View
121
Download
2
Category
Preview:
Citation preview
©2009 Jake Campbell
‘Of such stuff as this are we English made’: Abraham Lincoln’s Life and Legacy in Britain
Master of Studies in History, Trinity Term 2009
©2009 Jake Campbell
1 | P a g e
Abstract
This dissertation assesses British perceptions of one of America’s greatest statesmen,
Abraham Lincoln, and uses it to illustrate concurrent trends in Anglo-American relations.
Whilst president, he received much criticism in Britain, as relations between the countries
were damaged as a by-product of the American Civil War. Much of the disapproval
directed towards Lincoln revolved around slavery and race, with Britain taking the high
moral ground. Many Britons did not understand or appreciate the constitutional
constraints Lincoln faced as president. His assassination marked a significant turning
point, with a reassessment of Lincoln’s character. There was widespread sympathy for the
American people, though only for a brief moment. Relations between the two countries
continued to be strained, though improved, culminating in the ‘Great Rapprochement’ of
the early twentieth century.
Following this, the dissertation explores the legacy of Lincoln in Britain, assessing his
influence in politics and culture during the 1910s and 1920s. His rhetoric was adopted by
a number of politicians, from all parties, and applied to a wide range of situations, such as
the First World War and Irish Independence. It then explores numerous avenues where
Lincoln has made an impact, including statues erected in his honour and John Drinkwater’s
dramatization of the president’s tenure.
Prime Minister David Lloyd George claimed that Lincoln ‘lost his nationality in death’. In
life he was a target of British anti-Americanism and tarred with the brush of slavery, but in
death he became a figure that many Britons embraced in the following years. Yet Lloyd
George’s claim was at the high-water mark of Lincoln’s popularity in Britain, and after this
time his fame dwindled, becoming only one of many American icons celebrated abroad.
©2009 Jake Campbell
2 | P a g e
Table of Contents
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Chapter 1: Contemporaneous Perceptions of Lincoln in Britain……………………………….........
Chapter 2: Assassination – An Outpouring of Grief Around Britain………………………………….
Chapter 3: Lincoln in the Great Rapprochement……………………………………………………………..
Postscript: ‘Now He Belongs to the ages’.......................………………………………....................
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...
2
5
22
33
44
45
47
1
Front Cover Source: Quote from Lord Bryce, Times, 29 July 1920, p. 14.
©2009 Jake Campbell
3 | P a g e
Introduction
‘Abraham Lincoln said some very wise things’
Denzil Davies, Labour MP 2
‘one of the greatest Americans and one of the greatest Anglo-Saxons that ever lived’
Stanley Baldwin, Conservative MP and Prime Minister 3
While living as president, Abraham Lincoln was severely criticized by many in the British
public, especially in the press, often being the victim of a Punch cartoon or poem.
However, in death he became an immortal figure, whose renown not only occupied the
American imagination, but also the other side of the Atlantic. Since then, London,
Manchester, Edinburgh and even Norfolk (his ancestral home) have erected statues in his
honour. What caused this remarkable shift from dislike to such respect for Lincoln? When
did this shift occur? In some ways, this change in opinion illustrates the Anglo-American
relationship. During the Civil War, tensions were high between Britain and America, as can
be seen in the Trent Affair, and although there was an improvement in relations
afterwards, it was inconsistent. In the ‘Great Rapprochement’ of the early twentieth
century, Lincoln’s legacy was cemented in Britain.4 This dissertation will demonstrate that
Lincoln can be considered as a barometer of Anglo-American relations during the Civil War
and Great Rapprochement. It will also illustrate the general feeling towards him in Britain,
as expressed in the political sphere and in the media, both of which have the dual role of
reflecting and shaping public opinion.5
2 Hansard, 5
th Series, 1978, CML, 1739.
3 Hansard, 5
th Series, 1928, CCXXII, 755.
4 The phrase comes from Bradford Perkins’ The Great Rapprochement: England and the United States, 1895-
1914 (New York, 1968), though rapprochement was used by contemporaries to describe their ‘coming together’. His definition will be extended through to the early 1920s.
5 G. Lundberg, 'The Newspaper and Public Opinion', Social Forces, 4 (1926), 712-3. Lundberg argues that
newspapers seek to both ‘discover and reflect’ public opinion and that they are ‘products of the various forces which make opinion in a community.’
©2009 Jake Campbell
4 | P a g e
The first chapter will assess Lincoln's portrayal in Britain during his lifetime. Largely a
political unknown outside of his own state for many years, it is understandable why British
interest developed in Lincoln only took place at the time of his election as president in
1860. As Blackett argues, the American Civil War became the single most important event
that affected the British economy and its political life during this period, hence a great
interest in Lincoln.6 Following his inauguration, there was naturally an increase in British
press coverage of American politics as secession turned into full-scale war. Lincoln, as
head of the government and of the nation, bore the majority of British criticism directed
towards the Union. He was often considered an incompetent leader and it was said that
the Emancipation Proclamation was only an expedient to win the war, having exhausted all
alternatives. However, this opinion of the president was not uniformly expressed, and he
was defended most notably by MP John Bright and increasingly by abolitionists after his
proclamation. As the tide turned in the war, and Lincoln’s sincerity in pursuing
emancipation was evident, the British press became somewhat more favourable to
Lincoln.
The second chapter will discuss the impact of Lincoln's assassination and the outpouring
of grief in Britain. There was a near universal expression of sympathy for the American
people. Even Punch, which had been vehemently critical of the president, produced a
cartoon of Britannia placing a wreath upon Lincoln’s covered body.7 Was it guilt that
marked such a change in opinion of the late president? This chapter will argue that the
astounding reversal in opinion did not come because Lincoln had abolished slavery, but
because his assassination forced a reassessment of his contribution to successfully
prosecuting the war. It will also highlight the growing awareness of Anglo-Saxonism and
the foundations of a new Anglo-American relationship.
The connection between Lincoln and the Anglo-American friendship would manifest itself
most overtly in the ‘Great Rapprochement’ of the 1910s and early 1920s. Chapter Three
6 R.J.M. Blackett, Divided Hearts: Britain and the American Civil War (Baton Rouge, 2001), p. 7.
7 Punch, 6 May 1865, p. 185.
©2009 Jake Campbell
5 | P a g e
illustrates Lincoln's political and cultural legacy in Britain during this period. Throughout
the First World War, many politicians looked to Lincoln as a brilliant strategist who could
make tough decisions, such as the introduction of conscription and the temporary
suspension of some liberties in order to preserve them in the long run. He was a hero to
wartime Prime Minister David Lloyd George. It is interesting that Lincoln was praised in
Britain as a symbol of democracy in the early twentieth century (and later too), despite
many Britons having previously considered democracy as synonymous with 'mob rule'.
The chapter will also assess the cultural legacy of the president, including the moves to
erect various memorials in his honour. The British literary community played a significant
role in propagating Lincoln's memory, especially Lord Charnwood's biography of Lincoln
and John Drinkwater's internationally acclaimed play, Abraham Lincoln.
A postscript will briefly assess Lincoln in his decline as an icon in Britain. Other characters
from American history have taken precedence, such as Martin Luther King and John F.
Kennedy. However, the popularity of political ‘celebrities’ largely pales in comparison to
the interest in American popular culture. In a BBC website poll, 47% of the 37,000 voters
chose television character Homer Simpson as the ‘greatest American’, with Lincoln coming
in second with a mere 9.67%.8 This seems to demonstrate that popular culture and
entertainment is America’s most famous export. Perhaps it is right to say that when
Britons think of what best represents America, they talk less about ‘Honest Abe’ and more
about Homer, the average beer-loving family man from another ‘Springfield’.
8 'Your Greatest American', http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/wtwta/2997144.stm (accessed 6 May
2009). The BBC notes that the results ‘may not reflect public opinion’, but nonetheless they make interesting reading.
©2009 Jake Campbell
6 | P a g e
-1-
Contemporaneous Perceptions of Lincoln in Britain
Being almost an unknown in his own country, it is hardly surprising that Lincoln was
unheard of in Britain at the time he was elected president.9 This was, however, to change
during the course of the Civil War. British coverage of Lincoln during his presidency reveals
two streams of thought. The first is evident – Britons learned about the president as an
individual, having read press coverage about him choosing generals, his conduct during
the Trent Affair, and issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation. The second strand is
more subtle – Lincoln served as a symbol of America. The British ‘hobby’ of Anti-
Americanism was projected onto the president, often regardless of his personal
convictions.10 The aim of this chapter is not to recount who supported the North or South,
since it has been thoroughly covered by other historians, such as Blackett, Ellison and
Campbell. Whilst favouring a particular side influenced people’s views of Lincoln, it will
also be argued that he can be decoupled from this factor, and was sometimes judged on
his personal merits. Mary Ellison has noted that editors ‘made frequent attempts to
fathom Lincoln’s complex personality and to interpret his sometimes ambiguous public
statements’.11 This ambiguity produced divided opinions about Lincoln, and the
fascination with trying to understand his mind appealed to contemporaries on both sides
of the Atlantic, and has occupied the work of many historians since.
Existing historiography covers British opinions of Americans and the Civil War, but little on
their judgements of Lincoln. Ellison’s Support for Secession argues that generally
Lancashire was pro-Southern and did not warm to Lincoln, but is willing to note the
exceptions, contrary to Blackett’s criticism of her argument.12 She does not assert that
everyone hated Lincoln, but demonstrates that even ardent Union supporters doubted his
9 J. J. Barnes and P. P. Barnes, eds., The American Civil War through British Eyes: Dispatches from British
Diplomats, (Kent, Ohio, 2003), ii, 3: Dispatch 283, Lyons to Russell, 12 November 1861. 10
J.M. McPherson, Drawn with the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil War (New York, 1997), p. 214. 11
M. Ellison, Support for Secession: Lancashire and the American Civil War (Chicago, 1972), p. 176. 12
Blackett, Divided Hearts, pp. 5, 174-5.
©2009 Jake Campbell
7 | P a g e
capacity to govern or successfully prosecute a war. Ellison’s work is particularly useful in
highlighting the mixture of ambivalence, ignorance, and hatred towards Lincoln and, more
generally, America.13 Foner, on the other hand, writes little about Lincoln and Britain,
except the claim that the working-class almost wholly supported Lincoln and the Union.14
Blackett’s Divided Hearts, as the title suggests, presents a more complicated picture,
though states that generally the aristocracy supported the South and had little admiration
for Lincoln, and the working-class largely supported him, favouring the Union.15 Yet this
was not clear-cut, as Lincoln’s hesitancy on the slave question will demonstrate. Duncan
Campbell’s study asserts that Britons were largely uncertain about both sides during the
war, as will be illustrated in the case of Lincoln.16
Lincoln’s Image
In Britain little was known about Lincoln before his election, so after his victory various
miniature biographies appeared in the press, borrowing heavily from their American
counterparts.17 They labelled him as a political lightweight, with an unexceptional career
as a labourer, boatman and woodcutter.18 When Times war correspondent William
Howard Russell met the president shortly after his inauguration, he was struck by Lincoln’s
‘extraordinary dimensions’ and remarked that if someone ‘met Mr. Lincoln in the street
[he] would not take him to be what – according to the usages of European society – is
called a “gentleman”’.19 Nonetheless, Russell’s first report on the president was not
completely negative, and he noticed an ‘appearance of kindliness, sagacity, and the
awkward bonhomie of his face’. It is perhaps this ‘bonhomie’ (i.e. approachability) that
appealed to some Britons.
Lincoln’s image in British popular print has drawn some interest from some Lincoln
scholars, but it has largely been superficial, despite its importance to the British view of
13
Ellison, Support for Secession, pp. 173-188. 14
P.S. Foner, British Labor and the American Civil War (London, 1981). 15
Blackett, Divided Hearts, p. 124. 16
D.A. Campbell, English Public Opinion and the American Civil War (Woodbridge, England, 2003). 17
Times, 27 November 1860, p. 4. This particular sketch was from the New York Tribune. 18
Reynolds's Newspaper, 25 November 1860, p. 1. 19
Times, 20 December 1861, p. 5.
