During the American Civil War, the former United States Minister to the Ottoman Empire and staunch opponent of the abolitionist cause, James Williams, remained in Europe to try to gather support for the Confederacy. He sold war bonds and worked with the publisher Henry Hotze, writing several books proclaiming that an independent American South would bring financial benefits to European markets through the import of cheap cotton and the maintaining of lower tariffs in comparison to the Union. The South Vindicated is a reprint of his 1860 book Letters on Slavery from the Old World. It contains the series of letters written by Williams and sent from Constantinople (now Istanbul) to the American press during the United States Presidential election of 1860. The retitled edition also contained a letter sent by Williams to the leading British abolitionist and reformist peer, Lord Brougham. In it he attacked British abolitionists for being hypocritical, accusing them of ignoring the plight of the poor at home in favour of meddling in American affairs.