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Gladstone shocked his Liberal colleagues by appearing to support the Confederacy. [[John Bright]] commented: 'He is for union and freedom in Italy, and for disunion and bondage in America!' Gladstone detested slavery, but saw no point in denouncing it when he believed the anti-slavery cause was lost.  

Gladstone shocked his Liberal colleagues by appearing to support the Confederacy. [[John Bright]] commented: 'He is for union and freedom in Italy, and for disunion and bondage in America!' Gladstone detested slavery, but saw no point in denouncing it when he believed the anti-slavery cause was lost.  

His unguarded comment caused some harm to Anglo-American relations for many years, but the victory of the Union had an important effect on Gladstone's outlook. His prejudice slowly disappeared, and eventually came to regard American democracy as one of humanity's supreme achievements. He later described the American Constitution as: 'the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.'<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R5M2AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA179|last1=Gladstone|first1=William|title=Kin Beyond Sea|date=1878|publisher=North American Review|quote=The two constitutions of the two countries express indeed rather the differences than the resemblances of the nations. The one is a thing grown, the other a thing made: the one a praxis, the other a poiesis: the one the offspring of tendency and indeterminate time, the other of choice and of an epoch. But, as the British Constitution is the most subtile organism which has proceeded from the womb and the long gestation of progressive history, so the American Constitution is, so far as I can see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man. It has had a century of trial, under the pressure of exigencies caused by an expansion unexampled in point of rapidity and range; and its exemption from formal change, though not entire, has certainly proved the sagacity of the constructors, and the stubborn strength of the fabric. }}</ref>

His unguarded comment caused some harm to Anglo-American relations for many years, but the victory of the Union had an important effect on Gladstone's outlook. His prejudice slowly disappeared, and eventually came to regard American democracy as one of humanity's supreme achievements. He later described the American Constitution as: 'the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.'<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R5M2AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA179|last1=Gladstone|first1=William|title=Kin Beyond Sea|date=1878|publisher=North American Review|quote=The two constitutions of the two countries express indeed rather the differences than the resemblances of the nations. The one is a thing grown, the other a thing made: the one a [[praxis]], the other a poiesis: the one the offspring of tendency and indeterminate time, the other of choice and of an epoch. But, as the British Constitution is the most subtile organism which has proceeded from the womb and the long gestation of progressive history, so the American Constitution is, so far as I can see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man. It has had a century of trial, under the pressure of exigencies caused by an expansion unexampled in point of rapidity and range; and its exemption from formal change, though not entire, has certainly proved the sagacity of the constructors, and the stubborn strength of the fabric. }}</ref>

==See also==

==See also==