive who were the persons that attended the meeting in St. James Hall… except that they were the hirelings of a clique which is at present doing all it can to protract the war in America and cause continued stagnation and prostration of trade at home.” The price of adopting Bright's advice to take part in politics would be inability “to wage any strife whatever against the capitalists in future… There could no longer be the unity requisite to protect the rights of labour amongst trades unionists… Some would no doubt support the North, yet there are also those who would support the South in their desire to preserve their independence.”

^{page 102 note 1} Troup, G. The Price of Labour in the Colonies and the States, in: Bee-Hive, 20th. February 1864.Google Scholar

^{page 102 note 2} Beesly, E. S., The American War, in: Bee-Hive, 23rd. May 1863.Google Scholar

^{page 102 note 3} Beesly, E. S., The Working Man in America and An Editorial Explanation: Mr. Troup and the American Question, in: Bee-Hive, 27th. February 1864.Google Scholar

^{page 102 note 4} Dunning, T. J., Bee-Hive, 5th. March 1864.Google Scholar

^{page 103 note 1} ibid.

^{page 103 note 2} The Independence of Poland: Great Demonstration by Members of Trade Societies, Speech by the Chairman, Beesly, E. S.. Bee-Hive, 2 May 1863.Google Scholar

^{page 103 note 3} Beesly, E. S., Napoleon and the Congress, in: Bee-Hive, 5th. December 1863.Google Scholar and Napoleon and his Policy, in: Bee-Hive 19th. December 1863.

^{page 103 note 4} Letter “on behalf of a large body of our fellow-workmen, the friends of the Federal States of America”, signed by Odger, Dell etc. Bee-Hive, 12th. March 1864.

^{page 103 note 5} Beesly, E. S., The Colonies and the States, in: Bee-Hive, 12th. March 1864.Google Scholar

^{page 103 note 6} Ibid.

^{page 104 note 1} Ibid.

^{page 104 note 2} Trades Newspaper Company, Articles of Association and List of Shareholders. Public Records Office.

^{page 104 note 3} Webb, S. & B., History of Trade Unionism, 1912Google Scholar edition, chap. 5. Postgate, R., The Builders History, 1923.Google Scholar Chapters 9 and 10.

^{page 104 note 4} The Miner and Workman's Advocate, 6th. May 1865.Google Scholar

^{page 104 note 5} The Bee-Hive, 24th. June 1865.Google Scholar

^{page 105 note 1} Bright-Cremer correspondence, Bee-Hive, 20th. June 1863.Google Scholar

^{page 105 note 2} George Howell to John Bright, 7th. October 1867. Bishopsgate Institute.

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