Lincoln in the World

by Kevin Peraino

  CHAPTER THREE: LINCOLN VS. PALMERSTON

  1. Pease and Randall, eds., Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, v. 1, pp. 488–89 (entry for July 28, 1861); McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 347 (casualties); Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 467, entry for July 22, 1861 (weather); Robert L. Wilson to Herndon, Feb. 10, 1866, in HI, p. 207 (“damned bad”).

  2. Oates, With Malice Toward None, loc. 4959; Foote, Civil War, v. 1, locs. 1544–56; and ALAL-DC, v. 2, ch. 23, p. 2538 (“green alike”).

  3. Schurz to Lincoln, Aug. 6, 1861, and Aug. 13, 1861. Both letters in ALP, LOC.

  4. Foote, Civil War, v. 1, loc. 2402 (“Anaconda”).

  5. Pease and Randall, eds., Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, v. 1, pp. 488–89 (entry for July 28, 1861); McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 313 (naval stats). McPherson notes that fewer than a dozen of these were actually available for the blockade. See also McPherson, Tried by War, p. 41 (sleepless night).

  6. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 370 (Hatteras); Butler, Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences, p. 288 (night shirt); John Appleton to Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sept. 22, 1861, Clay Papers, Lincoln Memorial University (“pretty well over”). See also ALAL, v. 2, p. 212.

  7. Donald, Lincoln, p. 346; Boritt, Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream, p. 199 (pretending ignorance); Lincoln to Gideon Welles, May 14, 1861, CWL, v. 4, p. 370 (“little about ships”); Lincoln, “Application for Patent on an Improved Method of Lifting Vessels over Shoals,” Mar. 10, 1849, in ibid., v. 2, p. 32 (patent); Seward, Seward at Washington, 1846–1861, p. 623 (approaching Seward); French, Witness to the Young Republic, p. 412; Samuel C. Bushnell to Gideon Welles, 1877, in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, v. 1, p. 748 (“something in it”).

  8. Lincoln to Gideon Welles, [c. Dec. 1861?,] CWL, v. 5, p. 33 (frustrated); Burlingame, ed., Dispatches from Lincoln’s White House, p. 32, cited in ALAL, v. 2, p. 200 (“pale and careworn”); Ferris, The Trent Affair, p. 18 (Wilkes’s age, mission, etc.); Henderson, Hidden Coasts, p. 230 (Wilkes’s background, Welles quote, type of ship); Nevins, War for the Union, v. 1, p. 388 (“a superabundance”); Warren, pp. 11–12 (Fijian village and “not as obedient”); Welles, Diary, v. 1, p. 73, entry for Aug. 10, 1862.

  9. The following account of the capture of Mason and Slidell draws heavily on Ferris, The Trent Affair, pp. 18–28.

  10. Jenkins, v. 1, p. 197 (“one of the most important”); New York Times, Dec. 11, 1861 (“embodiment of dispatches”).

  11. Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 575, entry for Nov. 18, 1861 (“storm of exultation”); New York Times, Nov. 17, 1861 (“rings with applause”); Ridley, Palmerston, p. 553 (theater audiences); Barnum to Wilkes, Dec. 11, 1861, Wilkes Papers, LOC, cited in Jenkins, pp. 197–98 (Barnum); Boston Daily Evening Transcript, Nov. 18, 1861, quoted in Ferris, The Trent Affair, p. 32 (“heavy blow”); Van Deusen, p. 309 (“brave, adroit”); Warren, p. 27 (blisters). See also Bancroft, v. 2, pp. 227–28; and ALAL, v. 2, p. 222.

  12. New York Herald, Nov. 18, 1861; Welles, Lincoln and Seward, p. 185; Richmond Inquirer, copied in New York Times, Nov. 26, 1861; Rice, ed., Reminiscences, p. 245 (“prize court”); Lossing, Pictorial History of the Civil War, v. 2, pp. 156–57 (“white elephants”); Gurowski, Diary, Mar. 4, 1861–Nov. 12, 1862, p. 135 (“giving the traitors up”). See also ALAL, v. 2, pp. 222–23; and Ferris, The Trent Affair, pp. 128–29, 231–32n.

