Lincoln in the World

by Kevin Peraino

  21. Simpson, Rise of Louis Napoleon, pp. 101, 104–5, 107–19; Ridley, Napoleon III, pp. 101–4; Jerrold, v. 1, pp. 332 (visit a cousin), 349 (cocked hat etc.), 354 (“Long Live Napoleon!”).

  22. Louis Napoleon to M. Vieillard, Apr. 30, 1837, in Jerrold, v. 2, pp. 6, 8–9; Ridley, Napoleon III, pp. 109–11 (three hundred thousand).

  23. The Disraeli recollection is in Monypenny, Life of Benjamin Disraeli, v. 2, pp. 93–94. On Louis Napoleon in Britain, see also Ridley, Napoleon III, pp. 114, 119–120; Planché, Recollections and Reflections, v. 2, pp. 45–46; Courier, Feb. 4, 1839, in Jerrold, v. 2, p. 86; Bierman, Napoleon III, p. 34 (Savile Row).

  24. For the Boulogne coup, see Jerrold, v. 2, pp. 123–31; Ridley, Napoleon III, pp. 128–32; Guérard, Reflections on the Napoleonic Legend, p. 148; Whitridge, Men in Crisis, p. 88; Gabriel, locs. 4428–40 (bacon).

  25. Hanna and Hanna, p. 5 (Joan of Arc); Louis Napoleon to Hortense Cornu, Feb. 14, 1845, in Jerrold, v. 2, pp. 305, 446 (“death in life”); Simpson, Rise of Louis Napoleon, p. 207; “Vergeot (Éléonore),” in Dictionnaire du Second Empire, pp. 1304–5; Smith, Bonapartes, p. 116; Ridley, Napoleon III, p. 176.

  26. For the escape from Ham, see Jerrold, v. 2, pp. 343–54; Simpson, Rise of Louis Napoleon, pp. 246–54; Ridley, Napoleon III, pp. 186–92; Bierman, Napoleon III, pp. 49–50.

  27. Jerrold, v. 2, pp. 388, 397–99; Bierman, Napoleon III, pp. 60 (“Him!”), 67 (bathwater).

  28. Ridley, Napoleon III, p. 203; Rosebault, When Dana Was the Sun, p. 44.

  29. Ridley, Napoleon III, pp. 283, 312; Marx, “Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,” in Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader, p. 607; Bierman, Napoleon III, p. 86 (chicken and champagne); Gabriel, locs. 4428–40; Clay to J. R. Johnston, Jan. 11, 1853, copy and transcription in William H. Townsend Papers, University of Kentucky.

  30. Kissinger, Diplomacy, pp. 106–7; Ridley, Napoleon III, p. 348.

  31. The anecdote about the chamberlain’s instructions is in the journals of Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, entry for Mar. 15, 1862 (Baldick, ed., Pages from the Goncourt Journal, p. 70). See also Bierman, Napoleon III, pp. 75, 129, 169, 241; Barker, Distaff Diplomacy, pp. 28–29; Ridley, Napoleon III, pp. 402–3; Tyrner-Tyrnauer, Lincoln and the Emperors, p. 55 (“what rascals”).

  32. Bierman, Napoleon III, p. 136 (fifteen thousand candles); Corti, v. 1, pp. 37 (blue eyes etc.), 39 (marriage date), 48–52 (description of court, etc.); Disraeli to Mrs. Brydges Willyams, May 1, 1855, in Buckle, Life of Disraeli, v. 4, pp. 4–5; Russell to Cowley, Jan. 21, 1853, Cowley Papers, BNA (“intrigante”). See also Barker, Distaff Diplomacy, pp. 3, 5; and Ridley, Napoleon III, p. 331 (stock exchange).

  33. Ridley, Napoleon III, pp. 147 (talkative), 161 (“short tempered and bossy”), 166 (dagger), 411 (bullfights); Tyrner-Tyrnauer, Lincoln and the Emperors, p. 60 (“war on America”).

