"The African Slave Trade" – A Booklet Against Judah Philip Benjamin – Philadelphia, 1863 – Publication of a Private ...

"The African Slave Trade" – A Booklet Against Judah Philip Benjamin – Philadelphia, 1863 – Publication of a Private Letter, Revealing a Secret Plan to Revive Slave Trade
The African Slave Trade, the Secret Purpose of the Insurgents to Revive It. Philadelphia: C. Sherman, Son & Co., 1863. English.
The booklet presents a letter sent by the secretary of the confederacy, Judah Philip Benjamin, to Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, Confederate minister to Russia. The letter was sent while the confederacy representatives negotiated an agreement of recognition as an independent nation by European powers. During the negotiations some of the European powers required a stipulation on the part of the Confederacy forbidding slave trade. While the confederacy attempted to avoid such a stipulation, Benjamin sent a letter to Lamar arguing that the Confederacy was already legally bound to forbid slave trade and further stipulation is not necessary.
According to the introduction to the booklet, the letter was intercepted by the Northern authorities on its way to the addressee and was published in the paper National Intelligencer, accompanied by articles clarifying its true intention – to revive slave trade after winning recognition. The articles imply that the South's legal system enables each state to secede from the federation and pass new laws, or, alternatively, to join two more states and propose a law revision.
The letter and the articles are re-printed in this booklet.
24 pp, approx. 23 cm. Good condition. Minor blemishes. Small tears at margins. First leaf is partly detached. Cover is detached and torn in half (along the spine), with tears and open tears at margins. Ink-stamp on inside front cover.
See previous item.