Brent E. Kinser - The American Civil War in the Shaping of British Democracy

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR IN THE SHAPING OF BRITISH DEMOCRACY

Britannia Sympathizes with Columbia, Punch Magazine, 6 May 1865, by the illustrator John Tenniel (18201914)

BRENT E. KINSER
Western Carolina University, USA

First published 2011 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2016 by Routledge

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Copyright Brent E. Kinser 2011

Brent E. Kinser has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Kinser, Brent E.

The American Civil War in the shaping of British democracy.

1. United StatesHistoryCivil War, 1861-1865Influence. 2. United StatesHistoryCivil War, 1861-1865Literature and the war. 3. Carlyle, Thomas, 1795-1881Political and social views. 4. Trollope, Anthony, 1815-1882Political and social views.

5. Bagehot, Walter, 1826-1877Political and social views.

6. Mill, John Stuart, 1806-1873. 7. DemocracyGreat BritainHistory19th century. 8. Great BritainPolitics and government1837-1901.

I. Title

320.94109034-dc22

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kinser, Brent E.

The American Civil War in the shaping of British democracy / Brent E. Kinser.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7546-6095-8 (hardback)

1. Great BritainPolitics and government1837-1901. 2. DemocracyGreat BritainHistory19th century. 3. United StatesHistoryCivil War, 1861-1865Influence. 4. Carlyle, Thomas, 1795-1881Political and social views. 5. Trollope, Anthony, 1815-1882Political and social views. 6. Bagehot, Walter, 1826-1877Political and social views. 7. Mill, John Stuart, 1806-1873Political and social views. I. Title.

DA560.K56 2011

941.081dc22

2010043845

ISBN 9780754660958 (hbk)

This book would not have been possible without the assistance, the guidance, the patience, the encouragement, and the love of a vast group of family, friends, and colleagues. Special thanks to Ann Donahue at Ashgate for her patient support of the project, to Adam Guppy at Ashgate for his editorial work, and to Heather Williams at Western Carolina University for her tremendously fine fact-checking efforts. I also want convey great appreciation and thanks to Geff Skippings for braving the wilds of London to take a photo of Lincoln for me. Profound thanks are due also to Jeff Mahorney, who has done a stellar job in reproducing the images from Punch included in this volume. To David Southern, for his constant friendship, for both locating and lugging the volumes of Punch (to and from Perkins Library), and for putting me in touch with Jeff Mahorney, I can only say that one of the great honors of my professional and personal lives has been to work with you and with David Sorensen on the rock face of Carlyle studies. To my friends and colleagues at Western Carolina University, thank you for your enduring support and deeply valued friendship; it is an honor also to work with you. To my friends at UNC Chapel Hill, thank you for helping to launch me into the world of academia. To my familyKinser and Marshall, Reich and Ambrose, Bergmann and Tarryou have my undying love and devotion, as well as my eternal gratitude and appreciation for all you have done for me. To my children, I love you and am infinitely proud of you. And to Chesney, to whom this book is dedicated, I am so unbelievably fortunate to have found you and to know that you love me, and I love you, as EBB teaches, to the depth and the breadth of my soul.

The 1850s in Britain are often remembered as a period of unrivaled peace and prosperity, especially when considered in contrast to the reform-driven anxieties of the early 1830s and the social disasters of the hungry forties. There were, however, significant crises throughout the decade. In the aftermath of the revolutions of 1848, France backslid into despotism with the 1851 coup dtat engineered by Napoleon III (180873). Although in 1848 Britain was able to avoid revolution, as it had after the revolution of 1830 with the passage of the Great reform act of 1832 (which gave the vote to roughly one-fifth of the adult male population), the interminable problem of what to do about the ever-expanding working classes remained a central issue for both politicians and intellectuals, and would for decades to come. British slaves in the West Indies had been free since 1837, but slavery itself remained a vital issue in the 1850s, especially in the context of the United States. Harriet Beecher Stowe (181196), whose Uncle Toms Cabin (1852) had become an instant bestseller in Britain, helped to reinvigorate the slavery debate on both sides of Atlantic. In particular, the novel served to strengthen the metaphorical connections between slaves in America and the working classes in Britain. In 1854, Britain went to war with Russia in the Crimea and found itself entangled in a military catastrophe from which it barely managed to extricate itself without suffering total disaster. The India Mutiny of 185758 further demonstrated both the moral and the practical difficulties that continually plagued the imperial project of Britain. Add to the tragedy in India the financial collapse and panic in America (1857), which deeply involved the financial interests of Britain, and the tense political conflict over territory in Central America (1857), and the decade begins to take on more complexity than is usually afforded it. Clearly, for Britain in the 1850s, peace and prosperity in the domestic arena did little to negate the challenges and the concerns of being a global superpower. It is, therefore, no surprise that in 1859, when the liberal government of Lord Palmerston (17841865;