La Prima Internazionale, Palmerston e la guerra civile americana

“On November 27, 1864, Karl Marx, the leading spirit of the General Council, wrote thus about the elements composing this committee to his friend Joseph Weydemeyer, then in the United States: “Its English members are mostly chiefs of the local trades unions, hence the real labor kings of London, the same people who gave Garibaldi such a rousing welcome, and who by their monster meeting in St. James’ Hall (Bright in the chair) prevented Palmerston from declaring war against  the United States when he was on the point of doing it” [F. Mehring, Neue Beiträge zur Biographie von K. Marx und F. Engels, Neue Zeit, 1906-07, Vol II, p. 224] [(in) Hermann Schlüter, Lincoln, labor and slavery. A Chapter from the Social History of America, Socialist Literature Co., New York, 1913]