As already stated, Britain had an extraordinary interest in keeping the institution of slavery viable in America. The American slave trade was profitable; the issue of slavery was a festering wound in the United States that was very divisive politically; and slavery made American liberty appear hypocritical. It provided cheap labor so American imports would be relatively inexpensive to appease English merchants and citizens. It kept the institution legally operating in a large Western nation, thus giving the whole class distinction/white supremacy argument a sanctioned haven. Further, having the institution operating in America infected the citizens of that country with class structure superiority attitudes and all that comes with such a situation.
Hence, Britain had a vested interest in slavery in America. It was a powerful tool the country used to meddle in American affairs. Foremost, it would provide a pathway to return the United States to the United Kingdom. Therefore, Britain supported the expansion of slavery into American territories, and sponsored those who pursued the policies of infesting all of the land with slavery. It was another aspect of their tested and effective “divide and conquer” technique.
As more and more territory became havens for slavery, the remaining free states would eventually be forced to accept the policy in their states too. By manipulation of the Congresses and Presidents, they guided the expansion of slavery across the land. Of course, they had the Supreme Court under control from 1801 until 1835 with John Marshall as Chief Justice. They also got a follow-up Chief Justice, Marshall's successor, Roger Taney, who sat in that position until 1864. Thus, the British had influence and control over the American judiciary for a period of 64 years with just two appointments. While Jefferson was able to discourage lifetime Presidents by only serving two terms, the British penchant for lifetime positions took root in the American Judicial branch of government, and thoroughly corrupted the spirit of liberty.
With this state of affairs spreading across the nation, and the United States in dire danger of being either swallowed up into a whole nation that legalized slavery or being severed in two, Abraham Lincoln made his run for the Presidency. It is not too strong a statement to say that the future of American liberty rested on his shoulders. If Britain could quash American liberty, it could stomp it out around the globe. But, fortunately, Lincoln was up to the challenge.
Lincoln grew up believing in liberty. He was a passionate champion of freedom who became discouraged as he saw the appalling contradiction of having slavery in a free nation. He saw that through laws and policies, slavery was expanding. What was difficult for Lincoln to grasp was the devious cunning of those who sponsored and promoted slavery. Slowly, he came to the realization that they would stop at nothing in pursuit of their designs.
As Lincoln was honing in on the conspiracy behind the determination to infest all of America with slavery, he addressed the Illinois Republican Convention in 1858 with his House Divided Speech. He pointed out that all the efforts to reduce the impact of slavery in the United States were met with a stronger force to expand the practice. Lincoln declared that “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” He stated his belief in the continuation of the government, and argued that if it were to survive, the nation would have to be either all pro-slavery or all free. There was no middle ground.
Lincoln pointed out four prominent figures involved in a devious plan to make the entire country a slave nation. He said that although more than half of the states excluded slavery from their constitutions, and although most of the national territory that had not been organized into states had a congressional prohibition against slavery, a huge battle had occurred in Congress, with the pro-slavery representatives succeeding in removing the prohibition against slavery in the unorganized American territories.
Lincoln showed conclusively in that speech that Senator Stephen Douglas, a Northerner with aspirations for the Presidency, had conspired with others to secure the Southern vote by pandering to influential pro-slavery people. Lincoln laid out the proof and made the astonishing claim that it was Douglas who had led the charge in the Congress to put through legislation that would allow the western territories to become slave regions, even though on the surface its true purpose was not apparent. It was the outgoing President, Franklin Pierce, who had conspired with Douglas to corrupt the western areas with slavery.
The conspiracy darkened further, bringing in the incoming President, James Buchanan. Lincoln pointed out that Douglas surreptitiously planted the slavery expansion in the Nebraska doctrine and left it hanging. Few, if any, suspected how deviously it was done. The two Presidents aforementioned were critical to the plot. As the presidential election approached in 1856, Buchanan deferred interpretation of the constitutional question of territorial slavery to the Supreme Court, which was considering the Dred Scott case. The Court delayed its decision, using various excuses, until after Buchanan had won the election without taking a public stand on how he felt about the issue. In the back rooms of the Supreme Court, Buchanan was working on the Justice from his home state of Pennsylvania to support the decision to support slavery. After Buchanan was sworn in as President, the Supreme Court Chief Justice, Roger Taney, delivered his opinion on the Dred Scott case, ruling that slaves were property, incapable of becoming citizens.
