Freedom’s battle, once begun
An excerpt from the anniversary of the 1st International
At St. Martin’s Hall, on the 28th of September, 1865, the International Workingmen’s Association held a soiree to celebrate the anniversary of its founding. Below is an excerpt from an account of the celebration in The Workman’s Advocate.
After having read the address, which was much applauded, Citizen Cremer said, twelve months ago today, under this very roof, but in a very much smaller hall than the noble one in which we are now assembled, the International Working Men’s Association was ushered into existence, and we were here today to congratulate each other on the glorious results which had been achieved in the short space of twelve months — then we were quite unknown, now we were known all over Europe, and had many friends in America; then we were units now we were thousands; then we had no well-defined public principles, now we have a common platform accepted throughout Europe; then we were isolated from each other, now we are united, and he believed the Association had a bright and happy future.
At one soirée which he had attended at that hall, and which purported to be a working men’s demonstration, there were none but the middle and upper classes to address the meeting, but at this the order of things was reversed, and none but working men were to address the meeting; this was in fact the secret of the success; they had no need for patronage, but had determined to do their own work themselves. (Cheers.)
They had given the American flag the place of honour that evening, as they had done on a former occasion, because it represented the land of liberty and the home of the free. There the exile and the oppressed toiler could find a haven of rest. The Association whose anniversary they celebrated that evening had a peculiar right to congratulate the American people. They had addressed them before; when interest and a hatred of free institutions in this country had reviled their government and insulted their people, then the members of that Association, true to their principles, had addressed words of sympathy to their transatlantic brethren, and received their grateful acknowledgments in return. America was now free from the pollution of slavery. The South had appealed from the ballot to the bullet, and are now beaten at both. The men who took a prominent part in this Association, had never, in the darkest hour of the republic, despaired of its ultimate triumph — and when told that ‘democratic institutions were on their trial’, they accepted the challenge, and abided the issue, which had now arrived. Democracy had triumphed, slavery had perished, the republic was saved; and the flag, which had for four years been so often insulted by the privileged classes of Europe, will yet proudly wave throughout the world, the emblem of liberty, and the hope of the oppressed. He echoed every sentiment of congratulation contained in the address which he had the pleasure to propose for their adoption. He would conclude with the beautiful lines so forcibly realised in the late American contest:
Freedom’s battle, once begun,
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son,
Though baffled oft, is ever won. (Cheers.)
