Abraham Lincoln quarterly. [Vol. 3, no. 2]

LINCOLN THROUGH BRITISH EYES

79

the Confederacy or declare war on the Union or link up with
the French Emperor in Mexico, Lincoln more than once was
able to tell them that he believed the British working people,
what he himself termed the "plain people," would stand for
no such thing. That was the plain truth. Hence Lincoln's
kindly, but also astute, reply (January 19, 1863) to the workingmen of England, who had told him that emancipation
would "cause the name of Abraham Lincoln to be honored
and revered by posterity:"
I know and deeply deplore the sufferings which the working men
at Manchester, and in all Europe are called to endure in this
crisis.... Under the circumstances, I cannot but regard your
decisive utterances upon the question as an instance of sublime
Christian heroism which has not been surpassed in any age or
in any country. It is indeed an energetic and reinspiring assurance of the inherent power of truth and of the ultimate and universal triumph of justice, humanity and freedom. I do not doubt
that the sentiments you have expressed will be sustained by your
great nation; and, on the other hand, I have no hesitation in assuring you that they will excite admiration, esteem and the most
reciprocal feeling of friendship among the American people.
I hail this interchange of sentiment, therefore, as an augury that
whatever else may happen, whatever misfortune may befall your
country or my own, the peace and friendship which now exist between the two nations will be, as it shall be my desire to make
them, perpetual.
These are strong words for the record. Lincoln evidently had
strong sympathy with and even gratitude for, the British people and their untiring leaders.
It was as a recognition of the personal debt Lincoln owed
to the stalwart help of John Bright and his associates that
when Lincoln heard of Bright's intercession in behalf of a
hotheaded English youth who had plotted to aid the South,
Lincoln pardoned Alfred Rubery. The significant, and indeed pleasant, precedent in Anglo-American relations was