They knew that in the North labor was free, but that the South had made slavery the corner-stone of their Confederacy. Their life was ever a battle, for Labor was the slave of Capital. They knew nothing of State rights, or the rights of belligerents, or of American tariffs, but instinct by a short road led them to the conclusion that the conflict was not merely national, but world-wide, and that the freemen of the North were fighting for the rights of men everywhere.
The London Times was foremost among the newspapers to prophesy the disruption of the Union. Its utterances were oracular. It claimed superior knowledge and a deeper insight of the American question than any of its contemporaries, and its opinions were accepted as truth by all Englishmen who approved the slaveholders' war. Ship-builders, cotton-brokers, and capitalists regulated their faith and works by the leading articles of that journal, and loaned their money to the South.
"The great republic is gone, and no serious attempt will be made by the North to save it," wrote Mr. W. H. Russell to the Times in April, 1861.
"General bankruptcy is inevitable, and agrarian and socialist riots may be expected very soon," was the despatch of that individual immediately after the battle of Bull Run.
The tradespeople of England believed him. The South was victor; the Confederacy was to become a nation. The agents of the South were already in England purchasing supplies, paying liberal prices. They found that Englishmen were ready to engage in any scheme of profit,—in running the blockade, building war-ships for the Confederate government, or selling arms and ammunition, in violation of the laws of the realm.
As a large number of letters written by Rebel agents and emissaries in England and France have fallen into my hands, I purpose in this chapter to give a résumé of their contents, which expose the secret history of the Cotton Loan.
Soon after the beginning of hostilities the Liverpool correspondent of the Times, Mr. James Spence, entered heartily into the support of the cause of the South. He was engaged in commercial pursuits, but found leisure not only to keep up his correspondence with the Times, but to write a book entitled the "American Union," in which he advocated the right of the South to secede, and extolled slavery as a superior condition of life for the laboring man.
"The negroes," said he, "have at all times abundant food: the sufferings of fireless winters are unknown to them, medical attendance is always at command; in old age there is no fear of a workhouse; their children are never a burden or a curse; their labor, though long, is neither difficult nor unhealthy. As a rule, they have their own ground and fowls and vegetables, of which they sell a surplus. So far, then, as merely animal comforts extend, their lot is more free from suffering than those of many classes of European laborers."
Such sympathy with slavery received its reward in the appointment of Mr. Spence as financial agent of the Confederacy. Large sums of money were sent from Charleston, Savannah, and Richmond to England. Vessels found little difficulty in running the blockade during the first year of the war, and Nassau became the half-way station, and thousands of Englishmen counted up their gains from blockade-running with glee. Societies were formed in London and other principal cities, called "Confederate Aid Associations."
An address to the British public was issued, setting forth the barbarism of the North against the South, struggling for her rights.