Justin S. Morrill
And to end Europe’s cotton famine
A couple posts ago a member of the 50th New York Engineers worried about foreign intervention in America’s Civil War. He urged men to volunteer right away so the rebellion could be put down before England and France intervened and made it a much bigger fight for the Union. According to the Richmond Daily Dispatch on July 17, 1862 an English newspaper was editorializing for that very intervention:
The English Press on intervention.
–The London Herald has a very strong article on the war in America. We give its conclusion.
How long, then, are England and France to tolerate a war waged, utterly in vain, for an object whose attainment would confer no benefit on those who seek it, and would be an unmarred misfortune to the rest of the world? How long are we to suffer, while the North strains its powers to the uttermost to restore a Union, which, while it existed, was the common enemy of Europe, and, to an especial sense, the enemy of England? How much shall we suffer for the Morrill tariff, the destruction of the industry on which our cotton supply depends, and the prospect of an eventual war for Canada? If the contest had lasted only a short time we might have suffered patiently rather than be involved in a quarrel which is not ours. If we did not suffer, we should not be disposed to meddle, should the struggle continue for years to come. But the war has lasted a year, and may last for many years, and it inflicts on England sufferings already cruel, and increasing with each succeeding month that brings no hope of peace. If the cause of the North were a good or a holy one, England might be content to suffer long and severely for conscience sake; but we are not willing to see our countrymen starve that Northern lust of empire may be gratified by the sacrifice of Southern freedom, or that Massachusetts may grow rich on subsidies wrung by a protective tariff from Georgia and Alabama. It is time that some decided action should be taken by France and England on behalf of justice and humanity, as well as foe,[for?] the protection of their half ruined manufacturers and hungry operatives. Such action must be taken at last; it is impossible that things can be long allowed to remain as at present, and most improbable that any change in the aspect of American affairs will bring us any relief; and if we are to act after all, it is a saving of needless misery to act at once, with gentleness and courtesy, but with immovable firmness of purpose. The war in America, the cotton famine in Europe, must be terminated; when this resolution is once announced by the two great Powers, neither the patient sufferers here nor the exhausted combatants beyond the Atlantic will have long to wait for relief.
