The Trent Affair was a diplomatic incident that occurred in 1861 during the American Civil War. It involved the capture of two Confederate diplomats, James Mason and John Slidell, from a British ship called the Trent by Union Captain Charles Wilkes. This act caused outrage in Britain and almost led to a war between the United States and Great Britain.
The background to the Trent Affair was the American Civil War, which had been raging for over a year at the time. The Confederacy had appointed Mason and Slidell as ambassadors to Europe in an attempt to gain recognition and support from foreign powers, particularly Britain and France. They set sail from Havana, Cuba on the British mail steamer Trent, bound for England.
On November 8, 1861, the Trent was intercepted by the Union ship San Jacinto, commanded by Captain Wilkes. Wilkes boarded the Trent and arrested Mason and Slidell, claiming that they were "contraband of war" and therefore subject to capture. He then took them back to the United States as prisoners.
This action caused outrage in Britain, as it was seen as a violation of the sovereignty of a British vessel. The British government demanded the immediate release of the two diplomats and an apology from the United States. The situation was made even more tense by the fact that Britain was still recovering from the recent crisis over the Trent Affair and was not inclined to go to war over it.
The United States, however, was unwilling to release the two diplomats or apologize for the incident. President Abraham Lincoln and his administration saw the capture of Mason and Slidell as a legitimate act of war and believed that they had the right to seize any enemy agents on board a neutral vessel. The crisis deepened when Lincoln refused to back down, leading to a stand-off between the two countries.
Eventually, cooler heads prevailed and a resolution was reached. The United States released Mason and Slidell and offered a formal apology to the British government, averting a potential war between the two countries. The Trent Affair had a lasting impact on Anglo-American relations and is remembered as a significant event in the history of the American Civil War.
Harpers Weekly
On October 15, the Union sidewheel steamer James Adger, under the command of John B. Seward's reply, in effect, accepted Wilkes' treatment of the prisoners as contraband and also equated their capture with the British exercise of impressment of British citizens off of neutral ships. Along with the failure of Fairfax to insist on a search of Trent, there was another reason why no papers were found in the luggage that was carried with the envoys. The London Standard saw the capture as "but one of a series of premeditated blows aimed at this country … to involve it in a war with the Northern States". When Palmerston, alarmed by the blockade and the Trent affair, pressed for increasing the number of regular troops in Canada to 10,000, he met resistance. Captain Moir refused Fairfax's request for a passenger list, but Slidell and Mason came forward and identified themselves. Palmerston indicated to Lord Russell that it was very possible that the entire incident had been a "deliberate and premeditated insult" designed by Seward to "provoke" a confrontation with Britain.
A time will come--and in our day, too--when we shall call England to account for the unnatural enmity she has displayed toward the United States; for here base sympathy with traitors and pirates; and for the unspeakable cowardice she now evinces in trying to drive us to the wall in the hour of our most trying extremity. Trent Affair for kids: Captain Wilkes and the San Jacinto Captain Charles Wilkes of the United States ship USS San Jacinto had learned that Mason and Slidell had boarded the RMS Trent on November 7. The 10-day-long overland passage, and the railway from Riviere du Loup to Ville du Quebec, was within a day's march of the border in some locations, the overland trail was almost within rifle shot from U. Musicant notes that the availability of the law texts on San Jacinto were the result of the complex legal situations that were likely to have been encountered in her two year anti-slave-trade patrol of the African coast. As the war in America intensified and the bloody results of the Historians have given special credit to Seward and Lincoln for their handling of the crisis. Navy force preparing to attack Sumter had captured three U. Lyons assigned this task to When confronted, Russell admitted that his government was attempting to get agreement from the Confederacy to adhere to the provisions of the treaty relating to neutral goods but not privateering , but he denied that this was in any way a step towards extending diplomatic relations to the Confederates.
That this is the view of the Administration we do not know. In October 1861, Mason and Slidell departed Charleston for Cuba where they then boarded the British mail steamer HMS Trent. While Captain Wilkes erred in arresting Confederate agents on a British vessel, American politicians quickly corrected these actions and stopped a pending war with Great Britain. His main point in the debate was that releasing the prisoners was consistent with the traditional American position on the right of neutrals, and the public would accept it as such. Union intelligence had not immediately recognized that Mason and Slidell had left Charleston on Theodora.
