“It is a war to prevent the foundation of a slave-holding Confederacy,” he tried to persuade British abolitionist Harriet Martineau. But Martineau wrote back to say that most British sources “insist, loudly & persistently, that the war is not for the abolition of slavery.” Leading British journalist William Howard Russell also dismissed Sumner’s claim that the war would end slavery. “The pretence that this is an anti slavery war cannot be sustained for a moment & is sedulously disavowed by the Govt. itself,” he observed.
