Emancipation In A Sea Of Blood

The British observed from a distance the clash of Americans over the
African slavery they themselves had imposed many years earlier, and
perhaps wondered why those Northerners, so fanatical regarding the
emancipation of the black man, did not offer a peaceful solution as the
British had done. They may have eventually surmised that the war was
prosecuted by the North for political hegemony, the utter destruction
and desolation of the American South; and emancipation for the purpose
of race war and murderous slave uprisings.

Bernhard Thuersam, Director
Cape Fear Historical Institute
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Emancipation in a Sea of Blood:

“In a speech delivered in the House of Lords, February 5th, 1863, Earl
Russell said: -- “There is one thing, however, which I think may be the
result of the struggle, and which, to my mind, would be a great calamity
– that is, the subjugation of the South by the North.” After some
comments he added: -- “But there may be, I say, one end of the war that
would prove a calamity to the United States and to the world, and
especially calamitous to the Negro race in those countries, and that
would be the subjugation of the South by the North.”

Mr. W.E. Gladstone, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said in a public
speech at Newcastle, October 7th, 1862: --“We may have our own opinions
about slavery; we may be for or against the South; but there is no doubt
that Jefferson Davis and the other leaders of the South have made an
army. They are making, it appears, a navy, and they have made what is
more than either – they have made a nation. (Loud cheers)…We may
anticipate with certainty the success of the southern States so far as
regards their separation from the North. (Hear, hear). I cannot but
believe that that event is as certain as any event yet future and
contingent it may be.”

[Here is] an extract from a long speech by the same distinguished
gentleman, in the House of Commons, delivered June 30th, 1863, while he
was still a member of the Government: -- “Why, sir, we must desire the
cessation of this war. We do not believe that the American Union by
force is attainable. I believe that the opinion of this country is
unanimous upon that subject. But I will go one step further, and say I
believe the public opinion of this country bears very strongly on
another matter upon which we have heard much, namely, whether the
emancipation of the Negro race is an object that can be legitimately
pursued by means of coercion and bloodshed.

I do not believe that a more fatal error was ever committed than when
men – of high intelligence I grant, and of the sincerity of whose
philanthropy I, for one, shall not venture to whisper the smallest doubt
– came to the conclusion that the emancipation of the Negro race was to
be sought, although they could only travel to it by a sea of blood.”

The Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe, James D.
Bulloch, Sagamore Press, 1959, pp. 360-361)
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Emancipation In A Sea Of Blood