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Men worth memorializing

TheOriginalHappyGoat

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Oct 4, 2010
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An interesting letter to the editor was published in the Guardian today, and it called to mind a fascinating side story of the Civil War. There is to this day a statue of Abraham Lincoln in Manchester, for many convoluted reasons, but the ultimate source of the connection boils down to this:

The Union blockade destroyed the Manchester economy, which depended upon southern cotton. Unemployment was as high as perhaps 60%. Mill owners were encouraging their representatives in the Commons to oppose the blockade, but the workers, those most hurt by it, got together, and in a bitterly divided vote, chose to support Lincoln and the Union in the fight against slavery. Lincoln himself recognized the sacrifice the people of Machester chose willingly to make:

With the cotton industry on its knees, Lincoln acknowledged the self-sacrifice of the 'working men of Manchester' in a letter he sent them in 1863. Lincoln's words - later inscribed on the pedestal of his statue that can still be found in Lincoln Square, Manchester - praised the workers for their selfless act of "sublime Christian heroism, which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country." (Emphasis mine)​

It's altogether fitting that the people of Manchester memorialize Lincoln for this historic connection, but we should also memorialize the regular mill-workers of Manchester, circa 1860, who chose to suffer hardship beyond modern Western understanding to support what they felt was right. When faced with the choice of supporting the enslavement of a race of people on another continent on one hand, and the possible starvation of their own loved ones in their own city on the other, they chose the latter. It was the worst possible choice for them, but also the only moral one.
 
An interesting letter to the editor was published in the Guardian today, and it called to mind a fascinating side story of the Civil War. There is to this day a statue of Abraham Lincoln in Manchester, for many convoluted reasons, but the ultimate source of the connection boils down to this:

The Union blockade destroyed the Manchester economy, which depended upon southern cotton. Unemployment was as high as perhaps 60%. Mill owners were encouraging their representatives in the Commons to oppose the blockade, but the workers, those most hurt by it, got together, and in a bitterly divided vote, chose to support Lincoln and the Union in the fight against slavery. Lincoln himself recognized the sacrifice the people of Machester chose willingly to make:

With the cotton industry on its knees, Lincoln acknowledged the self-sacrifice of the 'working men of Manchester' in a letter he sent them in 1863. Lincoln's words - later inscribed on the pedestal of his statue that can still be found in Lincoln Square, Manchester - praised the workers for their selfless act of "sublime Christian heroism, which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country." (Emphasis mine)​

It's altogether fitting that the people of Manchester memorialize Lincoln for this historic connection, but we should also memorialize the regular mill-workers of Manchester, circa 1860, who chose to suffer hardship beyond modern Western understanding to support what they felt was right. When faced with the choice of supporting the enslavement of a race of people on another continent on one hand, and the possible starvation of their own loved ones in their own city on the other, they chose the latter. It was the worst possible choice for them, but also the only moral one.
Your post made me think of the country during WW2. The country sacrificed for the war effort and are worthy of praise and admiration.
 
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