LETTER OF
The GOSPEL TRUTH CHARLES G. FINNEY
1869
To Charles Sumner
22 April 1869
[Ms in Charles Sumner Papers, Harvard University, bMS Am 1, Vol. 92, No. 54.]
Charles Sumner (1811-1874) was a Massachusetts senator, and chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Oberlin College Ohio
22d April 1869.
Hon. Charles Sumner.
My Dear Sir,
I read your speech on the
Alabama Treaty with deep
interest, & also with much
regret. I consider the argument
conclusive, & put in the best
form & manner. In the
argument I was most
intensely interested.
But I much regretted that
you did not frankly confess
that at the time of the
recognition of beligerency
by England, & for some time
after, England was officially
assured that slavery would
remain intact at all events.
The almost insane course
of Mr. Lincoln & Mr Seward
[p.2]
misled not only England
but all Europe, upon the
question of the relation
of Slavery to the war.
I have just seen an article
in the Independent of this
date, by Mr. Garrison that so
fully expresses what I wanted
to say myself, that I beg leave
to call your attention to it.
Can you not do justice to the
English Nation & people on this
point, & in some way have
it accompany your speech.
I have been a good deal in England,
& during the war, assured my
friends on that side, by letter
that the destruction of Slavery
was designed by the Northern
peop[l]e, & was inevitable, whatever
Mr Lincoln & Seward might
say. I have no doubt that
a paragraph added to your
[p.3]
speech doing justice to England
on this point, would do vast
good both in England & America.
God bless you evermore,
C. G. Finney
Footnotes:
Sumner's speech, delivered in the Senate on April 13, 1869, was against the way, proposed by the Johnson-Clarendon Convention, for settling claims against England for damage to Union shipping caused by the Alabama and other British-built Confederate raiders during the Civil War. Sumner put the blame fully upon Britain for support given to the Confederate states. There were several editions of the speech published. See Our Claims on England. Speech of Hon. Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, Delivered in Executive Session of the Senate ... (Washington: J. F. Rives, 1869)
"Our Relations with England" by William Lloyd Garrison in The Independent, April 22, 1869, p.1. Garrison pointed out that Sumner had incorrectly represented the Union as fighting the Civil War to free the Slaves, whereas Lincoln and Seward had in fact assured England that the slave system would remain intact and that the war was to save the Union.