©2009 Jake Campbell
8 | P a g e
the president.20 In fact, there were more than fifty cartoons featuring him in the satirical
periodicals, the well-known Punch and its new rival Fun. For its readers, the cartoons of
Lincoln were a valuable aid in understanding America and its new president, and today
provide historians with the richest and most interesting graphical (and poetical)
representations of Lincoln in Britain. Furthermore, the satirical image of Lincoln was his
predominant appearance in Britain, since few other pictures were reproduced.21 Kent
notes, for example, that cartoons have a ‘more emotive and participatory’ address, which,
at a ‘basic level is accessible to all’, whereas reams of text in newspapers may have far less
appeal to the common reader.22 Punch was a popular periodical, with a weekly circulation
of forty thousand, which had been built up over a twenty-year existence. Fun, on the
other hand, started in September 1861, but at one penny a copy, it sold twenty thousand
copies a week by the end of the Civil War.23 Lincoln's appearance was especially useful for
cartoonists because he perfectly embodied the perceived vulgarity and rough nature of
Americans (seen in illustrations before the Civil War) which were easily adapted to fit the
new president.24 This can be seen in Fun's cartoon, 'Columbia's Nightmare', where Lincoln
is portrayed as an intimidating and ugly creature, exaggerating his already prominent
features.25
20
C. Kent, 'War Cartooned/Cartoon War: Matt Morgan and the American Civil War in "Fun" and "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper"' Victorian Periodicals Review, 36 (2003), 153-181., G.S. Boritt, 'Punch Lincoln: Some Thoughts on Cartoons in the British Magazine', Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, 15 (1994), 1-22.
21 G.S. Boritt, M.E. Neely and H. Holzer, 'The European Image of Abraham Lincoln,' Winterthur Portfolio 21
(1986), 158-9. 22
Kent, 'War Cartooned', p. 154. 23
N. Hiley, 'Comic Periodicals', http://find.galegroup.com/ukpc/NCUK_researchguide.htm (accessed 27 March, 2009).
24 Compare, for example, Punch, 28 August 1852, p. 101.
25 Fun, 10 September 1864, p. 261.
©2009 Jake Campbell
9 | P a g e
It is useful to compare British perceptions of Lincoln with contemporary American
politicians, and previous presidents, to determine whether the criticism was aimed at
Lincoln personally, or whether it was more generic. Crawford highlights a persistent
negativity towards American presidents, stemming from a ‘long-held suspicion of
executive weakness in the United States’.26 This suspicion, however, found substance in
incidents such as Franklin Pierce’s 1856 Annual Message to Congress. Furthermore, the
‘capricious and illogical nature of its democratic system’ meant that incompetent vice
presidents, in the view of the Times, could become president if their predecessor died.27
This was evident in ascendency of Millard Fillmore, of whom the British had ‘entire
ignorance’, and Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson.28 There was great ‘disenchantment’
towards James Buchanan, Lincoln’s predecessor, for not being able to prevent the
26
M. Crawford, The Anglo-American Crisis of the Mid-Nineteenth Century: The Times and America, 1850-1862 (London, 1987), p. 91.
27 Times, 22 July 1850, cited in Ibid., p. 46.
28 Ibid., pp. 42, 46.
©2009 Jake Campbell
10 | P a g e
outbreak of war. This criticism extended to Lincoln as he refused to surrender Fort Sumter
to South Carolina. Buchanan was castigated for abdicating responsibility from all the
unfolding events, especially his denial of federal power to intervene in the collapse of the
Union.29 Comparisons with Lincoln’s rival, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, were
regularly made in the press, but this has been often overlooked by historians. Ellison
found several newspapers praising Davis, such as the Bury Guardian’s claim that he was
‘the most remarkable man of the age.’30 She also noted that in Liverpool there was
‘spectacularly uniform underestimation’ of Lincoln, whereas Davis, as well as Confederate
commanders Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, were judged to be ‘superior’.31
Blackett, however, notes that Davis was seen as ‘bland’ and did ‘little to excite the
imagination’, and never achieved widespread popularity in Britain.32
Lincoln in the Eyes of Political Reform Advocates and Workingmen
Lincoln was a figure of interest for political reform advocates and workingmen. This
appeal came from his remarkable rise to the presidency, having been born in a log cabin
and worked as a rail-splitter. Whilst his mere two years in the House of Representatives
highlighted his inexperience for the most important job in the country, his humble
background not only provided an inspiration to the ordinary citizen in America, but also to
poor British subjects. For example, men on the docks of Liverpool celebrated the end of
the Civil War, holding up ‘the plain picture that appeals to the plain people in all the world
– ABRAHAM LINCOLN.’33 An anti-slavery advocate paraphrased Lincoln’s own words to
state that he was a ‘man from the people, with the people, and for the people.’34 This
effectively sums up the traditional interpretation of the working-class opinion of Lincoln.
However, it is difficult to track working-class opinion of Lincoln as there were few avenues
of expression open to them, although it will be shown how they participated in meetings
to express their shock at Lincoln’s assassination. For example, although the Union and
29
Ibid., pp. 83-4, 88. 30
Ellison, Support for Secession, p. 178. 31
Ibid., p. 184. 32
Blackett, Divided Hearts, p. 223. 33
Outlook, 22 March 1902, p. 719., cited in Blackett, Divided Hearts, p. 3. 34
Ibid., p. 231.
©2009 Jake Campbell
11 | P a g e
Emancipation Society was formed to give workingmen a voice, it was dominated by
wealthier supporters, since often poorer people could not afford the society’s dues (as in
the case of other abolition and Civil War-related groups). This was especially true for the
unemployed operatives in Manchester, who had a letter sent on their behalf to Lincoln in
December 1862 at a meeting attended by six thousand ‘working people and others’. It
praised ‘his erasure of that foul blot on civilisation and Christianity – chattel slavery’. The
letter also hoped that this ‘glorious consummation’ would ‘cement Great Britain and the
United States in close and enduring regards.’ Lincoln’s personal response to the letter is
fascinating and would be fondly remembered in future years, particularly in Manchester
where a statue was erected in his honour. The president praised the ‘sublime Christian
heroism’ of the unemployed for not tolerating slavery and enduring such suffering until
the crisis was resolved. He hoped for ‘peace and friendship’ between Britain and America
that would last beyond that moment. Although it did not come immediately, the
correspondence signalled the beginnings of a restoration in the Anglo-American
relationship.35
The more liberal elements of the British press praised Lincoln’s election, declaring him to
be ‘the representative man’ with ‘no army to fall back upon, no parliamentary power... [or]
aristocratic influence and rotten boroughs.’36 He served as a symbol for electoral reform in
Britain and has been credited, rightly or wrongly, by some as influencing the passage of
the Reform Act of 1867.37 This included MP John Bright, who often claimed to speak on
behalf of the working-people. However, his belief was overstated, and newspapers argued
that he was ‘a wholly unauthorised representative of British opinion.’38 Although he
regularly featured in the press, it was because of his outlandish and extreme statements,
which commentators would proceed to ridicule. Other pro-Union sympathisers did not
have much respect for Lincoln. One such man was radical MP, Richard Cobden. He was
35
Public Monument and Sculpture Association National Recording Project, ‘Abraham Lincoln’, http://pmsa.cch.kcl.ac.uk/MR/MR-MCR09.htm (accessed 21 May 2009).
36 Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, 3 March 1861, p. 6.
37 Campbell notes that the importance was exaggerated by Liberal MP John Bright, and also that less than
five per cent of speeches on reform bills included discussion of America. D.A. Campbell, Unlikely Allies: Britain, America and the Victorian Origins of the Special Relationship (London, 2007), p. 283.
38 Birmingham Daily Post, 8 November 1864, p. 2.
©2009 Jake Campbell
12 | P a g e
one of the few Englishmen Lincoln ever met and was in a better position to assess his
chances of success as president, which he doubted. The meeting, however, was so
insignificant to Cobden, that he did not even note it in his diary.39 After the election,
Cobden was concerned that because Lincoln was ‘intellectually inferior’ he would be
‘unequal to the occasion’.40 Liberal antipathy towards Lincoln was compounded by his
support for protectionism. They had the choice between the North, with free labour but
tariffs, or the South, with free trade but slavery. This dilemma meant that Britons often
chose to remain neutral.41 Yet, at the same time the election of Lincoln produced great
hope for liberals and radicals like Cobden. It showed that democracy could elevate men
from the humblest of backgrounds and, in Howe's words, was an ‘embodiment of the
positiveness of America.’42 Of course, to conservatives the election of Lincoln represented
quite the opposite, and they would continue to criticize his political judgements
throughout the war, stating that he was simply bowing to the demands of the mob. Even
upon hearing of his assassination, certain elements of the conservative press remained
unsympathetic.
Although the British press did not like Lincoln’s Secretary of State, William Seward (and the
favour was returned), it considered him a more apt leader and often compared him to the
inadequacies of Lincoln. Bell's Life in London, for example, stated that it ‘would be doing
him [Lincoln] an injustice not to admit that he is not entirely his own master...[Seward has]
a stronger will, more acuteness, better education, and more experience in statecraft.43
Lincoln's lack of familiarity with the wider world was picked up by the British press to
further argue his inadequate qualifications for president, comparing this with Seward’s
recent eight-month tour of Europe.
39
A. Howe, '"A Very Sublime Spectacle": Cobden, Lincoln and the American Liberal Tradition', (University College London, 20 February 2009).
40 D.B. Mahin, One War at a Time: The International Dimensions of the American Civil War (Washington, D.C.,
1999), p. 29. 41
Howe, 'A Very Sublime Spectacle'. 42
Ibid. 43
Bell's Life in London, 12 January 1862, p. 2.
©2009 Jake Campbell
13 | P a g e
Lincoln and the Trent Affair
The Trent Affair is one of the most effective illustrations of British opinions of Lincoln. A
British mail steamer, the Trent, was stopped at gun-point by an American vessel in
November 1861, and told to hand over the Confederate commissioners on board, causing
a diplomatic crisis. It is a well-documented incident, with historians demonstrating the
general animosity towards America, but little about the president himself. This stems
from the British perception that Seward was the architect of the whole affair. The Trent
Affair worsened Seward’s already bad reputation in Britain, but Lincoln emerged as a
somewhat ambiguous character. Britons were more familiar with Seward than Lincoln
because of his infamous anti-British actions as governor of New York and his regular calls
for America to take Britain’s North American territory.44 During the affair the Liverpool
Mercury raised the issue of Seward's long-term ‘animosity’ and ‘recklessness’, but hoped
that a calmer Lincoln would make the right decision.45 Seward's history with Britain
explains why Britain's harshest criticism was reserved for him, and that Lincoln faired
rather better.
News of the incident sparked a deluge of anti-American comments and preparations were
made for war. There were calls for Lincoln to dare to ‘defy the omnipotence of England’
but others appealed to the president's reason to prevent an escalation of the crisis.46
Lincoln was considered more level-headed than Seward, but the main concern was
whether he could assert his control. The Sunderland Herald, for example, had its doubts,
stating that Lincoln was ‘partly the slave of Seward, very much the slave of the mob, and
will do all it can to uphold him.’47 For the sake of America's own honour, the Times
reporter Russell believed that Lincoln would ‘put down his foot’ and that he would ‘die
sooner than submit to the humiliation of his country’.48 Lord Lyons, Minister to the United
States, was in a better position to make a sober judgement on the Trent Affair. He
44
Campbell, Unlikely Allies, pp. 147-8. 45
Liverpool Mercury, 2 December 1861, p. 6. 46
Durham Chronicle, 27 December 1861, p. 5., Durham County Advertiser, 27 December 1861, p. 5. 47
Sunderland and Durham County Herald, 27 December, 1861, p. 5. 48
Times, 8 January 1862, p. 7.
©2009 Jake Campbell
14 | P a g e
considered the president to be a temperate, realistic and cautious manager of affairs, and
willing to concede defeat over the Trent order to save the Union (which was his ultimate
goal).49 Over time this opinion would be shared throughout the British press, and the
peaceful resolution of the Trent Affair was an important contributing factor.