  34. For Hidalgo’s account of the scheme’s origins, see Hidalgo to Maximilian and Charlotte, Apr. 15, 1865, “Secret Notes,” AKM, photostatic copies in LOC. Nancy Barker Nichols points out that Hidalgo’s account must be used with care, since he “always exaggerated his own role.” She notes, however, that although Maximilian had already been “sounded through regular diplomatic channels” earlier that summer, the project indeed took on new urgency that autumn with Eugénie playing “the key role in reopening the negotiation with the Archduke.” See Barker, Distaff Diplomacy, pp. 89–92. See also Corti, v. 1, pp. 33, 37. I have generally followed Catherine A. Phillips’s translations of the documents from the AKM in Count Corti’s book, but have occasionally altered a word here and there to more accurately reflect the text of the original documents.

  35. Hidalgo to Maximilian and Charlotte, Apr. 15, 1865, “Secret Notes,” AKM, photostatic copies in LOC. See also Corti, v. 1, pp. 78–79, 94, 98–99.

  36. Hidalgo to Maximilian and Charlotte, Apr. 15, 1865, “Secret Notes,” AKM, photostatic copies in LOC. See also Corti, v. 1, p. 101; Barker, Distaff Diplomacy, p. 12 (superstitions).

  37. Napoleon to Comte de Flahault, Oct. 1861, in Corti, v. 1, p. 361–62; Hanna and Hanna, p. 28 (raiding convoys).

  38. Hanna and Hanna, pp. 96–97, 126 (“29 and jobless” etc.); Corti, v. 2, p. 438 (Featherhead); Charlotte to Eugénie, Jan. 22, 1862, in Corti, v. 1, p. 322 (“holy one” etc.).

  39. Hanna and Hanna, p. 40 (troops arrive); Kennedy, Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, p. 169; Bell, v. 2, p. 195 (celebratory gunfire).

  40. Crook, Diplomacy, p. 7 (critical counterweight); Napoleon III to Forey, July 3, 1862, quoted in Perkins, History of the Monroe Doctrine, p. 117.

  41. Marx, “An International Affaire Miré’s,” Die Presse, May 2, 1862, in MAC, p. 193 (“overseas adventures”); Cowley to Russell, Dec. 7, 1862, Cowley Papers, BNA (“mistresses”); Jones, Blue and Gray Diplomacy, p. 72; Palmerston to Somerset, Dec. 29, 1860, Palmerston Papers, British Library.

  42. Marx, “The Intervention in Mexico (II),” New York Daily Tribune, Nov. 23, 1861, in MAC, pp. 102, 107.

  43. Seward to Dayton, Mar. 31, 1862, no. 135, Diplomatic Instructions (France), NARA; French dispatch, n.d., reprinted in the New York Times, Nov. 18, 1861; Seward dispatch quoted in Perkins, History of the Monroe Doctrine, p. 126. The quote about the “language of the Monroe Doctrine” is Perkins’s.

  44. Romero’s note on the Monroe Doctrine is in Perkins, History of the Monroe Doctrine, p. 127; Romero dispatch, Aug. 31, 1861, in Schoonover, ed., Mexican Lobby, pp. 7–9; Seward to Corwin, no. 2, Apr. 6, 1861, FRUS 1861, p. 65.

  45. Marx, “The Intervention in Mexico (II),” New York Daily Tribune, Nov. 23, 1861, in MAC, p. 107; New York Times, Nov. 17, 1861.

