Id like to think the workers of Manchester had a hand 1862 in denying the CSA much needed funds when they refused to work Southern cotton causing the Manchester cotton famine , This was done off their own backs with no influence what so ever from the government.
Quote:
Many mill owners and workers resented the blockade and continued to see the war as an issue of tariffs against free trade. Attempts were made to run the blockade, by ships from Liverpool, London and New York. 71,751 bales of American cotton reached Liverpool in 1862.
[30] Confederate flags were flown in many cotton towns.
On 31 December 1862, a meeting of cotton workers at the
Free Trade Hall in
Manchester, despite their increasing hardship, resolved to support the Union in its fight against
slavery. An extract from the letter they wrote in the name of the Working People of Manchester to His Excellency Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America says:
... the vast progress which you have made in the short space of twenty months fills us with hope that every stain on your freedom will shortly be removed, and that the erasure of that foul blot on civilisation and Christianity – chattel slavery – during your presidency, will cause the name of Abraham Lincoln to be honoured and revered by posterity. We are certain that such a glorious consummation will cement Great Britain and the United States in close and enduring regards.
— Public Meeting, Free Trade Hall, Manchester, 31 December 1862.
On 19 January 1863,
Abraham Lincoln sent an address thanking the cotton workers of Lancashire for their support. He wrote:
... I know and deeply deplore the sufferings which the working people of Manchester and in all Europe are called to endure in this crisis. It has been often and studiously represented that the attempt to overthrow this Government which was built on the foundation of human rights, and to substitute for it one which should rest exclusively on the basis of slavery, was unlikely to obtain the favour of Europe.
Through the action of disloyal citizens, the working people of Europe have been subjected to a severe trial for the purpose of forcing their sanction to that attempt. Under the circumstances I cannot but regard your decisive utterances on 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 re-inspiring assurance of the inherent truth and of the ultimate and universal triumph of justice, humanity and freedom.
I hail this interchange of sentiments, therefore, as an augury that, whatever else may happen, whatever misfortune may befall your country or my own, the peace and friendship which now exists between the two nations will be, as it shall be my desire to make them, perpetual.
— Abraham Lincoln, 19 January 1863
The statue of
Abraham Lincoln in
Manchester, England
A monument in Brazenose Street, Lincoln Square, Manchester, commemorates the events and reproduces portions of both documents.
[31] The Abraham Lincoln statue by
George Grey Barnard, 1919, was formerly located in the gardens at
Platt Hall in Rusholme.
The Federal American government sent a gift of food to the people of Lancashire. The first consignment was sent aboard the George Griswold. Other ships were the Hope and Achilles.
A local historian told me that he had seen newspaper articles in Lancashire that celebrated McClellan's victory at Sharpsburg and that some street party's took place and much rejoicing as the people of Lancashire thought the war would come to an end and normal cotton production would resume as it happen and sadly it didn't and by 1864-65 many had emigrated to other country's.
I think McClellan was held in high regard by my town as was Grant who of course came to visit us on his tour and was very warmly received.