Autograph letter signed : Rochdale, to Frederick William Chesson, 1864 January 14.

Regretting that he cannot attend a farewell meeting for the abolitionist George Thompson on his departure for the United States; recalling a speech Thompson once gave in Rochdale: "I remember his visit to this town, 30 years ago, on his mission on behalf of the Slave in the English Colonies. I remember his speech & the effect it produced upon me. I have heard as many speeches as most men since then, in & out of Parliament, but I have never since heard a speech so moving in its eloquence & so grand in its object, as that which he delivered in this town. I have always considered Mr Thompson as the real liberator of the Slaves in the English Colonies, for without his commanding eloquence made irresistible by the [blessedness] of his cause, I do not think all the other agencies then at work would have procured their freedom"; reflecting on the American Civil War: "And now, 30 years later, Mr Thompson will have the opportunity of seeing with his own eyes the process of liberation in America, -- not a peaceable process as ours was, because with us, Slaves were comparatively few, & the power of the Slaveowners small, -- but liberation thro' the process of a desperate war intended by the Slaveowners to make Slavery perpetual. Whilst he will grieve over the calamities of the war, he will look thro' them to the establishment of freedom over the whole of the North American Continent, & he may see in the not distant future the abolition of Slavery in Cuba & in Brazil, for I am persuaded that when the United States are free from Slavery as England is, the united opinion of the two nations will do much to destroy the evil in every [professing] Christian Country"; mentioning Thompson's contribution to other causes; wishing that he may "witness more & more the growth & the fruit of the great principles which he has done so much to impress upon the minds of men."