Browse Items (17 total)

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…

The news of the Trent's stopping and the arrest of its Southern diplomatic passengers, James Mason and John Slidell, by the Union provoked confusion and anger among the British. The popular views of the incident considered the actions of Union…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

The impact of the Trent Affair shook public attitudes in Northern society, with some clamoring for war with Britain and others cautioning against the risks of such a confrontation. The Prince de Joinville, a son of French nobility residing in the…

Relating to the matter of British shipbuilding for the Confederate Navy, this letter from Governor Andrew to the president reflects American concerns of the persistence of this practice. Occuring even as news of the career of the raider Alabama's…

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…