1863 EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. Democrat Rails Against Emancipation & Abraham Lincoln

A virulent attack on President Abraham Lincoln and the  Emancipation Proclamation, which had taken effect just twelve days prior, on January 1, 1863.

Delivered by Samuel S. "Sunset" Cox, a prominent Copperhead congressman from Ohio, the speech framed Lincoln’s executive order not as a noble act of Union preservation, but as an unconstitutional act of radical fanaticism driven by the spirit of New England "Puritanism." Cox argued that transforming the war for the Union into an anti-slavery crusade would ultimately degrade white Northern labor through black competition and destroyed any chance of voluntary national reconciliation.

The address was published, unsurprisingly, by Van Evrie, Horton & Co. of New York, John H. Van Evrie's firm was the most promiment and "successful" antebellum and Civil War-era commercial publisher of virulent pro-slavery, anti-emancipation, and white supremacist propaganda. By issuing Cox’s address as a 14-page campaign tract, the publishing house sought to mobilize Northern white working-class voters against the Lincoln administration’s war policies, making the pamphlet a key primary document of the Copperhead opposition and Northern anti-emancipation agitation.

Puritanism is the cause of our present troubles. Abolition is the offspring of Puritanism. It has turned the church into a political arena, and made the pulpit a vehicle of slander and treason. It is a restless, meddling, aggressive element [that] seeks to bring everything to its own standard, or destroy it.

Advert and descriptive promotion on the rear cover for The New-York Weekly Caucasian. The White Man's Paper, also published by Van Evrie. 

Cox, S[amuel] S. Puritanism in Politics. Speech of Hon. S. S. Cox, of Ohio, before the Democratic Union Association, January 13, 1863. New York. Van Evrie, Horton & Co. 1863. 14pp. 

Near fine. Crisp, clean and solid. An unusually fine example of a very scarce publication.