And now let me turn to those who were the staunch friends of the North from the very outset. They were gathered from all ranks and all parts of the kingdom. They were brought in by all sorts of motives. Some few had studied your history, and knew that these Southern men had been the only real enemies of their country on American soil since the War of Independence. Many followed their old anti-slavery traditions faithfully, and cast their lot at once against the slave-owners, careless of the reiterated assertions, both on your side of the Atlantic and ours, that the Union and not abolition was the issue. Many came because they had learned to look upon your land as the great home for the poor of all nations, and to love her institutions and rejoice in her greatness as though they in some sort belonged to themselves. All felt the tremendous significance of the struggle, and that the future of their own country was almost as deeply involved as the future of America. To all of them the noble words of one of your greatest poets and staunchest patriots, which rang out in the darkest moments of the first year of the war, struck a chord very deep in their hearts, and expressed in undying words that which they were trying to utter:-- O strange New World, thet yit wast never young, Whose youth from thee by gripin’ need was wrung, Brown foundlin’ o’ the woods, whose baby-bed Was prowled roun’ by the Injun’s cracklin’ tread, An’ who grew’st strong thru shifts an’ wants an’ pains, Nussed by stern men with empires in their brains, Who saw in vision their young Ishmel strain With each hard hand a vassal ocean’s mane, Thou, skilled by Freedom an’ by gret events To pitch new States ez Old-World men pitch tents, Thou, taught by Fate to know Jehovah’s plan Thet man’s devices can’t unmake a man, An’ whose free latch-string never was drawed in Against the poorest child of Adam’s kin,-- The grave’s not dug where traitor hands shall lay In fearful haste thy murdered corse away! It was in this faith that we took our stand, with a firm resolution that no effort of ours should be spared to help your people shake themselves clear of the dead weight of slavery, and to preserve that vast inheritance of which God has made you the guardians and trustees for all the nations of the earth, unbroken, and free from the standing armies, disputed boundaries, and wretched heart-burnings and dissensions of the Old World. It was little enough that we could do in any case, but that little was done with all our hearts, and on looking back I cannot but think was well done.