  13. For the account of the Trent Affair in this chapter I have drawn on two fine monographs: Ferris, The Trent Affair (Knoxville, 1977); and Warren, Fountain of Discontent (Boston, 1981). I also learned much from Jones, Union in Peril (Lincoln and London, 1992); and Jones, Blue and Gray Diplomacy (Chapel Hill, 2010). Michael Burlingame, in ALAL, v. 2, pp. 221–29, also offers a comprehensive account of Lincoln’s role in the crisis. For the quotations and information in the preceding paragraph, see also Charles Mackay to Seward, Nov. 29, 1861, in War of the Rebellion, ser. 2, v. 2, pp. 1106–8; Rumbold, Recollections of a Diplomatist, v. 2, p. 83; Crook, Diplomacy During the American Civil War, p. 47 (channel fleet); Palmerston to George Lewis, Nov. 27, 1861, quoted in Ferris, The Trent Affair, p. 44 (“Relations with Seward & Lincoln”); Jenkins, v. 1, pp. 213–14 (gunpowder etc.), 215 (10,500 troops); Palmerston to Queen Victoria, Dec. 5, 1861, in Connell, Regina vs. Palmerston, p. 347.

  14. Abner Y. Ellis statement to Herndon, Jan. 1866, in HI, p. 174; Ida M. Tarbell interview with Byron Sunderland, Tarbell Papers, Allegheny College, in RW, p. 436.

  15. Tocqueville quoted in McDougall, Promised Land, Crusader State, p. 55; Foreman, World on Fire, pp. xxiv, 27–28 ($444 million and Tocqueville); Sexton, Debtor Diplomacy, p. 12 (largest creditor and “true lords of Europe”); Zakaria, From Wealth to Power, p. 61 (debt not oppressive).

  16. Riddle, Congressman Lincoln, p. 95, and Paludan, p. 110 (“national blessing”); Howe, What Hath God Wrought, p. 596 (out the window); Boritt, Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream, p. 58 (“national debt”); Joshua F. Speed interview with Herndon, Jan. 5, 1889, in HI, p. 719 (prostitute).

  17. Sexton, Debtor Diplomacy, p. 7.

  18. Herndon, “Analysis of the Character of Abraham Lincoln,” pp. 371–72 (ridiculed Herndon); RW, p. 241 (“snaky tongue”); Guelzo, Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President, p. 174 (“fuel of interest”).

  19. Lincoln, “Address Before the Young Men’s Lyceum,” CWL, v. 1, pp. 114–15 (“reason, cold, calculating”); Guelzo, Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President, pp. 6, 91, 106, 117–19 (Bentham, Mill and Lincoln’s fatalism), 370; John T. Stuart interview with Herndon, Dec. 20, 1866, in HI, p. 519 (Euclid); Herndon statement, undated, in RW, p. 243 (“reason of wise men”); HL, pp. 193–94, 357 (Euclid and “he was always just”).

  20. Bell, v. 1, p. 7, and Bourne, Palmerston: The Early Years, p. 27 (Adam Smith); Bourne, Palmerston: The Early Years, p. 453 (Euclid); Palmerston to Lord John Russell, Apr. 25, 1862, Russell Papers, BNA. See also Jenkins, v. 1, pp. 83–84.

  21. Bell, v. 2, p. 275, and v. 1, p. 148; Bourne, Palmerston, p. 380 (ties to constitutional governments); Ridley, Palmerston, pp. 145, 334 (“chivalrous enterprises,” “Quixote,” and “shibboleth”); Bourne, Palmerston, p. 627 (“conflicting interests” and “no eternal allies”).

  22. Bell, v. 2, p. 275 (“bloody nose”); Palmerston to Lord John Russell, Apr. 25, 1862, Russell Papers, BNA (“Passion than Interest”); Palmerston to Somerset, Dec. 29, 1860, Palmerston Papers, British Library (“Disunited”); Crook, Diplomacy During the American Civil War, p. 189 (“emotional crisis”).

  23. Bell, v. 1, p. vii, and Ferris, Desperate Diplomacy, p. 15 (born before Constitution); Ridley, Palmerston, pp. 6–7 (trip to Paris); Bourne, Palmerston, pp. 13, 20 (“charming” and “zest”); Bell, v. 1, p. 5 (“frame of iron”); Bourne, Palmerston, pp. 3, 5, 28–29 (sickly, blisters, etc.). The quote is on pp. 28–29.

  24. Bourne, Palmerston, pp. 80 (“very pedantic” and “so priggish”), 82, 44 (stammering and cold), 156–60 (assassination attempt); Bell, v. 1, p. 21 (“pepper the faces”).