  46. Seward to Dayton, Mar. 31, 1862, no. 135, Diplomatic Instructions (France), NARA; Lincoln to the Senate, Dec. 17, 1861, in CWL, v. 5, pp. 73–74; Lincoln to the Senate, Jan. 24, 1862, CWL, v. 5, p. 109; Findley, A. Lincoln, p. 247 (loan to Mexico); Jones, Union in Peril, p. 76 (“foreclosing”); Corwin to Robert W. Shufeldt, June 27, 1862, Shufeldt Papers, LOC; Thomas Corwin to A. C. Allen, May 18, 1862, ALP, LOC; Hanna and Hanna, pp. 53–54; Matías Romero dispatch, July 3, 1862, in Schoonover, Mexican Lobby, p. 26; Crook, Diplomacy, p. 159; Mahin, pp. 110–21. Dean Mahin suggests that “[t]here are several reasons for doubting that Lincoln and Seward” genuinely “hoped for the implementation” of the loan treaty (Mahin, p. 113).

  47. Monaghan, p. 222; Haslip, Crown of Mexico, pp. 179–80 (baroque churches etc.).

  48. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 683 (thirty-five thousand); [Hay,] Missouri Republican, July 18, 1862, in Burlingame, ed., Lincoln’s Journalist, pp. 278–81.

  49. Hanna and Hanna, p. 9 (“great unfathomed”); Mathilde quoted in Hector Fleischmann, Napoleon III and the Women He Loved (London: Holden and Hardingham), pp. 12–13; Kissinger, Diplomacy, p. 108 (“like rabbits”); [Hay,] Missouri Republican, Nov. 8, 1861, in Burlingame, ed., Lincoln’s Journalist, p. 132 (“plots and schemes”).

  50. Lincoln, “Speech at Cooper Union,” Feb. 27, 1860, CWL, v. 3, p. 541.

  51. Bigelow to Seward, Aug. 22, 1862, Despatches from U.S. Consuls (Paris), NARA (“carrion crow”).

  52. Lamon Papers, Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif., Drafts and Anecdotes, folder 6, in RW, p. 288 (Richelieu); Spencer, “The Jewett-Greeley Affair,” pp. 239 (stop the bleeding), 258 (“most friendly feelings”). See also Jones, Blue and Gray Diplomacy, pp. 288–89; Jones, Lincoln, p. 160; ALAL, v. 2, p. 479.

  53. Thomas, Lincoln, p. 377; Russell, My Diary North and South, pp. 399–400, entry for July 10, 1861 (Vallandigham description); Donald, Lincoln, p. 420 (“King Lincoln”).

  54. Vallandigham, “The Great Civil War in America (Speech in the House of Representatives, Jan. 14, 1863),” in Freidel, Union Pamphlets of the Civil War, v. 2, pp. 713 (“union is empire”), 734 (“accept it”). See also Jones, Blue and Gray Diplomacy, p. 288 (“accept it at once”); Jones, Lincoln, p. 159; McPherson, Tried by War, p. 171.

  55. Boston Daily Journal, Feb. 14, 1863 (“careworn and dejected”); Henry Sanford
to Seward, Jan. 20, 1863, Seward Papers, University of Rochester (Latin rivalry); New York Times, Feb. 20, 1863, cited in Crook, Diplomacy During the American Civil War, pp. 160–61 (“larger Texas”); Dayton to Seward, Jan. 15, 1863, no. 255, Despatches from U.S. Ministers (France), NARA; Hamilton to Lincoln, Feb. 16, 1863, ALP, LOC. See also ALAL-DC, v. 2, ch. 30, pp. 3287–88; Hanna and Hanna, p. 81; Jones, Blue and Gray Diplomacy, p. 294; and Spencer, “Jewett-Greeley Affair,” p. 245.

  56. Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History, v. 6, p. 359 (Kock letter); Foner, “Lincoln and Colonization,” in Foner, ed., Our Lincoln, pp. 160, 163–64; ALAL, v. 2, pp. 395–96; Magness and Page, Colonization After Emancipation, pp. 8, 10, 37, 55, 118, 125, 126.