With the Dred Scott decision, the knockout blow was struck on behalf of bringing slavery to the territories. It was a putrid conspiracy to circumvent the wishes of the people and impose the institution throughout the country, executed through intrigue, guile and concerted action. Lincoln pointed out that the conspiracy involved the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches of government. That is, the whole of the government was corrupt. Lincoln understood that the conspiracy was based in Europe. At this time, he was unaware that Queen Victoria was directly involved. However, he did know that she was ruthless, devious and untrustworthy. Among her ugliest acts was to physically force Indian-produced opium down the throats of the Chinese to get them addicted and weaken their will.
To get the full flavor of what Lincoln presented, his House Divided Speech is attached in the appendix of this work. Lincoln boldly accused two Presidents, much of the Congress and the Supreme Court of being in league to circumvent liberty by using nearly invisible designs and intrigues. The rogues have not changed their ways. Although Lincoln was able to convince the people of the conspiracy in 1858, he would have a much more difficult time doing so today. The principal conspirators have so thoroughly corrupted governments, media, schools, professions and the like that even the mention of the term “conspiracy” raises eyebrows and causes people to mock. The rent-a-crowd mentality has taken control so absolutely that people cannot openly discuss conspiracies without being ridiculed. The proof of the conspiracies becomes irrelevant when people have closed their minds to reality.
Lincoln fought with all his energy to hold the American nation together and to rid it of slavery. When a block of Southern states seceded from the Union, Britain finally had its conspiracy in full swing. Earlier efforts to divide the States had failed. Benedict Arnold was caught in the act, preserving the fledgling nation. John Adams tried sending the country back to Britain, but he was ousted by the people. Adams did succeed in putting Marshall in as Chief Justice, who worked the Constitution to the point that the country was ripe for the picking through the Dred Scott case. Aaron Burr was thwarted as he tried to steal the Presidency from Jefferson, and the nation was again preserved. Burr murdered Alexander Hamilton to protect George III from being found out as a principal conspirator. Then, Burr tried to sever the nation, with half for the British and half for himself to lead. The British used force against America in 1812. Britain had employed many different strategies and tactics against America since 1776, and, in 1860, just two weeks after Lincoln was elected President, South Carolina seceded from the Union, capping the British plans to bring America back into the fold; the conspiracy was alarmingly close to completion.
It is worth noting that the British did not support every secession effort by various states. It was assumed by many of the framers of the nation that states could secede from the Union under the Constitution. Most thought that if the national government were to become too overbearing on state interests and individual liberties, states could secede from the contract that unified them into a nation. Jefferson had suggested that Virginia secede in 1826 because the federal government had encroached on so many of the rights of its citizens. This method of secession would not have benefited the British, and probably would not have caused Lincoln to strenuously hold the nation together, because it would have led to a new block of states with liberty interests at their foundation. Britain's goal was, and remains, to quash liberty. South Carolina's secession in 1860 was just the type of secession to suit Queen Victoria's plans.
Several states followed South Carolina, seceding before Lincoln was sworn in as President. By this time, Lincoln knew that Britain was the moving party behind the slavery conspiracy and the Southern states' secessions. He tried to appease the seceding states, explaining in his First Inaugural Address that he had “no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists.” He further said that he believed that he had “no lawful right to do so.”
In the address, Lincoln acknowledged that slavery was lawful, and that, under the rule of law, it was legal, regardless of how immoral and despicable he believed it to be. He declared that slavery was lawful, that the Constitution expressly required that fugitive slaves be delivered up to their owners, and that he would adhere to the Constitution.
Further along in the speech, without mentioning the country by name, Lincoln implicitly sounded a warning to the British, who, as explained earlier, had worked so hard to assure that the Constitution specifically allowed for slavery. They had further conspired to have their agent, John Marshall, usurp the interpretation of the Constitution for the judiciary. Thereafter, they conspired to have Chief Justice Taney delay the Dred Scott decision to assist Senator Douglas, President Pierce and President Buchanan in their work in converting all of America into a slave nation under the Constitution.
Lincoln went on to assure the people that he would follow the Constitution, and sounded another implicit warning to the unnamed conspiracy, headed by Queen Victoria. He said that in the 72 years since the first President took office, the nation had faced many perils and acquitted itself well. Lincoln then identified that he faced a “great and particular difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted.” It was here that Lincoln showed the British his hand, as he most ironically employed the same Constitution in whose crafting they had meddled, and whose interpretation they had usurped, declaring:
“I hold, that in contemplation of universal law, and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper, ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of our national Constitution, and the Union will endure forever – it being impossible to destroy it, except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself.