  25. Bell, v. 1, pp. 96–97, and Ridley, Palmerston, pp. 2, 277 (“Lord Cupid”); Bourne, Palmerston, p. 191, and Ridley, Palmerston, pp. 41–42 (Almack’s); Ridley, Palmerston, p. 118, and Bourne, Palmerston, p. 213 (“Ha, ha”); Bourne, Palmerston, pp. 201–2, 211 (illegitimate children), 255 (“subscriptions”) and 212–14 (sex euphemisms).

  26. Ridley, Palmerston, p. 105 (in 1830); Bell, v. 1, p. 191 (drowning etc.); Bourne, Palmerston, pp. 221 (“windmill”) and 116 (“night and chaos”).

  27. Bell, v. 1, pp. 73, 105–6, and Ridley, Palmerston, p. 189 (conservatism, form of government); Ridley, Palmerston, p. 166 (“motives of generous sympathy”); Bourne, Palmerston, p. 314 (“reign of Metternich”). On Palmerston’s Quadruple Alliance, see also Ridley, Palmerston, pp. 171–72, and Bourne, Palmerston, pp. 380–87.

  28. Ridley, Palmerston, p. 109, and Bourne, Palmerston, p. 422 (smoking and “paleness”); Bell, v. 1, p. 261, and Bourne, Palmerston, p. 424 (“Sugar Canes”); Bourne, P
almerston, p. 422 (“Penknives”); Bell, v. 1, p. 262 (church), and v. 1, p. 201 (windows).

  29. Bourne, Palmerston, p. 185 (“tall, dark”); Bell, v. 1, p. 227, and Bourne, Palmerston, pp. 435–37 (tutoring, carriage rides, quote); Ridley, Palmerston, pp. 228 (Pam’s marriage), 392 (Victoria’s marriage), and 392–93 (grew apart); Bourne, Palmerston, p. 191 (thirty-year affair); Victoria quoted in Warren, p. 101 (old man).

  30. Bell, v. 1, pp. 99, 259; Ridley, Palmerston, pp. 116 (Belgian envoy), 117 (“miss the soup” and “old Turk”).

  31. Ridley, Palmerston, p. 394 (“worthless private character”).

  32. Bell, v. 2, pp. 29 (Immoral One) and 75–76; Ridley, Palmerston, pp. 519 (Immoral One), 556 (“Christian nations”), and 583 (“Oh, surely”).

  33. Donald Southgate takes this nickname as the title of his Palmerston biography. See Southgate, Most English Minister (New York, 1966). See also Bourne, Palmerston, p. 349 (“wish to be”); Ridley, Palmerston, p. 387 (“watchful eye”); Crook, The North, the South, and the Powers, p. 12 (“three deckers”); Bell, v. 2, p. 45 (“Jupiter Anglicanus”).

  34. Bell, v. 2, p. 117 (Disraeli); Ridley, Palmerston, p. 120 (Talleyrand).

  35. Sexton, Debtor Diplomacy, p. 30, and Ridley, Palmerston, p. 273 (“bunting”); Jones, Blue and Gray Diplomacy, p. 34 (“essentially and inherently”); London Press, Mar. 23, 1861, quoted in Adams, Great Britain and the American Civil War, v. 1, pp. 54–55 (“horse race”); Palmerston to Victoria, Jan. 1, 1861, in Letters of Queen Victoria, v. 3, pp. 538–39; Ridley, Palmerston, p. 548; Jones, Abraham Lincoln, p. 43.

  36. Porter, ed., Oxford History of the British Empire, v. 3, pp. vii, ix (imperial century and dominance after Napoleonic Wars); “British Empire,” New Encyclopaedia Britannica (Micropaedia), v. 2, pp. 528–30 (territories included); Warren, p. 135 (856 ships); Ferguson, Empire, pp. 165–66 (fresco, largest in world, quote).

  37. Porter, ed., Oxford History of the British Empire, p. 13 (Great Game); Palmerston to Somerset, May 26, 1861, Palmerston Papers, British Library (“morsel”); LaFeber, New Empire, p. 28 (“excellent states”); Bancroft, v. 2, p. 330 (“we want cotton”); Nevins, War for the Union, v. 2, pp. 251–52; Palmerston to Newcastle, May 24, 1861, Palmerston Papers, British Library. See also Jenkins, v. 1, pp. 85 (PM in control), 98–99, and 163–64; and Ferris, Desperate Diplomacy, pp. 17 (“irregular army” and “useful hint”), 27 (“strong in Canada” and little over a week), and 94–95.