Despite British criticism of the president, there were some positive remarks, especially as
the crisis came to an end with the release of the commissioners. The Daily News argued
that even though Lincoln was ‘a man of no great power’, he would be nonetheless willing
‘to act rightly in harmony with the strict claims of justice and the requirements of public
law.’50 This contrasts with the general animosity after Lincoln’s election, and highlights a
growing respect for the president, especially because he did not give in to the pressure of
the mob that Britons usually associated with democracy. In the eyes of one Dublin
newspaper, the Trent Affair showed Lincoln was a ‘very intelligent and good-tempered
man’, and not one of the ‘Savage men’ (according to the Times) that made up the Federal
Government.51 In some newspapers Lincoln was praised for restraining his ‘War-
Secretary’ Seward, but in other cases it was seen that Lincoln had been overruled by his
Secretary.52 Seward, of course was not the Secretary of War, but the quotation illustrates
British suspicion of his intentions, and also the fact that Lincoln was unable to control his
Cabinet. He was criticized for his indecisiveness and for being manipulated by Seward. The
Preston Guardian believed that Lincoln, a ‘sagacious and prudent minister’, was ‘thwarted’
at every opportunity by Seward, who had presidential ambitions, which he was trying to
attain through Lincoln.53 Nonetheless, the British press often paired Seward and Lincoln
during the Trent Affair, arguing both were complicit in the seizure.54 By the end of the
affair, there was little praise in the British press for Lincoln and Seward, and instead simply
a relief that the incident had been put to rest.
49
Barnes and Barnes, American Civil War through British Eyes, i, 239, 242: Dispatches 735 & 742, Lyons to Russell, 3 & 6 December 1861.
50 Daily News, 30 December 1861, p. 4.
51 Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, 13 January 1862, p. 2.
52 Durham County Advertiser, 3 January 1862, p. 5., Campbell, English Public Opinion, p. 227.
53 Preston Guardian, 11 January 1862, p. 2.
54 John Bull, 21 December 1861, p. 809.
©2009 Jake Campbell
15 | P a g e
Lincoln and the Slavery Issue
As a symbol of America, Lincoln was attributed with British perceptions of American views
on race. Britons believed that they had a more enlightened view of black people since
they had abolished slavery and had heard stories of poor treatment of free blacks in the
Northern States.55 This influenced cartoons such as the first ‘big cut’ of Lincoln in Punch,
which put these words in his mouth: ‘What a nice White House this would be, if it were
not for the blacks!’ This illustrated that from the outset an assertion of British moral
superiority would be a constant theme in the press during the Civil War.56 Yet Lincoln’s
own words condemned himself in the eyes of the British public. His initial claim that he
merely wanted to restore the Union, regardless of whether or not the slavery issue was
touched, disappointed many Britons. Some British abolitionists were willing to follow
William Lloyd Garrison’s line in calls for a permanent separation, which could provide the
opportunity to press the Confederacy towards emancipation. Even James Spence, a
leading pro-Confederate from Liverpool, claimed an independent South would lead to the
end of slavery.57
Lincoln’s conduct related to slavery affected early British views of the president. It
confirmed to Britons that there was no moral obligation to support Lincoln or the North.
Clear evidence is provided by the reaction to Lincoln’s abrogation of General Frémont’s
emancipation decree in September 1861. This incident has largely been overlooked by
historians, even though the British press considered that it gave a clear indication of the
president’s views on slavery.58 The Liverpool Mercury’s editorial accused Lincoln of
‘tenderness for the great Southern institution [slavery]’ and that he was hypocritical for
declaring Frémont’s decree unconstitutional, whilst elsewhere there were ‘countless
violations’ of federal powers.59 The Daily News’ Northern correspondent praised Frémont
55
D. Lorimer, 'The Role of Anti-Slavery Sentiment in English Reactions to the American Civil War', Historical Journal, 19 (1976), 407-10.
56 Punch, 11 May 1861, p. 195.
57 Lorimer, 'Role of Anti-Slavery Sentiment', 407, 409-10. Lord John Russell (Foreign Secretary) and William
Gladstone (Chancellor) were the main proponents within the Cabinet. Blackett, Divided Hearts, p. 57. 58
Campbell, English Public Opinion, p. 24. 59
Liverpool Mercury, 3 October 1861, p. 6.
©2009 Jake Campbell
16 | P a g e
for the ‘bold stroke he has made for human liberty’ and criticised Lincoln for being so
‘scrupulous’ regarding slavery, yet suspending habeas corpus and allowing martial law in
Missouri.60 Crawford argues that the decision to relieve Frémont of duty completed the
undermining of the abolitionist aspect of the Civil War.61 However, a number of British
newspapers understood Lincoln’s difficulty in keeping the loyal slave states within Union,
and that he could not afford to be undermined by a rogue officer.62 Lloyd’s Weekly
Newspaper interpreted Lincoln’s call to the ‘limitation’ of slavery as meaning eventual
abolition, under the right circumstances – Frémont’s action was premature.63 If the
Frémont controversy was not enough, months later Lincoln removed the paragraphs on
the emancipation and arming of slaves from Secretary of War Simon Cameron’s draft of his
own annual address to Congress. In the eyes of the British press, this proved that Lincoln
himself was not an anti-slavery sympathiser. Pro-Confederate supporters, such as Liberal
politician William Lindsay found great currency from these stories, even suggesting that
Cameron was ‘turned out of the Cabinet’ by Lincoln for expressing anti-slavery views.64
Lincoln’s personal opinion of slavery was made known by the August 1862 letter to Horace
Greeley. For Britons, the most striking portion was Lincoln’s claim that ‘My paramount
object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery’.
This was quoted liberally in the press and by politicians.65 The Newcastle Courant
responded to the letter with a rhetorical question: ‘can it be surprising that England still
remains an inactive and sorrowful spectator of their strife?’66 The Examiner’s editorial was
delighted with the letter, since it proved what the newspaper ‘had been saying from the
first’ – slavery was unaffected by the conflict.67 Most of the British public did not
understand the constitution’s limits on presidential power to abolish the institution.68 One
of the few newspapers to recognize this, the Leeds Mercury, spoke of Lincoln’s letter to
60
Daily News, 8 October 1861, p. 5. 61
Crawford, Anglo-American Crisis, p. 125. 62
Campbell, English Public Opinion, p. 25. 63
Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, 6 October 1861, p. 6., Belfast News-Letter, 10 October 1861, p. 3. 64
Hansard, 3rd
Series, 1862, CLXVIII, 514-5., Hansard, 3rd
Series, 1862, CLXV, 1208. 65
Birmingham Daily Post, 27 January 1864, p. 3. 66
Newcastle Courant, 12 September 1862, p. 8. 67
Examiner, 13 September 1862, p. 579. 68
McPherson, Drawn with the Sword, p. 220.
©2009 Jake Campbell
17 | P a g e
Greeley as ‘refreshingly candid’, but understood (or at least hoped) that it expressed
merely ‘official views’ rather than ‘his personal wish that all men should be free.’69
The initial reception to Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was largely hostile and a
significant amount of cynicism was evident among British opinion. There are two reasons
for this. The first arose from the circumstances of the decree. The Civil War was clearly
far from finished and the aftermath of Antietam had not made the prospect of a Union
victory any more likely. Hence, the Times was among many who doubted the sincerity of
Lincoln’s proclamation, and compared it to ‘a Chinaman beating his two swords together
to frighten his enemy’ rather than ‘an earnest man pressing on his cause in steadfastness
and truth’.70 The Morning Post, ‘organ’ of Prime Minister Viscount Palmerston, called the
document a piece of ‘trash’ issued in desperation by an ‘utterly powerless and
contemptible’ president.71 In Lancashire, Ellison notes that the decision was ‘almost
universally dismissed as an act of hypocrisy’ and was a clear sign that an inept Lincoln
69
Leeds Mercury, 8 September 1862, p. 2. 70
Times, 7 October 1862, p. 8. 71
Morning Post, 8 October 1862, cited in Mahin, One War at a Time, p. 133.
©2009 Jake Campbell
18 | P a g e
could not win by ‘more straightforward means.’72 In the comic periodicals, Lincoln was
portrayed as ‘a political opportunist using Negroes as pawns’.73 Punch believed that
Lincoln had become so desperate that he had to play his ‘last card’ – emancipation. 74
Fun, in their ‘big cut’ that same week, portrayed a tiny Lincoln, who is meant to be
'Jupiter', with a small and ineffectual thunderbolt of ‘emancipation’.75 In the eyes of Fun,
the president was clearly not a match for the Roman god of war. It is worth noting that
72
Ellison, Support for Secession, p. 173. 73
O. Maurer, '"Punch" on Slavery and Civil War in America 1841-1865', Victorian Studies, 1 (1957), pp. 19-20. 74
Punch, 18 October 1862, p. 163. 75
Fun, 18 October 1862, p. 47.
©2009 Jake Campbell
19 | P a g e
the slaves in the cartoon seem happy (one is smiling) and most are uninterested in
Lincoln’s grand entrance onto the scene.
For Punch, the proclamation provided evidence of Lincoln’s poor leadership qualities,
whose measures had resulted in anarchy.76 At the time of Lincoln's Second Inaugural
Address, Punch created a parodied version which included this phrase regarding
emancipating the slaves: ‘[sic] They give this here war a holy character, and we can call it a
crusade for freedom’. This clearly illustrated the common perception in Britain that a
shrewd Lincoln was using emancipation for political expediency.77
The second reason for a lack of support for Lincoln post-Emancipation is more subtle.
Lorimer and Blackett have noted that during the mid-nineteenth century there was a
growing fatigue in Britain towards abolitionism, and so the enthusiasm for Lincoln was
relatively low-key, compared to the reception such a measure would have received
decades before. In Britain there was scepticism about the benefits of emancipation after
the apparent ‘failure’ of its implementation in the West Indies.78 Blackett describes the
antislavery movement as having ‘lost some of its bite’, though it did revive following
Lincoln’s Proclamation.79 Even the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society refused show
enthusiasm or support, and instead focussed its efforts on abolishing slavery in Cuba.80
However, the measure did have some positive effect in Britain. It dealt a blow to Southern
advocates, who could no longer claim that the North did not care about abolition, and the
North-South contrast became more evident as the war progressed. It reinvigorated the
efforts of anti-slavery societies, including fundraising and the reactivation of dormant
chapters.81 In the month after the Proclamation took effect there were huge celebrations.
The London Emancipation Society’s meeting in Exeter Hall, London, became so full (with
three thousand in attendance) that they held an impromptu open-air meeting on the
76
Punch, 8 August 1863, p. 59., 24 January 1863, p. 37. 77
Punch, 10 December 1864, p. 237. 78
Blackett, Divided Hearts, pp. 39-40. 79
Ibid., p. 88. 80
Lorimer, 'Role of Anti-Slavery Sentiment', 413., Blackett, Divided Hearts, pp. 98, 107. 81
Blackett, Divided Hearts, p. 192.
©2009 Jake Campbell
20 | P a g e
Strand, stopping all the traffic.82 It took a while for Britain to digest the importance of the
Emancipation Proclamation, beyond a mere expedient of war, but support for the measure
grew, particularly after it came into effect on 1 January 1863. In Sheffield and Manchester
there were New Years’ Eve gatherings to mark the occasion, including six thousand
‘working people and others’ who ‘rejoiced in the greatness of the American president’ at
the Free Trade Hall in Manchester.83 Previously, British anti-slavery societies had sent
letters and petitions to Lincoln pressing him for abolition, and once it had taken affect,
there was another surge of correspondence, encouraging and congratulating the president
on his good work.84
Reaction to Lincoln’s Re-election in 1864
There was a significant amount of uncertainty leading up to the 1864 Presidential Election,
especially because the British press believed the Union’s military victory was not yet
guaranteed.85 Many newspapers, however, predicted a probable result for Lincoln, aided
by a divided Democratic Party and possibility of more military successes (Mobile and
Atlanta), and this confidence grew stronger as the election drew near. The election gave
the British public an opportunity to assess Lincoln’s success or failure as president thus far,
which was met with mixed feelings. The Caledonian Mercury, for example, listed Lincoln’s
achievements (military success and emancipation), and concluded that he should remain
in office. Their editorial, along with several others, portrayed the Democrats and their
presidential candidate George McClellan as self-interested, merely wanting ‘place and
power’.86
82
Ibid., p. 196. 83
B. Jenkins, Britain & the War for the Union, (Montreal, 1974), ii, 212. 84
Blackett, Divided Hearts, pp. 157-8, 160. 85
Daily Telegraph, cited in Belfast News-Letter, 26 September 1864, p. 4., Liverpool Mercury, 10 November 1864, p. 6.
