The Trent Affair and British Neutrality

The interception of the Trent by the San Jacinto ignited a firestorm concerning neutral rights and Britain's place in the conflict.

For the Union, issues in diplomacy developed along a different course, particularly where Great Britain was concerned. The U.S. had an array of foreign ministers, ambassadors, and influencers within the governments and royal courts of Europe throughout the war. A central focus of their work abroad was in countering that of their Confederate counterparts, keeping their mission of recognition and support in any form from succeeding. Thus, the Civil War was not only a military conflict, but a diplomatic one as well.

Britain, alongside its European peers, had declared itself neutral in the conflict early on, in a proclamation released by Queen Victoria. This recognized not only the rights of Britain as a neutral power, but the status of the two American combatants as belligerents. This provision enthused many in the South, hopeful of further recognition, and enraged many in the North, as England would still welcome trade with the South.

Throughout 1861, both sides organized the diplomatic message and embassies to Britain. However, in November of that year, a major controversy erupted that threatened the Northern cause, drawing all three entities into a tumult that lasted over a month. On November 8, a Union military vessel, the USS San Jacinto, stopped and searched a British mail steamer, the RMS Trent, holding its mail cargo and removing two of its passengers into U.S. custody.

The two individuals removed were Confederate diplomats James Mason and John Slidell, en route to England and France in their mission to gain support from Europe. Their capture provoked uproar in both the Union and Great Britain, with the Confederacy seeing this event, afterwards known as The Trent Affair, as an opportunity to sow distrust and hostility between the two. While President Lincoln and Secretary of State Seward were faced with the decision of what to do with the captured diplomats, they faced increasing pressure from their British counterparts to release them, amid heightened anti-British fervor in the Union that pushed calls for a war in retaliation.

Northern calls for war pushed Britain to move troops into Canada to address the possible threat from the Union. Some in the Union, Lincoln included, suggested that the focus should be on 'one war at a time.' Such tensions did not abate until the first weeks of the new year, where Lincoln and Seward ultimately relented and let the Confederate diplomats return to their travel. Though not apologizing for the illegal searching of the Trent, both men worked to ease relations with Britain going forward.