  57. Seward quoted in Harrison, Before the Socialists, pp. 42–43 (“Our armies”); Brooks, Washington in Lincoln’s Time (New York, 1895), pp. 57–58; Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams Jr., June 25, 1863, in Ford, ed., Cycle of Adams Letters, v. 2, pp. 40–41; Romero dispatch, May 16, 1862, in Schoonover, ed., Mexican Lobby, p. 25. On Chancellorsville and its aftermath see also McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, pp. 638–45, 651; and McPherson, Tried by War, p. 177.

  58. Corti, v. 1, pp. 211 (entry date), 212 (emperor wept), 220 (posters); Hanna and Hanna, p. 87 (Te Deum); Haslip, Crown of Mexico, pp. 185–86 (flowers).

  59. Gurowski, Diary, v. 2, pp. 241–42; Burt, “Lincoln on His Own StoryTelling,” Century, v. 73, Feb. 1907, pp. 500–501; Keckley, Behind the Scenes, pp. 118–20; Helm, Mary, Wife of Lincoln, p. 226. See also Monaghan, p. 311; Shenk, Lincoln’s Melancholy, p. 193; Donald, Lincoln, p. 446; Baker, p. 227.

  60. New York Tribune, Sept. 26, 1861 (French lessons); Baker, pp. 192–93, 196, 200; Carroll, “Abraham Lincoln and the Minister of France,” p. 147; Keckley, Behind the Scenes, p. 101 (“long tail”).

  61. Hay to John G. Nicolay, Sept. 11, 1863, in Burlingame, ed., At Lincoln’s Side, pp. 53–54. See also Boritt, Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream, p. 267. Boritt uses this quote in his chapter 18, titled “The Backwoods Jupiter,” to introduce an insightful discussion of Lincoln’s military strategy. See also Jones, Abraham Lincoln, pp. 15, 191.

  62. Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, v. 5, pp. 155–56; McPherson, Tried by War, p. 3.

  63. Hay, Diary, p. 80, entry for Sept. 9, 1863 (Hooker description); Smith, “The Destruction of Fighting Joe Hooker,” American Heritage, v. 44, issue 6, Oct. 1993 (“Handsome Captain”); Brooks, Washington in Lincoln’s Time (New York, 1895), pp. 59–60; Welles, Diary, v. 1, p. 229, entry for Jan. 24, 1863 (I have removed a dash from the Welles quote for readability); Lincoln to Hooker, Jan. 26, 1863, CWL, v. 6, p. 79 (“beware of rashness”). See also Monaghan, p. 285; Burlingame, Inner Life, p. 81; RW, p. 472.

  64. Lincoln to Hooker, June 10, 1863, CWL, v. 6, p. 257; Lincoln to Halleck, Sept. 19, 1863, CWL, v. 6, p. 467. The Hooker quotation is from a footnote in CWL, v. 6, p. 257. See also Boritt’s analysis of this missive in Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream, p. 270. See also McPherson, Tried by War, p. 200.

  65. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 664 (deflated the Copperheads); Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams Jr., July 23, 1863, in Ford, ed., Cycle of Adams Letters, v. 2, p. 58. See also Foreman, World on Fire, p. 495.

  66. Welles, Diary, v. 1, p. 385, entry for July 27, 1863. Welles’s original manuscript diary actually reads, “But I do expect an improvement” in the condition of Mexicans under French tutelage [my italics]; he later replaced the “do” with a “don’t.” Yet it seems likely from the context of this passage that this was an oversight—not a change of perspective—on Welles’s part, since he also describes the French scheme as a “calamity.” The possibility exists, however, that Welles believed Mexicans themselves might benefit from French rule even as the project threatened American interests.

  67. Hay, Diary, p. 70, entry for Aug. 6, 1863; Hay to John G. Nicolay, Aug. 7, 1863, in Burlingame, ed., At Lincoln’s Side, pp. 48–50; Hay to John G. Nicolay, Sept. 11, 1863, in ibid., p. 54; Hay to Charles G. Halpine, Aug. 14, 1863, in ibid., p. 50. See also Monaghan, p. 321.

