The rhetorical shaping of national interest: Morality and contextual potency in John Bright's parliamentary speech against recognition of the confederacy

This essay argues that the debate over British intervention in the American Civil War allowed for realignment of the parameters of the rhetorically constructed notion of “national interests.” Such constructions prior to the speech under investigation limited moral considerations; the context of the recognition debate afforded the opportunity to situate morality within the dominant sphere of consciousness of “interest.” A close reading of John Bright's speech in opposition to Confederate recognition demonstrates the ways this opportunity was exploited and reveals the speech as an instantiation of the rhetorical shift in the meaning of national interests.