'Letter from Gustavus V. Fox to Abraham Lincoln, Tuesday, September 8, 1863'
Dublin Core
Title
'Letter from Gustavus V. Fox to Abraham Lincoln, Tuesday, September 8, 1863'
Subject
A letter from the Acting Secretary of the Navy to President Lincoln regarding Confederate ironclad construction in Britain
Description
Union concerns over the building of ironclads in Britain for use in the Confederate navy led to increased pressure upon the British government to intervene and halt their construction. In this letter, acting Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Fox doubts the possibility of such a thing happening, citing his view of their contributions to the tensions between the Union and Great Britain.
His argument criticizing Sec. of State Seward for waiting on this issue appears more reflective of the combative, or reactive, factions in the Lincoln Administration that leaned towards a military engagement with Britain. After building pressure from Adams and others, Earl Russell and the British Admiralty moved to seize the ships, later acquiring them for the Royal Navy.
His argument criticizing Sec. of State Seward for waiting on this issue appears more reflective of the combative, or reactive, factions in the Lincoln Administration that leaned towards a military engagement with Britain. After building pressure from Adams and others, Earl Russell and the British Admiralty moved to seize the ships, later acquiring them for the Royal Navy.
Creator
Gustavus V. Fox
Source
Abraham Lincoln papers: Series 1, General Correspondence. 1833-1916 at the Library of Congress; Digitized online at https://www.loc.gov/item/mal2612100/
Publisher
The Library of Congress
Date
September 8, 1863
Contributor
Transcribed by the Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College. Galesburg, Illinois
Rights
Public Domain
Language
English
Type
Text
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Navy Department September 8th 1863.
Sir:
I have read the last dispatches of the American Minister at the Court of St James and am so much surprised at their contents that I feel justified in addressing you officially. You are aware of the efforts that have been made to prevent the departure from England of the Iron clads building there.1 You are also aware that Mr. Seward has felt perfectly confident that the British Government would prevent their departure. Under this delusion we are now resting whilst there is no evidence whatever in Mr. Adam's dispatches, that these vessels are to be arrested. On the contrary I find that one was to be ready for sea within a week. In a naval point of view the departure of these vessels, or even one of them, requires, on the part of this Government, the gravest deliberation.
I am, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant.
G V. Fox
Acting Secretary of the Navy
Sir:
I have read the last dispatches of the American Minister at the Court of St James and am so much surprised at their contents that I feel justified in addressing you officially. You are aware of the efforts that have been made to prevent the departure from England of the Iron clads building there.1 You are also aware that Mr. Seward has felt perfectly confident that the British Government would prevent their departure. Under this delusion we are now resting whilst there is no evidence whatever in Mr. Adam's dispatches, that these vessels are to be arrested. On the contrary I find that one was to be ready for sea within a week. In a naval point of view the departure of these vessels, or even one of them, requires, on the part of this Government, the gravest deliberation.
I am, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant.
G V. Fox
Acting Secretary of the Navy
Original Format
Letter
Collection
Citation
Gustavus V. Fox, “'Letter from Gustavus V. Fox to Abraham Lincoln, Tuesday, September 8, 1863',” A Study of England in the American Civil War, accessed July 7, 2024, https://johnathanseitz.com/items/show/31.