EIGHT PAMPHLETS REFLECTING BRITISH OPINION ON THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR.
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1864. 1. Bemis, George: PRECEDENTS OF AMERICAN NEUTRALITY, IN REPLY TO THE SPEECH OF SIR ROUNDELL PALMER, ATTORNEY-GENERAL OF ENGLAND, IN THE BRITISH HOUSE OF COMMONS, MAY 13, 1864. Boston: Little, Brown. 1864. viii, 83, [1 blank] pp. Disbound, original printed front wrapper. Clean text. Good+.
England's reception and fitting out of Confederate privateers is inconsistent with its professed neutrality. The U.S., a neutral in earlier European wars, prohibited such collaboration in American ports.
FIRST EDITION. Sabin 4626. Bartlett 394. II DAB 174. Not in Harv. Law Cat., Marke.
2. Cordner, Rev. John: CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES: AN ADDRESS ON THE AMERICAN CONFLICT, DELIVERED AT MONTREAL, ON THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 22, 1864. Manchester: A. Ireland and Co. 1865. Original printed wrappers [spine wear]. ix, [1 blank], 30 pp. Disbound, else Very Good.
Published by the antislavery Union and Emancipation Society, the pamphlet demonstrates that "the supposed hostile designs of the United States upon Canada" is merely an attempt to turn British sentiment against the Union. The rear wrapper is a two-column list of the officers of the Society, including a two-column list of more than one hundred fifty Vice Presidents.
Sabin 16762 [Montreal printing only]. Not in Bartlett.
3. Free Man's Aid Society: THE FRIENDS OF THE FREED-MEN. [London: 1864]. 7, [1] pp. Caption title, as issued. Disbound, else Very Good.
This rare pamphlet was written by John Curwen, Secretary to the Free Man's Aid Society. He lauds the abolitionists- - British and American-- who aid the Union cause, recognizing "instinctively that this must become an anti-slavery war." They have enlisted in fighting regiments, organized the education of freedmen at Port Royal. The pamphlet describes the freedmen's schools, the freed children's eagerness to learn, and the observations of the teachers, some of whom were women.
OCLC 644153331 [1- U Manchester] as of August 2025.
4. Massie, James W.: THE CASE STATED: THE FRIENDS AND ENEMIES OF THE AMERICAN SLAVE. Manchester: Union and Emancipation Society. 1863. 8pp. Disbound. Good+.
England's Union and Emancipation Society was committed to the abolition of Slavery. "What darker or more dreary calamity could threaten any nation or people on earth, than the successful establishment of a Republic, whose corner-stone shall be 'that the negro is not equal to the white man, and that slavery- subordination to the superior race- is his natural and normal condition'."
Bartlett 3040. Sabin 46186 note. Not in LCP or Dumond.
5. Owls-Glass [pseud.]: REBEL BRAG AND BRITISH BLUSTER; A RECORD OF UNFULFILLED PROPHECIES, BAFFLED SCHEMES, AND DISAPPOINTED HOPES, WITH ECHOES OF VERY INSIGNIFICANT THUNDER, VERY PLEASANT TO READ AND INSTRUCTIVE TO ALL WHO ARE CAPABLE OF LEARNING. New York: American News Co. [1865.] Original printed wrappers, the rear wrapper advertising 'The Martyr's Monument.' vi, [7]-111, [1 blank] pp. Clean text. Disbound, else Very Good.
Sabin and the Library Company suggest Richard Grant White as the author. The book, "a curious study" of British elite opinion, is a commentary on articles from British intellectuals which had supported the Confederacy. The author's close examination of British public opinion is a scathing condemnation of British turpitude.
These were "undeniably able and dextrous writers and politicians, who, to please the public for whom they wrote and spoke, opposed, ridiculed, and contemned our people and our government during the tremendous struggle for the worthy and honorable existence of our country. It would not be very easy for us to forget these efforts of our inimical kinsfolk, or indeed desirable that we should lose sight of so instructive a warning. . ."
Sabin 68317. LCP 11149. Bartlett 4012.
