Abraham Lincoln and John Bright

[David Lockmiller]

(05-15-2022 12:22 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  I located a book at the San Francisco Public Library titled “The Diaries of John Bright.” The following is the entry for April 29, 1865:

“While at Dolgelly on the 27th heard of the shocking tragedy in Washington, the murder of President Lincoln. For an hour or near it, I felt stunned and ill. . . .

In him I have observed a singular resolution honestly to do his duty, a great courage, shown in the fact that in his speeches and writings no word of passion or of panic, or of ill-will, has ever escaped him; a great gentleness of temper and nobleness of soul proved by the absence of irritation and menace under circumstances of the most desperate provocation, and a pity and mercifulness to his enemies which seemed drawn as from the very fount of Christian charity and love. His simplicity for a time did much to hide his greatness, but all good men everywhere will mourn for him and history will place him high among the best and noblest of men.”

The words of Tolstoy sound familiar.

John Bright's diary entry of April 29, 1865 continued and ended as follows:

"I have had no direct communication with the late President, but my letters to Chas. Sumner as well as those from Cobden were frequently read by him, and he sent me, thro' Mr. Sumner, in his own handwriting, a draft resolution which he suggested as likely to be useful if adopted at public meetings held in this country in favour of the North. It referred to the question of Slavery, and the impossibility of our recognizing a new State based on the foundation of human bondage." (Emphasis added.)

An editor footnote to this paragraph notes: "Lincoln sometimes read Bright's letters aloud in the meetings of the Cabinet at Washington."

And, the words of the draft resolution that President Lincoln wrote to Mr. John Bright of England are:

"Whereas while heretofore States and Nations have tolerated slavery, recently for the first time in the world an attempt has been made to construct a new nation upon the basis of and with the fundamental object to maintain, enlarge and perpetuate human slavery, therefore

"Resolved, that no such embryo State should ever be recognized by or admitted into the family of Christian and civilized nations; and that all Christian and civilized men everywhere should, by all lawful means, resist to the utmost such recognition or admission."