  38. Clay to Lincoln, July 25, 1861; and Clay to Seward, May 22, 1861. Both letters in ALP, LOC.

  39. Palmerston to Russell, Oct. 18, 1861, Russell Papers, BNA.

  40. Palmerston to Newcastle, Nov. 12, 1861, Palmerston Papers, British Library.

  41. This account of the Nov. 12 Palmerston-Adams meeting is drawn from Charles Francis Adams to Seward, Nov. 15, 1861, “Confidential,” Despatches from U.S. Ministers (Great Britain), NARA; Ferris, The Trent Affair, pp. 14–17; Jenkins, v. 1, pp. 209–10; Mahin, p. 65; and Foreman, World on Fire, pp. 168–69.

  42. Jenkins, v. 1, p. 210 (“tart”); Palmerston to Newcastle, Nov. 7, 1861, quoted in ibid., v. 1, pp. 207–8; Lord John Russell to Palmerston, Nov. 12, 1861, quoted in ibid., v. 1, p. 207.

  43. Henry Adams later described Palmerston’s “characteristic” chuckle: “The laugh was singular, mechanical, wooden, and did not seem to disturb his features. ‘Ha! … Ha! … Ha!’ Each was a slow, deliberate ejaculation, and all were in the same tone, as though he meant to say: ‘Yes! … Yes! … Yes!’ by way of assurance. It was a laugh of 1810 and the Congress of Vienna” (Adams, Education of Henry Adams, p. 135).

  44. Charles Francis Adams to Seward, Nov. 15, 1861, “Confidential,” Despatches from U.S. Ministers (Great Britain), NARA; Palmerston to Russell, Nov. 13, 1861, Russell Papers, BNA; Ferris, The Trent Affair, pp. 14–15; Palmerston to Victoria, Nov. 13, 1861, in Connell, Regina vs. Palmerston, p. 345.

  45. Ferris, The Trent Affair, p. 44 (news arrives); Marx article in Die Presse, Dec. 2, 1861 (filed Nov. 28), in MAC, pp. 113–14; Marx to Engels, Dec. 9, 1861, in ibid., p. 253.

  46. London Times, Nov. 28, 1861, quoted in Ferris, The Trent Affair, p. 47 (“outburst of passion”). Ferris argues convincingly that the American press reaction was also basically “placatory” (Ferris, The Trent Affair, p. 35). Cardiff Mercury, Nov. 30, 1861, quoted in Blackett, Divided Hearts, pp. 21–22 (“Yankee bluster”). The brackets are Blackett’s.

  47. Ferris, The Trent Affair, p. 45 (cabinet meeting); Palmerston to Russell, Nov. 29, 1861, Russell Papers, BNA (“deliberately insulted”); Palmerston to Lord Granville, Nov. 29, 1861, Granville Papers, BNA (halt arms exports); Palmerston to Russell, Nov. 29, 1861, Russell Papers, BNA; Palmerston to Queen Victoria, Nov. 29, 1861, in Letters of Queen Victoria, v. 3, pp. 595–96 (“gross outrage” and “reparation and redress”).

  48. Ibid. (Scott rumors); Weed to Seward, Nov. 28, 1861, ALP, LOC; Palmerston to Granville, Dec. 26, 1861, Granville Papers, BNA (“thunderclap”). See also Warren, p. 139; and Ferris, The Trent Affair, pp. 83, 150.

  49. Martin, Life of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort, v. 5, pp. 421–27 (Albert illness and “somewhat meager”); Warren, p. 116 (“scarcely hold”).

  50. Revisions of Prince Albert, quoted in Martin, Life of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort, v. 5, pp. 422–23.

  51. Martin, Life of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort, v. 5, pp. 422–25 (“excellent” and heartening indications); Russell to Lyons, Nov. 30, 1861, quoted in Jones, Blue and Gray Diplomacy, p. 98; Russell to Lyons, Dec. 1, 1861, Russell Papers, BNA (“a rational man”); Palmerston to Russell, Dec. 6, 1861, Russell Papers, BNA (“fighting for it”).

  52. Rogers, ed., Speeches on Questions of Public Policy by the Right Honourable John Bright, pp. 85–99. The quotes are on pp. 97 and 99.

  53. James Lesley Jr. to Frederick Seward, Dec. 4, 1861, Seward Papers, University of Rochester; Jenkins, v. 1, pp. 215–16; Connell, Regina vs. Palmerston, p. 347; May, The Union, the Confederacy, and the Atlantic Rim, p. 8.