86 Caledonian Mercury, 15 September 1864, p. 2.
©2009 Jake Campbell
21 | P a g e
Fun’s ‘Columbia’s Nightmare’ cartoon shown earlier referred to the belief, and in some
cases hope, that Lincoln would not be re-elected in 1864 after a poor performance in his
first term.87 Continuing with the mythical theme, Tenniel’s cartoon ‘The Federal Phoenix’
highlighted Lincoln’s unbelievable success in being re-elected.88 He portrayed the
president as rising from the ashes, despite having ‘burned’ away many rights of American
citizens, such as a free press and the constitution. The Daily News congratulated Lincoln on
the result, and stated he had even approval from eminent British statesmen.89 The Times,
not usually known for pro-Lincoln sentiments, acknowledged his political maturity, and
despite the Trent controversy, he had since behaved favourably towards Britain.90 Now
87
Fun, 10 September 1864, p. 261. 88
Punch, 3 December 1864, p. 231. 89
Daily News, 3 December 1864, p. 4. 90
Times, 22 November 1864, p. 6.
©2009 Jake Campbell
22 | P a g e
that the emancipation issue was a concrete war aim, there were fewer qualms about
prolonging the war. Yet, Lincoln still had many critics, often in regard to his ‘despotic’
governing of America, leading one newspaper to label him ‘Abraham the First’.91 There
was not, however, a significant shift in public opinion favouring Lincoln – it would take
another four months and his assassination to reverse the criticism.
Conclusions
It can be seen that during Lincoln’s presidency he did not receive much praise from the
British public or press. However, to a certain extent the criticism could easily be translated
to any other American leader before, as attacks on Lincoln were more often directed at
America’s political system, of which he happened to be the head. Blackett states that the
‘conflicting images of the president reflected the deep divisions created by the war’, and
this is especially evident in reactions to Lincoln’s slavery-related measures.92 The satirical
periodicals consistently portrayed Lincoln in a negative light. It seems that the press never
had faith in Lincoln’s ability to lead, due to his inadequate experience, and he was rarely
credited when the Union achieved military success. His Emancipation Proclamation,
which might have been expected to receive praise, was initially condemned. Whilst there
was a growing positive attitude towards Lincoln as the Proclamation came into effect and
the Union secured more victories, his assassination was the trigger event that caused a
mass change of heart. The shock of such a crime forced a reassessment of his character
and his achievements.
91
Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, 27 November 1864, p. 6., Preston Guardian, 26 November 1864, p. 4. 92
Blackett, Divided Hearts, p. 232.
©2009 Jake Campbell
23 | P a g e
-2-
Assassination: An Outpouring of Grief Around Britain
In the two years after Lincoln's assassination, the United States Government collected the
‘expressions of condolence and sympathy’ and published them as a 976-page document.93
Campbell tries to downplay the widespread sympathy after the assassination, but the
evidence is overwhelming, and the State Department’s Expressions of Condolence is the
best example of this.94 More than one-third of the collection is devoted to responses from
Great Britain and its dependencies, nearly three times the amount of the next biggest
contributor, France. It is clear from this fact alone that the assassination had a profound
effect on the British people. Yet at the same time, as Christine Bolt notes, there was a
‘curious amnesia’ by many Britons who praised Lincoln after his death – their previous
criticism of the president had been forgotten in the shock and media frenzy.95 The
geographical spread of the expressions of sympathy is even more fascinating, as it was not
restricted to the major cities with ties to the United States, such as London, Liverpool and
Manchester, but extended to places as far as the Isle of Wight, Kendal in Cumbria and Elgin
in the far north of Scotland. Messages came from the far corners of the British Empire
too, including Bengal, New South Wales and Cape Town. To add to this, the diversity in
groups that sent messages to America is striking. American residents in Britain were
among these, but most came from organizations apparently unconnected to America, the
Civil War, or slavery. Town councils, temperance societies, religious associations,
workingmen's clubs and many spontaneous public meetings all passed resolutions to
express their abhorrence at the crime. On the other hand, it is hardly surprising that there
was a lack of sympathy for Seward, even with reports of his possible death or serious
93
United States Department of State, The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln ... and the Attempted Assassination of William H. Seward, Secretary of State, and Frederick W. Seward, Assistant Secretary, on the Evening of the 14th of April, 1865: Expressions of Condolence and Sympathy Inspired by these Events (Washington, D.C., 1867). This collection will be referred to as Expressions of Condolence throughout this chapter. 94
Campbell, English Public Opinion, p. 228. 95
C.A. Bolt, ‘British Attitudes to Reconstruction in the United States, 1863-77,’ (PhD London, 1966), p. 50, cited in Ellison, Support for Secession, p. 179.
©2009 Jake Campbell
24 | P a g e
injury. His past crimes, in the eyes of the British had not been forgotten. Despite having
come so close to war over the Trent Affair, Lincoln's assassination seems to have rekindled
the Anglo-American relationship, and once again some Britons were prepared to refer to
their neighbours across the Atlantic as ‘brethren and sisters’ of the ‘great Anglo-Saxon
race’.96 Some Britons saw the opportunity in Lincoln’s death to heal the wounds of the
transatlantic relationship. One English resident in Philadelphia wrote home hoping that
Britain's sympathy toward America would be ‘productive and much benefit to both’, going
some way to recreating a warm bond between the two nations.97 In Edinburgh, one
Scottish sheriff remarked that Americans
Speak the tongue Which Shakespeare spoke -- the faith and morals Which Milton held
He told the audience that America and Britain had the same ancestry and heritage, which
was best illustrated by Lincoln, with his ‘energy’ and ‘industry’ that was shared among all
Anglo-Saxon peoples.98 The above quote demonstrates the growing understanding of a
common racial makeup, history, language, and religion, which would continue to increase
long into the twentieth century. The shock of Lincoln’s murder clearly had a profound
impact, and it was hoped this recognition of commonality would mark the beginning of a
new era in Anglo-American relations. As Home Secretary Sir George Grey's speech in
parliament showed, Britain was united with America in its horror at the crime, and the fact
that Queen Victoria had recently lost her own husband, meant that she could console Mrs
Lincoln. She sent a personal letter of condolence, remarking how ‘No one can better
appreciate [Mrs Lincoln's grief] than I can, who am myself utterly brokenhearted by the
loss of my own beloved husband.’99 However, this unity in grief was relatively brief and
superficial. Lincoln's death did not cement the friendship, only signifying a short
rapprochement between Britain and America. Tensions remained for the rest of the
96
Department of State, Expressions of Condolence, pp. 230, 250. 97
Caledonian Mercury, 27 May 1865, p. 2. 98
Caledonian Mercury, 4 May 1865, p. 4. 99
Queen Victoria to Mary Todd Lincoln, 29 April 1865, cited in Mahin, One War at a Time, p. 256.
©2009 Jake Campbell
25 | P a g e
century, as the Alabama claims (1862-72) and Venezuela Crisis (1895-6) clearly
illustrate.100
Sympathy from British Politicians
Foreign Secretary Earl Russell took the unprecedented step in acknowledging the death of
a foreign statesman so overtly in parliament. The above 'word cloud' represents the
occurrences of the most popular words in his speech, and others, who deplored Lincoln's
assassination.101 It highlights the connection between Lincoln and abolition was
unapparent in the eyes of parliament, and themes often associated with him – democracy,
‘self-made man’, and emancipation – are non-existent. Lincoln was not referred to as
some ‘Great Emancipator’. Furthermore, Russell was the sole member to mention slavery
in relation to Lincoln's actions, and in that case it was not praising him, merely stating that
he had ‘proposed’ to free slaves.102 Upon hearing the news of Lincoln's death, sixty MPs
across from all parties signed a letter of sympathy and handed it to the American Minister
that same day.103 It is clear that the greatest concern was about the ‘great...crime’, and
the ‘abhorrence’ and ‘sympathy’ that Britain felt for the American ‘people’.
100
Campbell, Unlikely Allies, pp. 182-190., K. Burk, Old World, New World: The Story of Britain and America (London, 2007), pp. 272-6, 380-444. 101
The largest words represent the most frequently mentioned. Hansard, 3rd
Series, 1865, CLXXVIII, 1220-8, 1242-7.
102 Hansard, 3
rd Series, 1865, CLXXVIII, 1221.
103 Birmingham Daily Post, 28 April 1865, p. 3.
©2009 Jake Campbell
26 | P a g e
In the House of Lords, Russell’s speech clearly shows a growing admiration for the late
president. Although many had doubted Lincoln’s ability, in the eyes of this politician (who
had previously held the highest political post in Britain), he had risen to the occasion:
President Lincoln was a man who, though not conspicuous before his election, had since displayed a character of so much integrity, so much sincerity and straightforwardness, and at the same time of so much kindness... Such a man this particular epoch required.
104
As leader of the Conservative party and another ex-Prime Minister, the Earl of Derby was
unable to match Russell’s praise for Lincoln. To summarize the Earl's speech, he
deliberately refused to discuss the Civil War or its consequences, and merely stated that
Lincoln had been ‘deprived of life’ and as president he had acted with a ‘singular
moderation and prudence’.105 It is clear from his speech that the approval of Lincoln was
not shared by all members of the House, and reinforces the interpretation that
Conservatives were neither sympathetic to the Northern cause nor American democracy,
even when their leader had been brutally murdered.106
In the House of Commons, there was praise from Sir George Grey for Lincoln's ‘efforts’ in
the war, bringing the North to the brink of victory, before his assassination halted this
‘new era’.107 Lincoln’s death forced a reassessment of his character (best seen in Punch's
reversal), and Grey came to admit that he was due his ‘well-earned fame and
reputation’.108 However, the main content of Grey’s speech was an abstract appraisal of
the crime, expressing sympathy with the American people, and some discussion of war’s
progress, but nothing about the president's conduct of the war. In response, Conservative
leader in the House of Commons, Benjamin Disraeli, gave a similarly vague message,
though he had genuine admiration for Lincoln standing tall in ‘one of the severest trials
which ever tested the moral qualities of man’. Significantly, Disraeli noted that it was ‘not
possible for the people of England, at such a moment, to forget that he sprang from the
same fatherland, and spoke the same mother tongue’, to which members of the House
104
Ibid., 1220. 105
Ibid., 1225. 106
Blackett, Divided Hearts, pp. 3-5. 107
Hansard, 3rd
Series, 1865, CLXXVIII, 1243. 108
Ibid., 1244.
©2009 Jake Campbell
27 | P a g e
responded with cheers.109 This is further evidence of a positive acknowledgement of the
Anglo-American connection, but also a linkage of Abraham Lincoln's ancestry to England –
this would be a common and persistent theme of his legacy in Britain, and was highlighted
by future British statesmen. This bond was also felt by the newly installed Minister to
Washington, Sir Frederick Bruce, who had been unable to meet Lincoln but still felt it was
‘incumbent on me to attend [his funeral], to mark the sympathy I felt in common with my
colleagues in this calamitous event.’110
Sympathy in the wider world – the Press and Meetings
The response to Lincoln's death extended beyond the walls of government. Newspapers
across the country for more than a month after the initial news discussed the
assassination, gave extended biographies of Lincoln’s life and wrote about the assassin
John Wilkes Booth. On the day news first arrived, 26 April, demand to know details of the
crime pushed up the prices of all the evening journals.111 At the London Stock Exchange,
the third edition of the Times sold for ten times its usual price due to such great
interest.112 As was custom, the provincial newspapers borrowed heavily from the London
newspapers, but their editorials contain their own opinions. Some admitted that they had
been too harsh on Lincoln during his lifetime and came close to a full apology. The Preston
Guardian, for example, confessed that it ‘never numbered ourselves among the professed
admirers of Abraham Lincoln...We were not slow to criticise’, and praised him for his kind
words and sincerity, and unwillingness to provoke Britain unlike his counterpart Seward.113
The Daily News claimed that many would ‘regret’ their belief that Lincoln ‘was the
wretched imbecile he was described to be by the Richmond press’ and the Pall Mall
Gazette hoped the ‘civilized world’ would be ‘juster and more generous to Mr. Johnson’,
his successor.114
109
Ibid., 1246. 110
Emphasis added. Barnes and Barnes, American Civil War through British Eyes, iii, 292: Dispatch 247, Bruce to Russell, 21 April 1865. 111
D. Jordan and E. J. Pratt, Europe and the American Civil War (London, 1931), p. 261. 112
Preston Guardian, 29 April 1865, p. 2. 113
Preston Guardian, 29 April 1865, p. 4. 114
Daily News, 27 April 1865, p. 6., Pall Mall Gazette, 27 April 1865, pp. 1-2.
