Browse Items (17 total)

Weed's letter is written in the midst of an deteriorating diplomatic situation between the United States and the British Empire. Informing Secretary Seward of a meeting between himself and the British Foreign Minister, Earl Russell, Weed's account…

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…

This letter from the Union agent addresses some of the concerns for the potential fallout of the Trent Affair in the case of further escalation. The threat of European intervention in the war, either militarily or as forceful mediators, amplified the…

Thurlow Weed, a Republican politician, was operating in London throughout the Civil War, acting as an unofficial agent for the Lincoln administration's efforts to placate British opinion on the war. This letter to Sec. Seward, dated December 4, 1861,…

Ewing's advice to the president echoes the general sentiment of Union diplomats following the controversy surrounding the response to the Trent in 1861. The issue of British shipyards constructing varied vessels for use in the South's navy quickly…

This letter to President Lincoln, possibly from then former Ohio Senator Thomas Ewing, reflects some of the concerns within the Northern public as the Trent Affair dragged on. Written only a few weeks before the captured Confederate diplomats were…

This image depicts several figures, two of which, engaged in a fierce struggle, represent the American conflict. Encoiled by a serpent holding him back is a representative of the Union cause, dragged down by those in the North that called for peace…

Former President Fillmore's letter to the current executive reflects the growing view among prominent American politicians that war with Britain, increasingly probable as the Trent Affair continued, was undesriable and disadvantageuous to the…

Accompanying the formal British response to the Trent Affair, which was edited and toned down by Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, Foreign Minister Earl Russell included additional instructions for Lord Lyons. Desiring an explanation from…

This letter from the Wisconsin Senator was written at the height of the controversy over the Trent. Though the exact parameters of the diplomatic dialogue was still unknown to the majority of the American public, its tense nature was not lost. At the…