  68. Maximilian to Napoleon III, Aug. 10, 1863, in Corti, v. 1, pp. 227–28.

  69. Francis P. Blair Sr. to Lincoln, Aug. 1, 1863, ALP, LOC; Lincoln to Stanton, July 29, 1863, CWL, v. 6, pp. 354–55; Lincoln to Banks, Aug. 5, 1863, CWL, v. 6, p. 364; Lincoln to Grant, Aug. 9, 1863, CWL, v. 6, p. 374.

  70. Lincoln to Mary, Aug. 8, 1863, CWL, v. 6, p. 372.

  71. Goodwin, p. 545; Dennett, John Hay, p. 39. See also Burlingame, “Surrogate Father Abraham,” in Inner World, pp. 73–91.

  72. Hay, Diary, pp. 70–71, entry for Aug. 9, 1863.

  73. Nichols, Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 317; Mahin, p. 233–34.

  74. Hay, Diary, pp. 78–80, entry for Sept. 9, 1863.

  75. Hay, Diary, pp. 81–82, entry for Sept. 10, 1863; O’Toole, Five of Hearts, 61 (wine cellar). See also Hay, Diary, p. 314n.

  76. Hay, Diary, pp. 81–84, entry for Sept. 10, 1863; Hay, Diary, p. 87, entry for Sept. 27, 1863.

  77. Seward to Bigelow, Sept. 9, 1863, in Bancroft, v. 2, pp. 426–27; Mercier to Drouyn de Lhuys, Sept. 14, 1863, quoted in Carroll, “Abraham Lincoln and the Minister of France,” p. 150. See also Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History, v. 7, pp. 403–4 (“strict neutrality”).

  78. Stephen A. Hurlbut to Lincoln, Aug. 18, 1863, ALP, LOC; Francis P. Blair Jr. to Montgomery Blair, Sept. 24, 1863, ALP, LOC; Seward to Dayton, Sept. 26, 1863, “Confidential,” no. 406, Diplomatic Instructions (France), NARA. See also Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History, v. 7, pp. 402–3.

  79. Plumb to Romero, Dec. 2, 1863, “Confidential,” Plumb Papers, LOC. On Plumb’s relationship with Romero see also Schoonover, ed., Mexican Lobby, pp. xiv, 13, and 16.

  80. Napoleon III to Maximilian, Sept. 19, 1863; Napoleon III to Maximilian, Oct. 2, 1863, in Corti, v. 1, pp. 256 and 260.

  81. Lincoln to Banks, Sept. 19, 1863, CWL, v. 6, p. 465; McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 683; Foote, Civil War: Fredericksburg to Meridian, pp. 774–75; Hanna and Hanna, p. 162 (seven thousand); Banks to Lincoln, Feb. 12, 1864, ALP, LOC.

  82. Crook, The North, the South, and the Powers, pp. 317–18 (for its own protection); Hanna and Hanna, p. 8 (Tocqueville); Ridley, Napoleon III, p. 356 (shared that view).

  83. Harper’s Weekly, Oct. 17, 1863, and Nov. 21, 1863; New York Herald, Sept. 17, 1863; Clay to Seward, Jan. 25, 1864, FRUS 1864, v. 3, p. 283. See also Monaghan, p. 331; and Clinton, Mrs. Lincoln, p. 205.

  84. New York Herald, Nov. 12, 1863, quoted in Crook, Diplomacy, p. 145; Welles, Diary, v. 1, p. 443, entry for Sept. 25, 1863; Hay, Diary, pp. 124, 126–27, entries for Dec. 9, Dec. 10, and Dec. 12, 1863.

  85. Wyke to Herzfeld, Nov. 27, 1863, carton 5, AKM, photostat in LOC; Herzfeld to Depont, Dec. 12, 1863, in Corti, v. 1, p. 287; Crook, The North, the South and the Powers, p. 353 (Mexicanization).