6. Potter, Thomas Bayley: UNION AND EMANCIPATION SOCIETY. REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS AT A CONVERSAZIONE, HELD IN THE MANCHESTER ATHENAEUM, ON MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 1, 1864, TO RECEIVE THE REPORT OF THE REV. DR. MASSIE, RESPECTING HIS ANTI-SLAVERY MISSION TO THE AMERICAN CLERGY AND CHURCHES. Manchester: Alexander Ireland. 1864. 33, [3] pp. Disbound without wraps, Clean text. Good+.
Potter was the President of the Society, a British organization based in Manchester and supporting the North in its war against Slavery. The pamphlet reports on "a very interesting conversazione" concerning Dr. Massie's trip to America.
He met with President Lincoln, "a man of integrity whose word is to be believed whenever he speaks. I came away with the conviction that he is the friend of the negro and the man of colour, and that he has a firm resolution that whatever power he has shall be constitutionally exerted for the emancipation of every slave in the United States." Massie also met with Seward "again and again," and with Chase and other civil and military leaders, all of whom favorably impressed him.
"The day is not far off when the coloured regiments of America will be the safeguard of her negro freedom, and the security for all the freedom that belongs to men of whatever colour,"
Not in LCP, Bartlett, Dumond, Monaghan, or Sabin. OCLC notes about fifteen institutional holdings.
7. Siemms, F. D.: AMERICA. THE WAR: PAST, PRESENT, AND PROBABLE FUTURE. BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF A DISCOURSE DELIVERED AT THE CONCERT HALL, LIVERPOOL. BY F. D. SIEMMS, A NATIVE OF LIVERPOOL, WHO SERVED AS AN OFFICER IN THE ARMY OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES TO A VERY RECENT PERIOD, BEING AN EMBODIMENT OF HIS EXPERIENCES AND OBSERVATIONS DURING A PERIOD OF EIGHTEEN MONTHS AS AN OFFICER OF ARTILLERY. [Liverpool? 1864?]. 24pp. Disbound, with wrapper remnants along spine. Good+.
Siemms says, "Without any previous intention of being a soldier, either in the army of the North or South, yet I found myself one fine day an officer in the army of the Southern Confederacy." He gives some details of his unit's movements and briefly discusses different engagements while noting his frustration at the North's exaggeration in reporting its successes. His war experience was brief: "My military life ended" when he was taken prisoner "at Bull's run" and held as a prisoner until the British flag brought his release.
Presenting himself as something of an expert, he says, "the negroes are far better off than a certain class of poor people in many European countries." He says 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' is filled with exaggeration and "downright untruths." He exposes "the false pretence that the North was fighting for liberty," and says the press has greatly exaggerated the North's progress in the field.
Frederick David Samson Siemms [1844-1907] was born in England, but it is unclear how he ended up in the United States or fighting for the Confederate Army. His military records show that he enlisted on May 13, 1861, at the age of 17 years, for a period of 12 months as a private with 1st Artillery Virginia Confederate with Capt. Johnson H. Sands' Company, [Co. B, Henrico Artillery], Virginia Light Artillery. His occupation was dentist and optician. Company muster rolls show he was discharged on July 20, 1862. [Military records of Frederick D. Siemms, Fold3 website; Soldier and Sailor's Database at National Park Service website; The Commercial Gazette of London, June 4, 1890, Page 6.]
OCLC 4844821 [1- U Rochester] as of March 2025. Not in Bartlett or Sabin.
8. Smith, Goldwin: ENGLAND AND AMERICA: A LECTURE, DELIVERED BY GOLDWIN SMITH, BEFORE THE BOSTON FRATERNITY, DURING HIS RECENT VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES. . . Manchester: A. Ireland and Co. 1865. x, 36 pp. Disbound, original printed front wrapper. "With Thomas B. Potters Complts" written on front wrapper. Good+.
An odd combination of sympathies, Smith supported the Union, opposed imperialism and woman suffrage, and disliked Jews. His lecture was first published in The Atlantic, and was also printed in Boston.
Sabin 82678. Bartlett 4507. Item #41261
Price: $2,000.00