©2009 Jake Campbell
28 | P a g e
However, it must be noted that support for Lincoln was not shared by everyone, even after
his death. Ellison argued that whilst there may have been ‘universal horror’ at the terrible
deed, it did not mean that Lincoln's image suddenly became one of a faultless martyr. She
summarizes the Liverpool newspapers' reports on the assassination, as commending ‘a
man honest and kind’ yet ‘inadequate for the role of president’. More pertinently, Ellison
claimed that the Liverpool Albion's reflection on Lincoln's death ‘renounced the hypocrisy
of praising someone simply because he was dead.’115 Leaders of pro-Southern
organizations in Liverpool were unwilling to grieve with the rest of the population, stayed
away from meetings and remained silent.116 James Spence contacted the Liverpool
Mercury's editor to express his concern regarding the assassination, but he was not
sympathetic – he stated that many a Southerner had died, yet they were not mourned. To
him, Lincoln's death was ‘still more terrible for the South’ as it would bring Northern
retribution.117 There was a similar response in London. The Tory Standard, for example,
felt no sympathy toward the mob-rule democracy in North America: ‘He [Lincoln] was not
a hero while he lived, and therefore his cruel murder does not make him a martyr.’118
Jordan and Pratt argue that the brief moment of condolence from the Times was shortly
followed by its ‘former lecturing tone.’119 For Spence, the Albion, the Standard, and
others, the emphasis was on the crime and its consequences, not the victim. The majority,
however, praised Lincoln and expressed shock at his murder, and the disgruntled few
largely kept quiet rather than face the wrath of mourners.120
Many meetings were convened across the country to express sympathy at the news of
Lincoln’s death. Blackett counts more than forty meetings sanctioned by local authorities
taking place within days of hearing the news, alongside seventeen by pro-Union
supporters and a further six for workingmen.121 Emancipation societies worked furiously
to organize commemorations of Lincoln throughout the country. A few likened his
115
Ellison, Support for Secession, p. 185. 116
Blackett, Divided Hearts, p. 233. 117
Liverpool Mercury, 29 April 1865, p. 5. 118
Standard, 26 April 1865, cited in Jordan and Pratt, Europe and the American Civil War, p. 262. 119
Ibid., p. 262. 120
Blackett, Divided Hearts, p. 215. 121
Ibid., p. 216.
©2009 Jake Campbell
29 | P a g e
martyrdom to that of John Brown, though this was not a regular occurrence.122 One such
sponsored event at St James's Hall in London attracted seventeen MPs, as well as trade-
union leaders, electoral reformers and anti-slavery Quakers, with a huge crowd outside
due to the hall filling to capacity.123 Such a mixture of guests illustrates the diversity of
support that Lincoln had achieved in Britain by the end of the war. Two similar meetings
were held in St Martin's Hall organized by a ‘workingmen's Anti-Slavery Committee’ to
celebrate the ‘triumph of Negro Emancipation’ and to express their sadness at Lincoln's
death.124 The first meeting was chaired by Thomas Potter, the founder of the Union and
Emancipation Society and Cobden's replacement as MP for Rochdale. In the second
gathering George Potter, manager of the trade-union newspaper Bee-Hive, reminded the
audience that the late president ‘was a working man’ and ‘rose from the poorest of the
people, winning his way slowly but surely upwards by sheer hard work’. The crowd
enthusiastically and unanimously adopted a resolution praising Lincoln as their
‘champion’.125 Although the Bee-Hive was not a popular newspaper, its founder's efforts
to organize these mass meetings were perhaps his most significant contribution.
Workingmen had few channels of expression available, and this meeting, along with a few
others, is an example of their limited success.126 Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth,
was characterised as an enemy of democracy.127 Eugenio Biagini has claimed that ‘honest
Abe’ had become a ‘staple of democratic literature from this time.128 It is clear that these
assassination meetings were a chance to celebrate democracy and the working man, not
simply to mourn the death of a foreign statesman. There is a clear political message in
some of these meetings, including an association of Cobden to Lincoln, since they were
both self-made men.
There were meetings across the country, from sizeable gatherings in town halls, to
meetings at workingmen's clubs and churches. Petitions were signed by townspeople
122
Ibid., p. 225. 123
Jordan and Pratt, Europe and the American Civil War, pp. 263-4. 124
Foner, British Labor and the American Civil War, pp. 28, 86-7. 125
Ibid., p. 88. 126
Blackett, Divided Hearts, p. 237. 127
Ibid., pp. 236, 240-2. 128
E. Biagini, Liberty, Retrenchment, and Reform, pp. 79-80., cited in Ibid., p. 243.
©2009 Jake Campbell
30 | P a g e
addressed to the mayor, requesting to hold 'indignation meetings'. After hearing the
news, it only took an hour in Liverpool to have six hundred people sign one such
request.129 The city held several meetings over the next month, including gatherings by
the Young Mens' Christian Association, the Liverpool Financial Reform Association and a
lecture about Lincoln at the Concert Hall.130 The main meeting in the aftermath of the
news was filled with the ‘principal men of the town’ and Handel's ‘Dead March’ was
played on the organ. Passions flared in the city as a ‘strongly Federal’ resolution at a
simultaneous meeting led to ‘disturbance’ for the rest of the evening. In the Liverpool
Exchange, a passionate Lincoln supporter ‘collared’ a neighbour for thinking he had said
'hurrah' at the news of his death, and shouted: ‘Be off, you incarnate fiend! You are an
assassin at heart!’131 Despite not having such strong links with the United States as
Lancashire, the West Riding of Yorkshire, had great interest in Lincoln and the
assassination. All the major towns, as well as some smaller locations, held a series of
meetings. A leading regional newspaper, the Leeds Mercury, extensively covered the
assassination's investigation and the county's response to it. In Halifax, more than two
hundred signatures persuaded the Mayor to call a public meeting, and in Huddersfield, the
Union and Emancipation Society, Improvement Commissioners and Chamber of
Commerce all sent letters of condolence. American flags that had been hung over some of
the town’s warehouses were at half-mast.132 The Mayor of Leeds, the largest city in the
region, called a meeting at the Town Hall which was attended by various dignitaries,
including Councillor Joy who had the rare opportunity for a Briton to have met Lincoln. He
fondly reflected on the moment, and on emancipation he said that Lincoln ‘threw all his
earnestness and soul into it.’ Another speaker, Mr F. Baines, expressed the belief that
Lincoln's character was ‘like the sun coming out of a mist and becoming brighter and
brighter...now so much better understood than it had ever been’.133 This effectively
129
Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, 27 April 1865, p. 3. 130
Liverpool Mercury, 2 May 1865, p. 7., 13 May 1865, p. 7. 131
Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, 28 April 1865, p. 3. 132
Department of State, Expressions of Condolence, pp. 310-1, 306, 312, 322, 417., Leeds Mercury, 3 May 1865, p. 4. and 2 May 1865, p. 3., Blackett, Divided Hearts, p. 214. 133
Leeds Mercury, 2 May 1865, p. 3.
©2009 Jake Campbell
31 | P a g e
illustrates how, upon serious reflection, many of Lincoln’s previous critics in Britain were
now willing to admit that he had been a good leader, despite his flaws.
Churches were popular as venues to hold meetings to express people’s grief at the news
and on the Sunday after clergymen across the country evoked Lincoln's name in their
sermons.134 In Lambeth, residents used the space next to the local chapel to hold an
open-air meeting in which they expressed condolence for both Mrs Cobden and Mrs
Lincoln.135 News of Lincoln’s death reached as far as Crieff, a small market town in
Perthshire, where the local minister referred to the assassination throughout his sermon
on ‘The sword without and terror within’.136 The collection of sermons marking Lincoln's
death even includes a Swedenborgian minister in London, who compared the president to
the mighty biblical character of Samson, whose self-sacrificial death killed more enemies
than during the rest of his life.137 Even the leaders of the Church of England, which
Blackett claims staunchly supported the South, were able to come together and express
grief at Lincoln’s death, and praise his positive qualities.138
Following Lincoln's death, the British people looked to America's future. Having been
critical of Lincoln when he first became president, it is perhaps not surprising that his
successor, Andrew Johnson, fared no better. However, there were genuine reasons for
this, since Johnson's rhetoric after the assassination spoke of revenge and harsh treatment
of the South. Lincoln's reconciliatory nature had been praised, and his ‘malice toward
none’ phrase from his Second Inaugural Address would be repeated again and again in
future years. They feared that a tougher line would be taken by Johnson, and he might
even provoke a war with Britain.139 The Manchester Guardian and Courier limited their
praise of Lincoln to a contrast between his calm and conciliatory attitude and the ‘rowdy’
134
Blackett, Divided Hearts, p. 217. 135
Richard Cobden died on 2 April 1865. Caledonian Mercury, 1 May 1865, pp. 2-3. 136
Caledonian Mercury, 1 May 1865, pp. 2-3. 137
Rev. J.F. Potts, 'Death of President Lincoln: A Sermon' in W.V. Spencer (ed.), Lincolniana. In Memoriam. [Sermons, Eulogies, etc. on the Death of President Lincoln.] (Boston, 1865), pp. 167-176.
138 Blackett, Divided Hearts, p. 235.
139 Preston Guardian, 29 April 1865, p. 4.
©2009 Jake Campbell
32 | P a g e
nature of the new president.140 According to Ellison, Southern sympathisers in Lancashire,
having also reversed their opinions of Lincoln, were especially critical of Johnson and
‘charged [him] with seeking vengeance from an innocent people.’141
Making Amends – The Comic Press on the Death of Lincoln
Following his assassination, Fun and Punch seem to have tried to make amends for their
previously scathing indictment of Lincoln. Fun surprisingly has little to say on the subject,
and seems to have lost interest in the war at the end of the previous year. It admitted that
it had ‘criticized Mr. Lincoln freely, and our tribute to his memory ought to be all the more
valuable.’ The poem that followed was positive, though its focus was on the murder,
Lincoln's lowly birth and his leadership – it mentions nothing of slavery. Fun's poorer
audience (compared to Punch) would have taken heart in the fact that he ‘prove[d] that
genius lives in humble birth’ and that his ‘fame shall sound through many an age’.142
140
Manchester Courier, 29 April 1865, cited in Ellison, Support for Secession, p. 183. 141
Ibid., p. 175. 142
Fun, 6 May 1865, p. 77.
©2009 Jake Campbell
33 | P a g e
Lincoln would continue to symbolise these aspects long into the following century, as
Britain itself adopted a democratic system of government.
Punch, on the other hand, expressed a far more extensive opinion, and Tenniel devoted his
big cut of the week to 'Britannia Sympathises with Columbia', with the solemn figure
representing Britain laying a wreath upon Lincoln's covered body.143 This was
accompanied by a lengthy poem by Tom Taylor, who coincidently happened to have
written Our American Cousin – the play Lincoln was watching when he was
assassinated.144 Maurer calls Punch's change of heart ‘perhaps the most drastic reversal of
opinion, openly acknowledged, in the history of journalism’, yet this sudden shift was not
equally felt by the entire team.145 Leading contributor Shirley Brooks, for example,
believed Taylor's poem had not only made the periodical ‘eat humble pie’, but ‘swallow
dish and all.’146 The publication of Taylor's poem was an important admission that British
public opinion had been somewhat mistaken about Lincoln and, faced with the cold fact of
assassination, they were forced to reassess what he had contributed during his few years
on earth. Taylor confessed that his countrymen had had a ‘self-complacent British sneer’,
sitting high on a moral pedestal, aloof from the realities that Lincoln struggled with as
president. However, as with the poem in Fun, Taylor does not mention the issue of
slavery. Tenniel's illustration, on the other hand, includes an unshackled and mourning
slave in the corner, which suggests that some Britons acknowledged Lincoln's contribution
in ending slavery in America.
