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| A version of this Sully portrait of Victoria gazed down on the men drafting the ordinance of secession in Charleston's St. Andrew's Hall in 1860 |
The South's Anglophile aristocrats loved to talk about returning to "The Mother Country," a theme picked up on by W. H. Russell in one of his dispatches from South Carolina and supported in this letter to Lord Lyons from Our Man in Charleston Robert Bunch. Clearly they didn't think this through, since slavery had been abolished throughout the Empire almost 30 years earlier.
June
20 - The Letters of Mr. W. H. Russell, the special correspondent of the
"Times" newspaper have been looked for in this Community with an
anxiety which to a stranger might almost appear ludicrous—But to one who, like
myself, has resided for several years in South Carolina, the desire on the part
of the people to learn the judgment which would be pronounced upon them by an
intelligent observer and writer, especially by one who commands the attention
of the world to so great a degree as does Mr. Russell, appears both natural and
proper. It has always been a subject of complaint at the South that the only
knowledge of its social system possessed by the European public is derived from
Northern sources by which it has been misrepresented and consistently vilified.
… I can, therefore, fully appreciate the solicitude with which the
criticisms of Mr. Russell were expected. He was to see and judge for himself,
not to take at second-hand the interested or prejudiced opinions (as they are
considered) of the North, or even of Great Britain on the subject of Slavery.
Four of Mr. Russell’s
letters from the Southern States have now appeared, and have, on the whole,
given satisfaction. Altho’ it is asserted that on several points of detail he
has not proved himself entirely correct (an opinion from which I altogether
differ) there exists an universal disposition to admire his fairness and be
flattered by his accounts of the people and the government. But I have found
within the last few days some inclination to deny, and even to resent, the
statements of his second letter from Charleston, dated April 30, to the effect
that the people of South Carolina, or rather its upper classes, which in this
State, at least, have the entire control of the “people,” and are the only
portion of the population whose wishes are consulted, would not object to see
the connection with the Mother Country revived, and themselves either the
subjects of Her Majesty or of a Constitutional Monarchy under an English
Prince. I have, therefore, thought it not inexpedient to assure Your Lordship
that, in my humble judgment, Mr. Russell is entirely correct in the views he
expresses. Language such as he describes has been told to me on numberless
occasions by the very best and most influential persons in South Carolina, not
only during the exciting scenes of the last few months, but from the day of my
arrival here in 1853. My Predecessor, Mr. Matthew, informed me before I came of
the existence of the same sentiment to a very great extent, and it is now
infinitely stronger than ever. I affirm most deliberately that the governing
classes of South Carolina would most gladly become the subjects of a
Constitutional Monarchy based upon the principles of British Law. ...
I don't think southern aristocrats had any realistic hopes of returning to British sovereignty, or perhaps more truthfully it had more to do with their pretensions and playing along British representatives.
ReplyDeleteTo some extent the two sides were playing each other, but the subject was broached many times, especially in the early days of the war when the South was puzzled by Britain's refusal to lend full support to the Confederacy. Later, that puzzlement turned to anger.
DeleteNot to get too far off the point, but what would have happened if the War of Independence had gone the Crown's way, and Britain abolished slavery 50 years later. The second American rebellion, I think.
ReplyDeleteNot to get too far off the point, but what would have happened if the War of Independence had gone the Crown's way, and Britain abolished slavery 50 years later. The second American rebellion, I think.
ReplyDelete