  54. Trumbull quoted in McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 362 (“Action, action” and Ball’s Bluff description); Rice, ed., Reminiscences, pp. 172–73; ALAL, v. 2, pp. 199–200.

  55. New York Herald, Nov. 18, 1861; Ferris, The Trent Affair, p. 128; Lincoln to Edward Everett, Nov. 18, 1861, CWL, v. 5, p. 26 (“Slidell!”); Francis B. Carpenter, “A Day with Governor Seward at Auburn,” July 1870, p. 56, Seward Papers, University of Rochester.

  56. Welles, Lincoln and Seward, p. 185 (“doubts” etc.); New York Tribune, Dec. 31, 1861; R. M. Mason to Amos Lawrence, Jan. 14, 1861 [1862], quoted in Randall, Lincoln the President, v. 2, p. 41 (“two wars”). On Lincoln’s reaction, see also Crook, The North, the South, and the Powers, pp. 115–16; Warren, pp. 30, 37–38; and ALAL, v. 2, pp. 222–23.

  57. Welles, “Capture and Release of Mason and Slidell,” p. 647; Stoeckl dispatch no. 68, Nov. 18, 1861, Russian Foreign Ministry Archives, photostatic copies in LOC. See also ALAL, v. 2, pp. 222–23; Ferris, Trent Affair, p. 120; and Donald, “We Are Lincoln Men,” p. 161.

  58. Warren, pp. 35 (soldiers at Willard’s), 37 (Welles’s approval), 28–29 (Everett); New York Times, Nov. 19, 1861.

  59. “From the outset,” notes historian Gordon Warren, “it was clear to Lincoln that if he publicly repudiated the capture, he might damage the war. Conversely, if he bestowed his blessing on it he would destroy any possibility of maneuver if the British government were to demand the prisoners’ release. The United States could not afford to alienate the world’s greatest maritime power, thereby offering the Confederacy an ally. Somehow Lincoln had to extract the country from its predicament without demoralizing public opinion and jeopardizing national honor; yet, he had to avoid insulting Britain. Popular feeling was running so high that the slightest miscalculation could have precipitated an international showdown. Lincoln decided on a policy of delay, leaving the next move up to the British” (Warren, p. 38). See also p. 137 for British preparations to “fight the Amer
ican Revolution and the War of 1812 again.”

  60. Opdyke to Lincoln, Dec. 25, 1861, ALP, LOC.

  61. Gasparin to Lincoln, Dec. 2, 1861. This French-language letter resides in the ALP, LOC. Yet unlike most other Gasparin missives, there is no official English transcription online. I have been assisted in my translation from the French by an English transcription of the letter on Library of Congress stationery in the Barbee Papers at Georgetown University.

  62. Galt memo, Dec. 5, 1861, quoted in Skelton, Life and Times of Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, pp. 315–16; Warren, pp. 170–71.

  63. Crook, The North, the South, and the Powers, pp. 154 (no military buildup), 158 (“pacific”); Cartland, Southern Heroes, pp. 8–9; Warren, p. 171.

  64. Pease and Randall, eds., Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, v. 1, pp. 513–14 (entry for Dec. 10, 1861); Lincoln quoted in Paludan, p. 92; Hay, Missouri Republican, Dec. 18, 1861, in Burlingame, ed., Lincoln’s Journalist, pp. 164–65.

  65. Lincoln, “Annual Message to Congress,” CWL, v. 5, pp. 40–41; Warren, p. 170 (“show the world”); Paludan, p. 92 (tamp down); Baltimore Sun, Dec. 23, 1861, copied in the New York Times, Dec. 26, 1861; Randall, Lincoln the President, v. 2, pp. 44–45.

  66. Dean Mahin, too, notes that Lincoln and Seward tended to keep Congress in the dark regarding foreign policy, with the exception of Sumner. (Mahin, pp. 10–11.) See also Pierce, ed., Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, v. 4, p. 121 (“too many secretaries”); Donald, Lincoln, pp. 321–22; Rice, ed., Reminiscences, p. 223; Edward Everett diary, Aug. 23, 1861, Everett Papers (“watch him”); Donald, Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man, p. 21; Oates, With Malice Toward None, loc. 4763; ALAL, v. 2, p. 162; Holzer, Lincoln President-Elect, p. 417.

  67. Missouri Republican, Dec. 18, 1861, in Burlingame, ed., Lincoln’s Journalist, p. 166.

  68. Seward to his family, Oct. 31, 1861, in Seward, Seward at Washington, 1846–1861, p. 627; Welles, Lincoln and Seward, p. 185.