Conclusions
Lincoln was dead. Though his life was not celebrated by all in Britain, there was a clear
universal shock at the crime across the country, though not everyone considered his
passing to be the ‘end of a great man.’147 There was, however, a realisation that previous
criticism of Lincoln had been unduly harsh, and his murder provided an opportunity for a
more sober assessment of his presidency, which had slowly begun after the Emancipation
143
Punch, 6 May 1865, p. 185. 144
Punch, 6 May 1865, pp. 182-3. 145
Maurer, '"Punch" on Slavery', pp. 25-6. 146
W. S. Walsh (ed.), Abraham Lincoln and the London Punch (New York, 1909), p. 113. 147
Ellison, Support for Secession, p. 186.
©2009 Jake Campbell
34 | P a g e
Proclamation. Although Britain would not fully embrace the Lincoln mythology that
followed, it came to accept more of his positive traits that had previously been ignored.
The peak of this acceptance came during the Great Rapprochement, the subject of the
next chapter.
©2009 Jake Campbell
35 | P a g e
-3-
Lincoln in the Great Rapprochement
The United States’ participation in the First World War provided the greatest evidence
thus far that its relationship with Britain had matured. The differences of the nineteenth
century were put aside as America came to the aid of the British in the efforts to defeat
the Axis powers. Some politicians praised this rapprochement – a ‘coming together’ – and
declared that it was necessary for the future peace and security of the world.148 In this
way, Lincoln’s life was embraced by both Britons and Americans. As his speeches,
correspondence and other works were collected together, Lincoln’s life became a resource
that could be used for ‘sound-bites’, strategies, or even a handbook for good and
successful government or moral living. In Britain, politicians were (and continue to be)
keen to appropriate his rhetoric and apply it to their own present-day circumstances. He
featured heavily in parliamentary debates, several statues in Britain were erected in his
honour, and even a British dramatization of his presidency was created.
Lincoln in Parliamentary Debates
Being a highly successful politician, it is clear why Lincoln has been so often cited in
parliamentary debates. In the course of more than a century, he has been referred to in
over five hundred different speeches, in a variety of topics, ranging from conscription to
conservatism, from equality to poverty, and from federalism to devolution. The peak of
his usage in parliament was during the Great Rapprochement, as can be seen in the graph
overleaf, where he was embraced by all parties. But what do these references to Lincoln
demonstrate about his impact on British politics? Besides being a source of memorable
quotations, these references illustrate how Lincoln has been an authoritative source for
Britons to use, despite being a foreign statesman. They provide evidence that admiration
for Lincoln lay beyond the borders of the United States.
148
Times, 4 October 1918, p. 8.
©2009 Jake Campbell
36 | P a g e
During the second decade of the twentieth century Britain faced a war of epic proportions
similar to the American Civil War (though even greater), but also a ‘secession crisis’ of
sorts in Ireland. It was also the decade of Lord Charnwood’s well-received biography of
the American statesman and John Drinkwater’s hugely successful production, Abraham
Lincoln. After this period, there was a large fall in references to Lincoln as America moved
back toward a non-interventionist stance. The third peak marked the Second World War,
when Lincoln took on a different meaning, becoming a symbol of what Britons were
fighting for – peace, democracy, union and freedom. However after 1945, Lincoln became
only one of a number of American icons appropriated by Britons – Franklin Roosevelt,
John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King were the new political ‘celebrities’ in use.
The Great War – Preparing a Nation for Total War
It has been argued by some historians that the American Civil War, not the First World
War, was the first ‘modern war’, since both conflicts involved unprecedented numbers of
men, supported by a huge effort in production of war materiel.149 For those politicians
149
D.G. Faust, '"Numbers on Top of Numbers": Counting the Civil War Dead', Journal of Military History, 70 (2006), 997.
Peak 2: First World War, Great Rapprochement
Trough 1: Anglo-American
tensions
Trough 2: US ‘isolationism’, anti-Americanism
Peak 3: Second World War Peak 1: American
Civil War
©2009 Jake Campbell
37 | P a g e
that made the comparison between 1861 and 1914, Lincoln's leadership was particularly
useful. He was able to successfully prosecute a war, even though he introduced
controversial measures such as conscription and the suspension of habeas corpus, as well
as firing popular leaders of the army. Peterson notes that there was a renewed interest in
Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief during the war, and several publications discussed him in
relation to their present circumstances.150
It was recognized that to conduct the war effectively, it would require a restriction on civil
liberties, as Lincoln had done during the Civil War, suspending the writ of habeas corpus.
As a Liberal MP stated, Lincoln faced ‘storm of opposition’, and the British government
would receive the same, if not worse.151 Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Andrew Bonar Law, paraphrased Lincoln’s claim that ‘he was suffering from the
disadvantage of free government’, arguing that it was necessary to extend governmental
power in the short-term in order to save the nation and protect democracy in the long-
term.152 Conscription was another controversial issue during both the Civil War and the
First World War, though support for the measure came from both sides of the House, and
used Lincoln as an advocate. For example, Liberal MP Sir Robert Finlay described Lincoln
as doing what was ‘considered necessary for the safety of the country’ even if it was
unpopular.153 Bonar Law thought that it was ‘grim business’ for Lincoln to have to
contemplate introducing the draft, and for Britain it was ‘grimmer’ still.154 He was willing
to forego any popularity in order to have this necessary measure passed. In doing so, he
quoted Lincoln: ‘It is right, and if you tell me I will fall in consequence, I will fall because it
is right.’155 The issue was made more problematic by the decision to extend conscription
into Ireland, increasing the intensity of the parliamentary debate. Furthermore, the ‘Irish
Question’, Ireland’s battle for independence from Britain, was becoming more violent and
Britain was now faced with external and internal conflict.
150
M.D. Peterson, 'The International Lincoln', in J.M. McPherson (ed.), 'We Cannot Escape History': Lincoln and the Last Best Hope on Earth (Urbana, Illinois, 1995), pp. 165-6.
151 Hansard, 5
th Series, 1918, CVII, 945.
152 Hansard, 5
th Series, 1917, XCII, 1395.
153 Hansard, 5
th Series, 1915, LXXVII, 285.
154 Hansard, 5
th Series, 1918, CIV, 1357.
155 Ibid., 1356.
©2009 Jake Campbell
38 | P a g e
Ireland – Britain's Equivalent to Secession
The Irish Question had posed a problem for the British government ever since it took
control of the country, but it reached a peak during the 1910s. The issue came to the
forefront as nationalist leaders saw Britain's war with Germany as a distraction away from
Ireland, and so they carried out an armed rebellion – the Easter Rising – in April 1916.
Whether or not the equation of Southern secession with rebellion in Ireland was an
accurate comparison, it was used throughout the period of British control of the island.
Prime Minister David Lloyd George seems to have thought he was ‘a latter-day Lincoln
endeavouring to stamp out a secessionist movement.’156 Since Lincoln was successful in
putting down a rebellion, unionist politicians looked to the president for solutions or
justification for their position. Paradoxically, Irish nationalists were quick to emphasise
Lincoln's rhetoric involving liberty and democracy. For example, T.P. O'Connor argued that
instead of a ‘government of the people by the people for the people’, Ireland was being
ruled by ‘the government of one class by one class for one class’.157 It is clear that to the
Irish nationalists Lincoln served as a symbol of democracy and freedom. However,
Lincoln’s significance as an archetype of democracy and a self-made man is barely
mentioned in parliament this period by non-Irish members.
Mark Sykes compared the 1916 Easter Rising to the Civil War, and admired Lincoln for
coming out ‘triumphant’, despite ‘all the difficulties’ he faced.158 As a member of a
Conservative Party who wanted to preserve Britain's imperial interests, Sykes called for a
heavy hand to come down upon the Irish rebels. Even members of the Liberal Party,
traditional supporters of self-determination, believed as with Lincoln, that ‘the whole
future of his country was then at stake’ and if force was required to save it, then it should
be used.159 Lord Sydenham argued that because the president did not shrink back and
was ultimately successful, then Britain should adopt the same course of action. Irish
156
P. Rowland, Lloyd George (London, 1975), p. 438. 157
Hansard, 4th
Series, 1902, CXII, 1127. 158
Hansard, 5th
Series, 1916, LXXX, 39. 159
Hansard, 5th
Series, 1921, XLVIII, 147.
©2009 Jake Campbell
39 | P a g e
members of the Commons, on the other hand, appealed to the government to follow
Lincoln's example of clemency, which ‘did an enormous work of good for the whole of the
country’.160 Lincoln, however, was not able to carry out this policy due to his
assassination, and President Johnson's toughness during Reconstruction arguably made
the effort ‘to bind up the nation's wounds’ far more difficult.161 The Irish members
seemed keen to avoid repeating this mistake in their own country. Arthur Lynch appealed
to the Prime Minister, arguing that he could become ‘a great statesman’ by following the
example of President Lincoln and his general amnesty.162 However, these appeals were
largely ignored, and the rebel leaders were executed. The Irish members were not alone
in alluding to Lincoln's justice towards Confederates, with Lord Charnwood emphasising
his ‘unexampled clemency, broadmindedness, and charity’. However, the difference was
that Charnwood did not believe that the Irish rebels were fighting for a justified cause, and
that the Easter Rising was ‘destitute in an unparalleled degree of those qualities appealing
to human sympathy’, as shared by Lincoln.163 This is clear evidence of how British and Irish
politicians differed on Irish independence, but also shows in what ways Lincoln's words
could be appropriated to defend opposing views.
When Bonar Law tried to associate himself with Lincoln to add credibility to the
government’s position on the Irish Question, he received a backlash from a host of Irish
members.164 Leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, William Redmond, protested that
Ireland had been forced to join the British Union in 1800, not voluntarily become part of it,
as with the United States. Joseph Devlin argued that ‘President Lincoln was imposing
Conscription on his own people, but you are imposing Conscription upon a people who are
not your own.’ Devlin’s quote clearly came from a selective understanding or memory,
because Lincoln was known for introducing policies over a people which he did not
control, such as the Emancipation Proclamation. John Dillon argued that by quoting
160
Hansard, 5th
Series, 1916, LXXXII, 947.
161 A. Lincoln, 'Second Inaugural Address of President Abraham Lincoln – 1865,' http://www.nationalcenter.org/LincolnSecondInaugural.html (accessed 5 May 2009).
162 Hansard, 5
th Series, 1916, LXXXV, 2772.
163 Hansard, 5
th Series, 1916, XXI, 1011.
164 Hansard, 5
th Series, 1918, CIV, 1537-1575
©2009 Jake Campbell
40 | P a g e
Lincoln on shooting a ‘wily agitator’, Bonar Law was making a clear threat against the Irish
people.165 Jeremiah MacVeigh was far more conciliatory, taking another quote from
Lincoln in reference to the conscription of blacks, ‘why should they do anything for us if we
will do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the
strongest motives, ever a promise of freedom.’ If the Irish were to fight for Britain, then
they too must be given freedom from their ‘bondage’.166 However, Daniel Boyle argued
that the comparison with the Civil War did not work well, as Lincoln was a far greater
character than anyone in parliament.167 It is clear that trying to assert Lincoln as an
authority to reinforce one’s ideas did not always work, and could add more complications
to the debate.
Lincoln as Lloyd George’s ‘Hero’
During the First World War, Arthur Lynch called for ‘a big man’ (not in reference to
Lincoln's large frame) to lead Britain ‘who had the sort of organic integrity displayed by
that rough man of the people of America’. He compared Lincoln to Lloyd George, who he
claimed had ‘shown himself to be a small, weak, and vacillating man’ with a ‘lack of
character’.168 Yet after his death, Lloyd George would be favourably compared to Lincoln,
especially for his leadership during the Great War.169 In fact, Lloyd George’s War Memoirs
contain numerous references to the president, particularly when it came to his
management of generals. He had a fair share of ‘donkeys’ (such as Douglas Haig) in charge
of his forces and, like Lincoln with McClellan, he would ultimately have to dismiss them.170
Biographers of Lloyd George have also highlighted the connection with Lincoln. For
example, Rowland notes that both were lawyers before they went on to become leaders
of their country in the midst of war.171 Lloyd George had some words of Lincoln framed on
his desk to remind him of how to practice his profession: ‘As a peacemaker the Lawyer has
165
Hansard, 5th
Series, 1918, CV, 294-5. 166
Hansard, 5th
Series, 1918, CIV, 1894. 167
Ibid., 1975. 168
Hansard, 5th
Series, 1918, CIII, 89. 169
Hansard, 5th
Series, 1942, CXXII, 867., Hansard, 5th
Series, 1945, CDIX, 1388. 170
D. Lloyd George, War Memoirs of David Lloyd George, (London, 1938), ii, 1823. 171
Rowland, Lloyd George, p. 19.