Again, if the United States be not a government proper, but an association of States in the nature of contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade, by less than all the parties who made it? One party to a contract may violate it – break it, so to speak; but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it?”
Lincoln implicitly said to the unnamed British monarch, whilst expressly stating to her fellow conspirators, that they were in violation of the Constitution, because it formed a perpetual union from which no party could remove itself without unanimous agreement of all parties to the contract. He also served notice on Chief Justice Taney that he would not be intimidated by Marshall's usurpation or future Supreme Court decisions claiming that the Court had the exclusive and final say on whether matters were constitutional or not. Lincoln used specific language, and he knew exactly the import of that language, when he said, “I hold.” This is the same as saying he deemed, judged or adjudicated, as the President of the United States, that the compact amongst the several states to form a Union required unanimous consent to rescind. Lincoln went on to declare that:
“... no State, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union, – that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void; and that acts of violence, within any State or States, against the authority of the United States, are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to the circumstances.”
Lincoln then implied that his interpretation of the Constitution was better founded than the Supreme Court's. Lincoln explained that if the Court were deciding an issue between parties only and made an error, it would only affect those parties and be of little consequence to the rest of the nation. He said that to have the cases extend beyond the one before the Court would be the same as resigning “government, into the hands of that eminent tribunal.”
Lincoln also stated that he would most solemnly “preserve, protect and defend” the nation and the Constitution. He closed by addressing the seceding states, imploring them to avoid civil war, and adding that “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.” Lincoln knew that the Southern states had been duped by Britain, and it was not the Southerners who were the enemies, but the British government.
His pleas for peace were not accepted by the rebels. Five weeks after Lincoln became the 16th President, the newly formed Confederate States of America attacked Fort Sumter, and the American Civil War began. Lincoln prosecuted the war knowing that he was really at war with Britain, but that few could understand that the British had so intricately devised and designed the conflict over decades of intrigues, bribes and other surreptitious and overt acts. He warned the British not to intervene on behalf of the South because they were insurrectionists and revolutionaries.
Britain backed down from its desire to openly support the South, which it had, incidentally, sponsored to secede. Britain did not feel it could justify supporting the side that Lincoln had so skillfully labeled as insurrectionist. A month after the hostilities commenced between the North and South, the British issued a proclamation of neutrality. Six months later, the British mail steamer Trent was stopped by a Union vessel, and Confederate commissioners to France and Britain were removed, which tested British neutrality. Lincoln knew that Britain was anything but neutral, and that it was only giving the pretense of being so.
At various stages of the Civil War, relations with Great Britain were so abysmal that the Union and the United Kingdom were brought to the verge of war. This would have suited Lincoln, who knew that the Union was fighting the British under the cloak of the South, even though most of the Southerners had no idea this was occurring. This is a tactic that Britain uses even today, having the United States fight its battles for it, even though very few Americans realize this to be the case. In late 1862, the British Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, was prepared to remove the cloak of secrecy and formally recognize the Confederate States of America because it looked as if the South would win. This idea was surrendered when the North took decisive victories later, so Britain remained the silent prosecutor of the American Civil War.
During the war, Britain built warships for the Confederate States, including the CSS Sumter, Florida, Georgia and Alabama. This affront led to the British being forced to pay reparations of over $15 million after the war.3 On New Year's Day, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and ordered and declared “that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free.” Eleven months later, at the battlefield in Gettysburg, he made his immortal speech:
“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate – we cannot consecrate – we cannot hallow – this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
In March of 1865, in Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, with the war nearly completed and victory assured for the Union, he stated:
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Lincoln sincerely meant these words. He would have repaired the nation's wounds from the horrific war and welcomed the Southern states into the Union as equal partners. He knew that the Confederate States of America had been duped by Britain to secede from the Union. He knew that there had been a horrible conspiracy afoot that drew in at least two Presidents, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Senator Douglas and many more, and that the principal of the conspiracy had been Great Britain, which he was about to disclose to the American people. But, the British could not allow this information to get out, so they employed John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated the man most capable of healing the nation. Yet, Lincoln did not die in vain. The Constitution was amended, and America, after more than two centuries of enduring the putrid institution, finally abolished slavery.
1Petition from the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (1790).
2Struggle for a Vast Future, Osprey Publishing, Ltd., Oxford, 2006.
3Struggle for a Vast Future, Osprey Publishing Ltd., Oxford, 2006
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