Significance of the Trent Affair The complex, international reach of the Trent Affair showcased the Union's stance on restricting outside interference in the Civil War. Secretary Seward has written a rather ingenious and extremely long justification of the act. War was imminent if diplomats did not work quickly to resolve the issue. The goals of the Confederacy during the Civil War was not only to secure international recognition from Europe but also to enter a military alliance with Britain which would legitimize the Confederacy and justify its cause. He might have said that the arrest of the traitors was right and proper, and their detention legal; but that, in the present circumstances, the country was not in a condition to go to war with England while the much more momentous question of the dissolution of the Union was being discussed in the battle-field, and therefore that Mason and Slidel were surrendered for the sake of peace. In the Province of Canada there were 25,000 arms, 10,000 of them smoothbores, and in the Maritimes there were 13,000 rifles and 7,500 Melbourne, and by February 10, 1862, the Times reported that modern arms and equipment for 105,550 had arrived in Canada along with 20 million cartridges.
Baxter wrote that "the British government, while defending the rights of British merchants and shipowners, kept one eye on the precedents and the other on the future interests of the mistress of the sea. On the lake situation Bourne wrote, "Quite clearly there could be no hope of securing the command of the lakes unless adequate preparations were made in advance of hostilities. Though Seward's statement offered no apology, it was viewed favorably in London and the crisis passed. A century, however, will not repair the mischief worked by the jealousy of England at this time. Untrained and undisciplined, they showed up in all manner of dress, with belts of basswood bark and sprigs of green balsam in their hats, carrying an assortment of flintlocks, shotguns, rifles, and scythes.
If ships are fired upon in a Port the town must suffer; therefore the shipping cannot be fired on. It also established the fact that we are not that insignificant military Power, which some people are disposed to make out, and that the military organization of our departments is now such, that at any moment we can be, and are prepared should it arise. The Nashville had captured and destroyed the Union merchant ship Harvey Birch on its trip. The prisoners were brought to Boston, Massachusetts, and held at Fort Warren. Sailors of San Jacinto boarded Trent Fairfax then boarded Trent from a cutter. The words in quotes are Dayton's.
Believing the war's outcome to be predetermined, the British saw any action they could take to encourage the end of the war as a humanitarian gesture. When the Civil War broke out, the Union blockaded southern ports to prevent the coming and going of ships, though some ships managed to slip through. More importantly, Lincoln reasoned that he could not risk war with the British which would all but guarantee a Confederate victory. Williams was the only British naval officer involved in the incident. Though he sent the Confederate agents across to San Jacinto, Fairfax convinced Wilkes not to make a prize of Trent. William Seward came up with a workable solution and in a carefully worded letter in December 1861, that Lincoln approved of, managed to both pacify British honor and withheld a formal apology. The Confederate diplomats were duly released "to do to the British nation just what we have always insisted all nations ought to do to us.
What in Hell do you mean by deserting now the great principles of our fathers; by returning to the vomit of that dog Great Britain? Good God, what's got into you all? By August 1861, Yancey was sick, frustrated, and ready to resign. Lawrence and, in the event of attack, close Toronto by sinking ships. It is to be hoped that this measure of unfriendliness and injury may suffice. Lincoln also knew that despite the fact that Wilkes' actions had not been authorized, his actions were highly popular with the media. Ferris indicates in footnote no. Palmerston even instructed his military forces in Canada to prepare for a possible war. Departing the scene, Wilkes sailed for Hampton Roads.
There is no question but the navy of Great Britain is at present so superior to ours that our blockade would be speedily broken, and thus the great object for whose accomplishment we have taken up arms would be placed beyond our reach. Lesson Summary What began on November 8, 1861, as serious aggression against British neutrality due to the unwise actions of a single ship captain ended in American politicians attempting to brush off the issue and the subsequent amending of Union - British relations. . If it had been, Warren concluded that, "Britain's world dominance of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had vanished; the Royal Navy, although more powerful than ever, no longer ruled the waves. It is hoped, at all events, that this extremely disagreeable business will secure the end proposed by so much humiliation-namely, that we may be suffered to conclude the job of crushing out the rebellion without further foreign interference. The Russian Minister in Washington, At the beginning of the Civil War, the U. Nor can any just judge declare that the reason is to be found in any tariff system that we may have adopted.
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