©2009 Jake Campbell
41 | P a g e
a supreme opportunity of being a good man.’172 Furthermore, as a child he had grown up
reading popular biographies of Lincoln, and it was from then on that Lincoln became his
‘hero’. After Lloyd George’s defeat to the Conservatives in 1922, he toured the United
States and Canada, and was ‘very much moved’ after meeting Abraham Lincoln’s first son,
Robert Todd Lincoln, whilst in New Hampshire. He then travelled to Springfield, Illinois, to
lay a wreath at Lincoln’s tomb and deliver a speech paying tribute to the president later
that evening.173
* * *
Lincoln in British Literature, Education and Drama
Interest in Lincoln extended beyond the political sphere during the Great Rapprochement,
in a way that has not been repeated since. In literature, Lord Charnwood’s Abraham
Lincoln (1916) biography achieved transatlantic popularity, going through numerous
editions before being superseded by Benjamin Thomas’ work in 1952. Peterson notes the
amazement of American reviewers ‘that an English lord would understand Lincoln so well.’
Charnwood was also invited to speak in America, significantly making an address at the
dedication of a Lincoln statue in the grounds of Springfield State House. 174 Lincoln was a
popular pedagogical tool elsewhere, with several Scottish prisons holding lectures on the
president to the inmates. On average, half the prison population at these locations
attended the lectures, and one report noted that prisoners ‘often ask for books dealing
with the subject’ of the biographical lectures, including Lincoln.175 It seems that he was a
useful subject matter as a man of lowly birth who was able to rise to the highest position
in his country. Furthermore, his character was an important example of temperance and
frugality.
John Drinkwater’s production Abraham Lincoln: A Play (1918) was seen by many Britons
across the country. Inspired by his new hero, having read Charnwood’s biography,
172
F. Owen, Tempestuous Journey: Lloyd George, His Life and Times (London, 1954), p. 29. 173
Times, 8 October 1923, p. 12. and 20 October 1923, p. 9. 174
M.D. Peterson, Lincoln in American Memory (New York, 1995), p. 201. 175
Parliamentary Papers, ‘Annual Report of the Prison Commissioners for Scotland’: Cd. 4044 (1908), p. 65., Cd. 4604 (1909), p. 51., Cd. 6763 (1913), pp. 55, 79-80., Cd. 7403 (1914), pp. 67-8.
©2009 Jake Campbell
42 | P a g e
Drinkwater embarked on writing a dramatization of the president’s most important
moments in office. The play portrays Lincoln as an intelligent and gracious man, and the
closing remarks of the play tell the audience that despite his death, ‘one man’s
character…endures’, whose example they should follow.176 The play was so successful that
it was resurrected on several occasions, and reached the West End and Broadway,
providing evidence of Lincoln’s enduring popularity with British theatregoers.
Drinkwater’s production is significant in the fact that it was the most successful Lincoln
dramatization, running for five years in every major American city, despite the fact that it
was written by an Englishman.177 The context of the Great War seems to have played an
important role in shaping Lincoln, drawing several parallels with the Civil War, as Prime
Minister Lloyd George had done. The play was released at the close of a bloody conflict,
and there were calls for harsh treatment of the defeated powers, as there was in Lincoln’s
time. Yet Drinkwater, through Lincoln, subtly appealed for clemency. Perhaps he was
making deliberate reference to this when gave Lincoln the following words: ‘It is for us to
set a great example’ and ‘We will defeat treason. And I will meet it with conciliation’.178
The success of the production and Drinkwater’s reference to Lincoln as ‘my hero’,
illustrates that he had an appeal that stretched beyond the American public. Interestingly,
Drinkwater had not visited America until his play opened in the United States, when he
went on lecture tour, yet he felt a deep personal connection with and admiration for
Lincoln.179 Shortly after the play’s opening, he wrote an accompanying book, Lincoln, the
World Emancipator (1920), which a contemporary reviewer noted was a gospel message
of ‘Anglo-Saxon cooperation’ where Lincoln was a ‘sufficient and fitting symbol’ to ‘work
out the salvation of the world.’180 The English Review noted that although ‘Lincoln is not
an English hero’, and was ‘the antithesis to the modern statesman’, he had such wide
appeal in Britain. The attraction, it argued, lay in the president’s moral character, with his
176
J. Drinkwater, Abraham Lincoln: A Play (London, 1918), p. 72. 177
R.P. Basler, 'Lincoln and American Writers', Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, 7 (1985), 9. 178
Drinkwater, Lincoln, pp. 46, 56. 179
B. Honold, 'John Drinkwater: The Heroic in Lincoln', http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=149236622&blogId=421822615 (accessed 8 May 2009).
180 J. Drinkwater, Lincoln, the World Emancipator (New York, 1920) cited in A. C. Cole, 'Book Review: Lincoln, the World Emancipator by John Drinkwater', Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 8 (1921), 206-7.
©2009 Jake Campbell
43 | P a g e
‘purpose’, ‘usefulness’, and ‘sacrifice’ being compared to that of soldiers in the Great War.
Strangely, the reviewer described Lincoln as ‘the epitome of the League of Nations’ in
wanting to liberate ‘the oppressed’ and abolish slavery.181
Memorials of Lincoln across Britain
The most visual legacy of Lincoln from the Great Rapprochement can be seen in the
various memorials across the country. There are two in London, and one each in Norfolk,
Manchester and Edinburgh. The New York Times expressed their value as ‘a visible symbol
of the accord of sentiment and sympathy between the British and American peoples’ in
the aftermath of the First World War.182 The statue in Edinburgh was the earliest, unveiled
at the dawn of the Great Rapprochement, and was dedicated to Scottish soldiers who
fought in the Civil War. Lincoln looms at large in the memorial, and an emancipated slave
looks up in honour at him. Despite this representation of Lincoln being the ‘Great
Emancipator’, it seems that the American benefactors (most notably Cornelius Vanderbilt,
J.P. Morgan and Scottish-born Andrew Carnegie) heavily influenced the final outcome,
despite it differing from British perceptions of Lincoln.183
181
English Review, February 1920, pp. 186-7. 182
New York Times, 21 October 1917, p. 19. 183
'The Lincoln Monument - Edinburgh', http://www.electricscotland.com/history/articles/lincoln_monument.htm (accessed 9 May 2009).
©2009 Jake Campbell
44 | P a g e
The statue carries a quotation from Lincoln: ‘To preserve the jewel of liberty in the framework of freedom’
184
Towards the end of the war, Britain embraced its connection with America, but America
also embraced its connection with Britain. The proposals and fundraising efforts largely
came from Americans. In Norfolk, the ancestral home of the Lincoln family, a bust of the
president was unveiled in 1919. The inscription underneath used famous words of Lincoln
and applied them to the Anglo-American friendship: ‘between that land and this land and
all lands there shall be “malice toward none with charity for all.”’185 That same year,
Manchester erected a statue of Lincoln, largely through the efforts of the powerful Taft
family. Originally the statue was destined for London, but Robert Todd Lincoln was
appalled at the statue created by George Barnard, calling it ‘a monstrous figure which is
grotesque as a likeness of President Lincoln and defamatory as an image’.186 Barnard’s
work, nicknamed the ‘stomach ache statue’, did not portray the eminent statesmen that
184
K. Chantrey, 'Chantrey's Edinburgh', http://citysnapper.org/chantrey/scotland/photos/20040819065edinburgh.jpg (accessed 7 May 2009). 185
'Lincoln Connection to Hingham', http://news.webshots.com/photo/2691694360075034447oUzuAw (accessed 7 May 2009)., 'Lincoln Bust Hingham', http://news.webshots.com/photo/2897943260075034447JgcIsc (accessed 7 May 2009).
186 H. E. Dickson, 'George Grey Barnard's Controversial Lincoln', Art Journal, 27 (1967), p. 13.
©2009 Jake Campbell
45 | P a g e
Abraham Lincoln’s son wanted the world to see.187 In the House of Lords, the Earl of
Dartmouth reported that someone had told him how the Barnard statue ‘seemed to
embody in his mind all the nasty things and spiteful attacks made against Lincoln’ during
his lifetime.188 Nonetheless, the statue was used in Manchester, and celebrations were
headed by the American Ambassador and Lord Mayor of the city. They were keen to
emphasise the ‘British American Friendship, the Foundation of the World’s Peace’, in
reference to their combined efforts in the Great War.189 There were also references to
Lincoln’s sympathetic letter to the cotton workers of Manchester. Judge Alton Parker,
Chancellor of the Sulgrave Institution was also present. The institution’s name came from
Sulgrave Manor, the ancestral home of George Washington in Oxfordshire, and its aim was
to promote co-operation between English-speaking peoples during the Great
Rapprochement. The most significant statue, primarily due to its location ‘in the capital of
the Empire’, was Augustus St Gaudens’ sculpture placed in the Canning Enclosure,
opposite the Houses of Parliament.190 Firstly, as Lord Charnwood noted in a parliamentary
debate on the issue, it was a ‘rather unusual step’ to honour a foreign statesman with a
statue in England.191 There was a grand ceremony to mark the occasion, including a
speech from former Secretary of State Elihu Root and the ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’
sung by the Westminster Abbey choir, followed by a dinner attended by numerous
politicians.192 The speeches were of great significance in a time when the fate of
democracy across Europe was uncertain, due to the devastating effects of the war. Both
Lord Bryce and Lloyd George described Lincoln as a ‘beacon’ of democracy whose ‘help’
the ‘torn and bleeding earth’ needed to restore faith in free government during ‘these
dark days of strife and confusion.’193
187
Ibid., p. 14. 188
Hansard, 5th
Series, 1917, XXVII, 123. 189
New York Times¸ 15 September 1919, p. 5. 190
Hansard, 5th
Series, 1917, XXVII, 120. 191
Ibid., 112. 192
Times, 29 July 1920, p. 13. 193
Times, 29 July 1920, p. 14.
©2009 Jake Campbell
46 | P a g e
Conclusions
Although it cannot be said that Lincoln directly influenced British policymaking, these
examples have shown that his legacy has, nonetheless, been felt. Following the extension
of the franchise in Britain, he could be praised as a defender of democracy (though not as
frequently as might be expected) and adopted as a rallying point for the British during
moments of crisis.194 Richard Carwardine has stated that Lincoln ‘has remained a political
talisman’ for some politicians, and this is clearly evident in many parliamentary debates.195
The Great Rapprochement provides the best expression of Lincoln’s legacy, but beyond the
1920s, it became somewhat limited as other American icons took precedence.
194
During the Great Rapprochement, Lincoln is mentioned about sixty times in parliamentary debates, but rarely in connection to democracy. This came during the Second World War.
195 Wall Street Journal, 15 April 2004, p. 16.
©2009 Jake Campbell
47 | P a g e
Postscript: ‘Now he belongs to the ages’
As the Great Rapprochement became an enduring ‘Special Relationship’, Britons have
taken on other symbols of America, causing Lincoln to fall out of the limelight. He is now
only one of a large number of figures in the American historical and cultural pantheon
adopted by Britons. This move away from Lincoln is particularly evident in the latter half
of the twentieth century, as figures such as Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Martin
Luther King Jr. have become popular icons, not only in America, but in Britain as well. This
can be explained in part by the time elapsed from Lincoln’s life, as people old enough to
remember him died, such as Woodrow Wilson and David Lloyd George, the last heads of
their respective governments to have lived during the Civil War. The speed by which
parliament mobilised to erect a statue in Roosevelt’s honour after his death, and the
outpouring of grief following Kennedy’s assassination, illustrated how the memory of
Lincoln could be quickly replaced with more ‘modern’ or applicable examples.
