1862 ANNUAL REGISTER. British Reception of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, Civil War.

The Annual Register for the year 1862, published in London in 1863, provides a fascinating real-time British reaction to and analysis of multiple pivotal moments of the American Civil War. It also recorded for a British audience many of the key American documents and conversations, reproducing state papers, political debates, and military dispatches detailing major campaigns like the Peninsular Campaign, Antietam, and Fredericksburg.

Most significantly, it records President Abraham Lincoln’s issuance of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862 alongside his Annual Message to Congress, then comments on it extensively. In doing so, this British publication documents how transatlantic observers viewed Lincoln’s shift from a war strictly waged to preserve the Union to a conflict aimed at dismantling slavery. At a moment when British neutrality hung in the balance, the Proclamation effectively ended any realistic prospect of official British diplomatic recognition or military intervention for the Confederacy.

A sampling of the relevant contents include: The Civil War in America; Detention of British Subjects in the United States; The Sinking of the Stone Fleet in the Harbour of Charleston, South Carolina; The Blockade of Southern Ports; The Violent Proclamation of the Federal General Butler at New Orleans; Distress and Poverty in British Cotton Manufacturing Districts for Want of Raw Material; The Position of the Hostile Armies of the Confederacy; Federal Successes in the West; The Capture of New Orleans; Exploits of the Confederate Iron-Clad Steamer, "Virginia;" Inaugural Address of President Jefferson Davis; General Hunter's Order Abolishing Slavery Declared Null and Void by President Abraham Lincoln; Ferocity with which the War is Carried On; Call for 600,000 Fresh Troops; The Bill for Compensation to States that should Abolish Slavery; Views of President Lincoln on the Struggle; His Plan for the Emigration of Blacks [Colonization]; He Announces his Intention to Propose for the Abolition of Slavery; Message of President Davis to the Confederate Congress; Dispatches of M. Drouyn de Lhuys and Early Russell to America on Emancipation; Address of the State Governors to President Lincoln; President Lincoln's Message to Congress; 

[Civil War, Emancipation Proclamation] The Annual Register, or a View of the History and Politics of the Year 1862. London. Printed for J. & F. H. Rivington. 1863. 245pp + 542pp

Good + to very good in original half calf, some rubbing, small split to head of front hinge as shown [1.5 inches]; very discrete tide mark to lower corner of text block, and gutter exposed between frontis and title. Else clean, crisp and sound.