In Parliament, the British foreign secretary declares the Confederacy at war with the Union

Answering a question in Parliament, the British foreign secretary, Lord John Russell stated that the British government had decedied Southern Confederacy "must be treated as a belligerent" and that the United Kingdom will therefore honor the Union blockade on Southern ports.  A week later, a royal proclamation re-asserted that fact, declared Britain's neutrality, and barred all British subjects from involving themselves in any way in the conflict.  (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Chronicle, The Annual Register or a View of the History and Politics of the Year 1861 (London: F. & J. Rivington, 1862), 115.
 
    Date Certainty
    Exact
    Type
    US/the World
    How to Cite This Page: "In Parliament, the British foreign secretary declares the Confederacy at war with the Union," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/36997.