Russell, in a brief reply, reasserted old arguments that
the time had "not yet" come, but now declared that events seemed to show
the possibility of a complete Northern victory and added with emphasis
that recognition of the South could justly be regarded by the North as
an "unfriendly act[854]."
Thus Parliament and Cabinet were united against meddling in America,
basing this attitude on neutral duty and national interests, and with
barely a reference to the new policy of the North toward slavery,
declared in the emancipation proclamations of September 22, 1862, and
January 1, 1863, Had these great documents then no favourable influence
on British opinion and action? Was the Northern determination to root
out the institution of slavery, now clearly announced, of no effect in
winning the favour of a people and Government long committed to a world
policy against that institution? It is here necessary to review early
British opinion, the facts preceding the first emancipation
proclamation, and to examine its purpose in the mind of Lincoln.
Before the opening of actual military operations, while there was still
hope of some peaceful solution, British opinion had been with the North
on the alleged ground of sympathy with a free as against a slave-owning
society. But war once begun the disturbance to British trade interests
and Lincoln's repeated declarations that the North had no intention of
destroying slavery combined to offer an excuse and a reason for an
almost complete shift of British opinion.
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