one speech their cause and ours
would be still further weakened.

He began his work with a speech at Manchester, the very centre of the
cotton spinning industry. For weeks the streets had been placarded
against him. On his way to the Free Trade Hall he found, not a
multitude, but a mob, filling the streets. The meeting had been packed
in advance. Within five minutes after his introduction the storm let
loose its fury. There were two or three centres of conflict that became
veritable whirlpools of excitement. All the rest of the audience climbed
on their chairs to see what was going on in the tumultuous centres.
Everybody seemed to be yelling, some for order, and others with the
purpose of breaking up the meeting. Mr. Beecher saw that many were
determined that he should not speak, and he realized that if they broke
him down, other cities would withdraw their invitation, and it would
appear that all England was unalterably opposed to the North, so that
the recognition of the Confederacy might follow. When his enemies began
to wear themselves out and the tumult to subside, Mr. Beecher shot a few
sentences into the noise. "I have registered a vow that I will not leave
your country until I have spoken in your great cities. I am going to be
heard, and my country shall be vindicated."

The orator soon found that about one-quarter of the audience were
bitterly hostile. Another quarter applauded his sentiment. The great
mass was hesitant, undecided, unconvinced, and he determined to conquer
that undecided class, and add them to that portion that was friendly. He
scornfully reminded them that he had before met men whose cause could
not bear the light of free speech. He roused them by saying that
American institutions were the fruit of English ideas, and that the
fruit of American liberty was from seed corn that was English.

When some one shouted that he was harsh and unfair, he answered, What if
some exquisite dancing master should stand on the edge of a
battle-field where a hero lifted his battle-axe, and criticize him by
saying that "his gestures and postures violated the proprieties of
polite life!" He added, "When dandies fight they think how they look;
when men fight, they think only of deeds." He said that what the North
desired was not material aid, but simply that England should keep hands
off, and that France should keep hands off. He affirmed that even if
they both interfered, the North would fight on, that slavery m