Understandably, it was easier for Britons to empathise with American characters from the
own lifetime, rather than one from a hundred years before. Martin Luther King Jr. is
another of Lincoln’s ‘replacements’, being embraced by the black community and a central
figure in Britain’s version of Black History Month. Lincoln, the supposed ‘Great
Emancipator’, does not feature in any meaningful way.
This does not mean Lincoln has been forgotten. The Lincoln statues are an enduring
physical mark in Britain, and Conservative Prime Minister Harold MacMillan used the St
Gaudens statue as a platform to express Anglo-American solidarity during the Cold War,
imploring the two countries to follow Lincoln’s example and ‘work together for progress
and freedom.’196 The 200th anniversary of his death has been an especially significant
point marking his legacy in Britain, but it pales in comparison with his coverage during the
Great Rapprochement. The recent election to the presidency of Barack Obama, who has
consciously modelled himself on Lincoln, has roused British interest for a little while, and
196
Times, 13 February 1959, pp. 12-13.
©2009 Jake Campbell
48 | P a g e
sparked a flurry of Lincoln book reviews, television and radio shows, and Obama-Lincoln
comparisons.197
197
‘Newsnight Review’, 13 February 2009, BBC Two, ‘Night Waves’, 11 February 2009, BBC Radio 3.
©2009 Jake Campbell
49 | P a g e
Conclusion
This dissertation has demonstrated how Abraham Lincoln’s legacy has had an impact upon
Britain in a variety of ways. This can be seen especially in British political rhetoric and in
the cementing of Anglo-American relations. The British were generally unsympathetic
towards him during his lifetime, which was for a number of reasons. Conservatives were
happy to see the great ‘republican experiment’ appear to be failing, but even more liberal
and radical observers of the American Civil War did not give Lincoln much credit. Most
Britons were unable to appreciate the circumstances and restrictions placed on Lincoln’s
tenure. Proud of their anti-slavery heritage, they could not understand why the president,
who many considered some kind of despot (having suspended the writ of habeas corpus),
did not simply abolish slavery. As one parliamentary debate highlighted, Britain believes it
has a ‘far greater’ collection of its own emancipation heroes (not just William
Wilberforce), and does not need to supplement this with Lincoln. His statues continue to
present a physical reminder of the American statesman, but as Lord Winster noted, there
are ‘many statues in London’, including many ‘mediocre’ candidates, with which Lincoln
has to compete for attention.198 He seems to have been lost in the mass of American
political and cultural icons appropriated by Britain.
Lincoln has not been best remembered in Britain for his work in abolishing slavery, but
instead his character and principles. For statesmen during the World Wars, his example
was used as a framework for mobilizing the population for total war and executing military
strategy. Lectures in prisons used Lincoln as a real-life ‘rags-to-riches’ story of a man with
solid morals and providing a fine example of the benefits of democracy. Drinkwater’s
Lincoln play and accompanying book emphasised his compassion, humility and work to
reconcile a divided country.
Louis Blanc accurately summed up the somewhat fickle and unpredictable change in
British opinion of Lincoln: it is like the ‘scenery of an opera, where a horrible cavern is
198
Hansard, 5th
Series, 1949, CLXV, 1426, 1430.
©2009 Jake Campbell
50 | P a g e
succeeded, all in a minute, by a smiling landscape.’199 The response to Lincoln’s
assassination demonstrates the fluidity of British public opinion, though it is clear that
some Britons had already begun to change their minds about the president following the
Emancipation Proclamation. However, criticism of his successor Andrew Johnson
illustrates the enduring hostility towards America and its form of government. Thus, the
Anglo-American relationship had a brief coming together, before again becoming
estranged. It would take several crises and joint efforts in two World Wars for a rekindling
of the friendship that has defined America and Britain ever since. Yet, Lincoln served as a
figure in this process, with David Lloyd George adopting him as his own hero, and
politicians in many generations adopting the president’s rhetoric.
Lloyd George is often quoted for saying that Lincoln ‘lost his nationality in death’.200
Lincoln faced copious amounts of criticism during his life, but this turned in praise in the
years after his death – people do not generally write negative obituaries. However, this
view of Lincoln is somewhat obscured, coloured by Lloyd George’s unbounded admiration
for the president at a high-water mark of the Anglo-American friendship. Whilst he has
been appropriated in Britain in different ways, he has not become a truly ‘global’ figure.
Outside most political and academic circles, and even within them, one wonders if many
Britons today have even heard of ‘Honest Abe’.
199
Cited in Blackett, Divided Hearts, p. 124. 200
Peterson, Lincoln in American Memory, p. 27.
©2009 Jake Campbell
51 | P a g e
Bibliography
Printed Primary Sources
Barnes, James J. and Patience P. Barnes, (eds.), The American Civil War through British Eyes: Dispatches from British Diplomats, Vols. 1-3 (Kent, Ohio, 2003).
Drinkwater, J., Abraham Lincoln: A Play (London, 1918).
Hansard, Parliamentary Debates, 3rd Series, 1830-91.
Hansard, Parliamentary Debates, 4th Series, 1892-1908.
Hansard, House of Commons and House of Lords Debates, 5th Series, 1909-.
Lloyd George, D., War Memoirs of David Lloyd George, Vols. 1-2 (London, 1938).
Parliamentary Papers, [Cd. 4044] Annual Report of the Prison Commissioners for Scotland for 1907
Parliamentary Papers, [Cd. 4604] Annual Report of the Prison Commissioners for Scotland
for 1908 Parliamentary Papers, [Cd. 6763] Annual Report of the Prison Commissioners for Scotland
for 1912
Parliamentary Papers, [Cd. 7403] Annual Report of the Prison Commissioners for Scotland for 1913
Spence, James. The American Union: Its Effect on National Character and Policy, with an Inquiry into Secession as a Constitutional Right, and the Causes of the Disruption (London, 1862).
Spencer, W. V., ed. Lincolniana. in Memoriam. [Sermons, Eulogies, etc. on the Death of President Lincoln.] (Boston, 1865).
United States Department of State. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln ... and the Attempted Assassination of William H. Seward, Secretary of State, and Frederick W. Seward, Assistant Secretary, on the Evening of the 14th of April, 1865: Expressions of Condolence and Sympathy Inspired by these Events (Washington, D.C., 1867).
Newspapers & Periodicals
Belfast News-letter Bell’s Life in London Birmingham Daily Post Caledonian Mercury Daily Express
Daily Mail Daily News Durham Chronicle Durham County Advertiser English Review
©2009 Jake Campbell
52 | P a g e
Examiner (London) Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial
Advertiser Fun Glasgow Herald Guardian (London) John Bull Leeds Mercury Liverpool Mercury Lloyds Weekly Newspaper Manchester Guardian
Manchester Times Morning Chronicle New York Times Newcastle Courant Preston Guardian Punch Spectator Standard Sunderland and Durham County Herald The Times (London) Wall Street Journal
Printed Secondary Works
Basler, R. P., ‘Lincoln and American Writers’, Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 7 (1985): 6-17.
Blackett, R. J. M., Divided Hearts: Britain and the American Civil War (Baton Rouge, 2001).
Boritt, G. S., ‘Punch Lincoln: Some Thoughts on Cartoons in the British Magazine’, Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 15 (1994): 1-22.
Boritt, G. S., M. E. Neely, and H. Holzer, ‘The European Image of Abraham Lincoln’, Winterthur Portfolio 21 (1986): 153-183.
Burk, K., Old World, New World: The Story of Britain and America (London, 2007).
Campbell, D. A., Unlikely Allies: Britain, America and the Victorian Origins of the Special Relationship (London, 2007).
———. English Public Opinion and the American Civil War (Woodbridge, 2003).
Cole, A. C., ‘Book Review: Lincoln, the World Emancipator by John Drinkwater’, Mississippi Valley Historical Review 8 (1921): 206-207.
Crawford, M., The Anglo-American Crisis of the Mid-Nineteenth Century: The Times and America, 1850-1862 (London, 1987).
Dickson, H. E., ‘George Grey Barnard's Controversial Lincoln’, Art Journal 27 (1967): 8-23.
Ellison, M., Support for Secession: Lancashire and the American Civil War (Chicago, 1972).
Faust, D. G., ‘“Numbers on Top of Numbers”: Counting the Civil War Dead’, Journal of Military History 70 (2006): 995-1009.
Foner, P. S., British Labor and the American Civil War (London, 1981).
Griffey, Randall R., ‘Marsden Hartley's Lincoln Portraits’, American Art 15 (2001): 35-51.
©2009 Jake Campbell
53 | P a g e
Howe, A., ‘“A Very Sublime Spectacle”: Cobden, Lincoln and the American Liberal Tradition’, University College London, 20 February, 2009.
Jenkins, B., Britain & the War for the Union, Vol. 2 (Montreal, 1974).
Jordan, D. and E. J. Pratt., Europe and the American Civil War (London, 1931).
Keiser, T., ‘The Prince of Wales in the United States: A Harbinger of English Opinion of the Civil War’, Illinois Historical Journal 83 (1990): 235-246.
Kent, C., ‘War Cartooned/Cartoon War: Matt Morgan and the American Civil War in “Fun” and “Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper”’, Victorian Periodicals Review 36 (2003): 153-181.
Lorimer, D., ‘The Role of Anti-Slavery Sentiment in English Reactions to the American Civil War’, Historical Journal 19 (1976): 406-420.
Lundberg, G., ‘The Newspaper and Public Opinion’, Social Forces 4 (1926): 709-715.
Mahin, D. B., One War at a Time: The International Dimensions of the American Civil War (Washington, D.C, 1999).
Maurer, O., ‘“Punch” on Slavery and Civil War in America 1841-1865’, Victorian Studies 1 (1957): 5-28.
McPherson, J. M., Drawn with the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil War (New York, 1997).
Owen, F., Tempestuous Journey: Lloyd George, His Life and Times (London, 1954).
Peterson, M. D., ‘The International Lincoln,’ in J. M. McPherson (ed.), ‘We Cannot Escape History’: Lincoln and the Last Best Hope on Earth (Urbana, 1995).
———. Lincoln in American Memory (New York, 1995).
Rowland, P., Lloyd George (London, 1975).
Walsh, W. S. (ed.), Abraham Lincoln and the London Punch (New York, 1909).
Websites
Banksy, ‘Outdoors (Abraham Lincoln, New Orleans)’, http://www.banksy.co.uk/outdoors/images/landscapes/nola/AbeLincoln2.jpg. (Accessed 6 May 2008)
Chantrey, K., ‘Chantrey's Edinburgh’, http://citysnapper.org/chantrey/scotland/photos/20040819065edinburgh.jpg (accessed 7 May 2009).
©2009 Jake Campbell
54 | P a g e
Hiley, N., ‘Comic Periodicals’, http://find.galegroup.com/ukpc/NCUK_researchguide.htm (Accessed 27 March 2009).
Honold, B., ‘John Drinkwater: The Heroic in Lincoln’, http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=149236622&blogId=421822615 (accessed 8 May 2009).
Kohl, A. T., ‘John Tenniel and the American Civil War’, http://arthist.cla.umn.edu/aict/Tennielweb/index.html (accessed 25 November 2008).
Lincoln, A., ‘Second Inaugural Address of President Abraham Lincoln – 1865’, http://www.nationalcenter.org/LincolnSecondInaugural.html (accessed 5 May 2008).
‘Lincoln Bust Hingham’, http://news.webshots.com/photo/2897943260075034447JgcIsc (accessed 7 May, 2009).
‘Lincoln Connection to Hingham’, http://news.webshots.com/photo/2691694360075034447oUzuAw (accessed 7 May 2009).
Public Monument and Sculpture Association National Recording Project, ‘Abraham Lincoln’, http://pmsa.cch.kcl.ac.uk/MR/MR-MCR09.htm (accessed 21 May 2009).
‘The Lincoln Monument – Edinburgh’, http://www.electricscotland.com/history/articles/lincoln_monument.htm (accessed 9 May 2009).
‘Your Greatest American’, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/wtwta/2997144.stm (accessed 6 May 2009).
Miscellaneous
‘Newsnight Review’, 13 February 2009, BBC Two, 11pm. ‘Night Waves’, 11 February 2009, BBC Radio 3, 9.15pm.
Recommended