  86. Corti, v. 1, p. 289 (“no possible object”); Hay, Diary, p. 116, entry for Nov. 22, 1863 (“Lord knows who”).

  87. Green, Washington, v. 1, p. 268; Scovel to Lincoln, Dec. 18, 1863, ALP, LOC.

  88. Lincoln, “Annual Message to Congress,” Dec. 8, 1863, CWL, v. 7, pp. 36–49; Welles, Diary, v. 1, p. 445.

  89. Welles, Diary, v. 1, pp. 494–95, entry for Dec. 25, 1863.

  90. Gurowski, Diary: 1863–’64–’65, entry for Jan. 20, 1864, p. 81; Monaghan, p. 349.

  91. McDougall resolution quoted in Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History, v. 7, p. 407.

  92. Pease and Randall, eds., Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, v. 1, p. 493, entry for Aug. 5, 1861 (“quite drunk”); Buchanan, “James A. McDougall,” pp. 203, 208–9. McDougall’s speech to the Senate is in CG, 37th Cong., 3rd Sess., Appendix, pp. 94–100.

  93. Buchanan, “James A. McDougall,” p. 210 (“drunken clown”); Seward to Dayton, Jan. 12, 1864, “Confidential,” no. 456, Diplomatic Instructions (France), NARA. See also Bancroft, v. 2, pp. 428–29.

  94. Pike to William Pitt Fessenden, Sep
t. 3, 1863, Pike Papers, LOC; Plumb to Sumner, Jan. 26, 1864, Plumb Papers, LOC.

  95. Donald, Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man, p. 102 (Sumner quote); Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History, v. 7, p. 407 (Sumner kills); Romero dispatch, Mar. 23, 1864, in Schoonover, ed., Mexican Lobby, pp. 38–39.

  96. Brooks, “Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, v. 31, issue 182 (July 1865), pp. 226–27.

  97. Foner, “Lincoln and Colonization,” in Foner, Our Lincoln, p. 164; ALAL, v. 2, pp. 395–96. Magness and Page, in Colonization After Emancipation, argue that colonization’s “demise was largely born of the budgetary fight raging around the Emigration Office”—not simply the Haiti debacle. See p. 93.

  98. Philadelphia Sunday Dispatch, May 1, 1864.

  99. Leopold I to Maximilian, Feb. 4, 1864, in Corti, v. 1, pp. 316–17.

  100. Tyrner-Tyrnauer, Lincoln and the Emperors, p. 110 (“Archdupe”); Napoleon III to Maximilian, Mar. 28, 1864, in Corti, v. 1, p. 340; Haslip, Crown of Mexico, pp. 231–32 (departure color); Bierman, Napoleon III, p. 239 (Austrian vessel). See also Corti, v. 1, pp. 351, 358, 359 (quote); and Hanna and Hanna, p. 129 (Novara).

  101. Foote, Civil War: Red River to Appomattox, pp. 33 (river color), 39 (red slime), 40 (“Napoleon P. Banks”), 45 (quote). See also Foreman, World on Fire, p. 366 (red clay); ALAL, v. 2, p. 741; McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 722; McPherson, Tried by War, pp. 209–10.

  102. Welles, Diary, v. 2, pp. 25–27, entry for May 9, 1864. See also ALAL, v. 2, p. 647.

  103. Davis’s resolution is in CG, 38th Cong., 1st Sess., Apr. 4, 1864, pp. 1408–9. See also Seward to Bigelow, “Private and Unofficial,” no. 141, copy in Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State (Paris), v. 457, NARA; Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History, v. 7, pp. 407–8 (Davis committee chair and Sumner kills); Henig, Henry Winter Davis, pp. 203–4; ALAL, v. 2, p. 741; and Monaghan, p. 359. New York Herald quoted in Milton Lyman Henry, Jr., “Henry Winter Davis,” p. 7, Hyman Papers.