'A Letter from Thurlow Weed to William Seward, December 4, 1861, 6:00 P.M.'

'A Letter from Thurlow Weed to William Seward, December 4, 1861, 6:00 P.M.'

One of two December 4th letters from Thurlow Weed to Secretary Seward on the matter of the Trent Affair

In this letter, the Union agent - and friend to Secretary of State William Seward - informs the secretary of efforts made by the British government to strengthen the security of their Canadian territories. In response to the Trent Affair's escalation of tensions between the U.S. and British Empire, Parliament and the British Crown saw the immediate military threat posed by the United States to Canada and other British holdings in North America.

The letter conveys some of the confusion and anger expressed by the British government and public over the incident, the closest point to a seperate war between the U.S. and U.K during the American Civil War. even after the Affair's resolution, British troops remained in Canada, playing their own part in the restructuring of the provinces into a more cohesive Confederation in 1867.

Thurlow Weed

Library of Congress - Abraham Lincoln papers: Series 1. General Correspondence. 1833-1916; Digitized online at https://www.loc.gov/item/mal1324900/

Library of Congress, Washington D.C.

December 4, 1861

Transcript by the Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College. Galesburg, Illinois.

Public Domain

English

Text

Rec 20. Decr
London, Dec 4
6 P. M.

Dear Seward,

Mr Peabody has just called to say that Four additional Regiments have been ordered to Canada this Evening;2 that the Queen consented with much regret to act against us; and that but for her the Despatches to Lord Lyons3 would have more peremptory; that a Member of the Government says to-day that War will follow the refusal to surrender; and finally that the feeling is as intense as it was at first.

The impression that the capture of S. & M. was an understood thing exists in other quarters.

Letter