"King Cotton"
In February of 1861, at the onset of the Civil war, the Confederacy sent a delegation to Europe to open diplomatic relations and to "negotiate treaties of friendship, commerce, and navigation. Such, relations would mean that Europe recognized the Confederacy and "King Cotton". "King Cotton" was a claim that secession was feasible, because control over cotton exports would make an independent Confederacy economically prosperous. The South believed that restricting the exports of cotton would ruin the textile industry of New England and furthermore force Great Britain and maybe even France to support the Confederacy in a war of the Union. Southern cotton accounted for more then two-thirds of all the cotton used in Britain, France and Germany. By time the delegation had been sent to Europe, some cotton-merchants had already began a boycott of shipping their cotton to New England or Europe. Great Britain generally felt that separation of the Confederacy and the Union was inevitable, and the Confederate commissioner's made strong arguments with Great Britain. As a result, on May 13, 1861, Great Britain issued a declaration of neutrality that recognized the Confederate as a belligerent, a status which gave confederate ships the same privileges in foreign ports as the Union. The proclamation of neutrality alarmed the Lincoln administration. They were concerned that recognition of belligerency was the first step towards diplomatic cognition. William H. Seward, Lincoln's secretary of State, sent a letter to Charles Francis Adams, the U.S. Minister to Great Britain protest the British reception of the Confederate envoys and ordered the minister to have no dealings with British until they ended discussions with the Confederacy. In his letter, he stated that any formal recognition of the Confederacy, would make Great Britain an enemy of the United States. Adams was shocked by the letter, as it almost amounted to a threat to wage war against all of Europe. Fortunately, by time the Minister met again with the British leaders on June 12, he was told that Great Britain had no further intention of meeting with the Confederate mission again. The Confederate mission had failed, in large part because European textile manufacturers had stockpiled cotton. Discussions continued throughout the summer until in September when the British government once again denied that it was in any ways taking steps toward extending diplomatic relations to the Confederates. At this point, Secretary Seward let the matter drop."Trent Affair"
Meanwhile, the Union began to implement the Anaconda Plan proposed by General-in-Chief Winfield Scott which emphasized a Union blockade of all ports in seceding states. It was during the early days of this blockade, that Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy dispatched another envoy consisting of James Mason and John Slidell to push once again to secure diplomatic relations with Great Britain and France. Mason was a former chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Slidell was a prominent layer. In October, Mason and Slidell slipped through the U.S. naval blockade and left South Carolina headed for Cuba where they boarded a British vessel the Trent on it's way to England. On November 8, 1861 the Trent was intercepted by U.S. Captain Wilkes without permission from Washington and ordered a search of the ship. Mason, Slidell and their secretaries were taken as prisoners. Captain Charles Wilkes was commanding the Union steam frigate USS San Jacinto when it was cruising off the African coast before setting westward to join a U.S. Navy force preparing to attack Port Royal, South Carolina. On his way, Wilkes ventured off to chase a Confederate raider near the Southern coast of Cuba. There he learned from a newspaper that Mason and Slidell were scheduled to leave Havana on Nomber 7 on the RMS Trent. After reviewing law books with his lieutenant, Wilkes judged that the Confederate ministers would qualify as "contraband" and waited for the RMS Trent to pass through the Bahama Channel. Wilkes ordered that the USS San Jacinto fire a shot after the Trent. Two shots were fired before the Trent allowed Wilkes and his lieutenant to enter. Once aboard, Mason and Slidell voluntarily identified themselves before being taken as prisoners."disloyal citizens"
The reaction to the capture in America was one of celebration. Madison and Slidell were denounced as "cowards" called "the caged ambassadors", while a banquet was given in honor of Wilkes. It was a blow to Confederate diplomacy ,but the British reaction was quite the opposite. The capture of Mason and Slidell was viewed as an outrageous insult to British honor, and a flagrant violation of maritime law. In response, the British ordered troops to the Canadian border with U.S. and sent additional navy vessels to the seas off the America's Atlantic coast. Great Britain did not want war, but the Trent Affair ignited a major diplomatic conflict with the Untied States that could have led to an armed conflict. President Abraham Lincoln knew full well the dire consequences of an armed conflict with Great Britain while at war with the Confederacy. Besides being bogged down on multiple military fronts, it would lead to the recognition of the Confederate States as sovereign nation by the powers in Europe. And that, as Charles Francis reacted to Seward's earlier that Summer could put the United States at war with all of Europe. And with this, President Abraham Lincoln opened his first State of the Union Address with news of what he called "the peculiar exigencies of the times our intercourse with foreign nations". Our relations with Great Britain had reached a point, where it had to be met with the "profound solicitude" (extremely deep concern) because of it's impact on our "domestic affairs". It is important to note that President Lincoln referred to the Civil war as a domestic affair, not a war with another nation. In fact, his State of the Union was not addressed to just the Northern states, but to the entire United States. In these opening paragraphs, he continued by stating that a "a disloyal portion of the American people" had been engaged in an attempt to "divide and destroy the Union". These were Americans, or "disloyal citizens" not members of the Confederacy. Not once did Abraham Lincoln refer to the Confederacy in his address. To do so, would be admitting defeat.Lincoln continued with the words, "endures factious domestic division is exposed to disrespect abroad, and one party, if not both, is sure sooner or later to invoke foreign intervention". I'm not sure if Lincoln was calling the Confederates a political party, but nonetheless he doubled-down on calling the Confederacy's attempt at establishing diplomatic relations with Europe, a "domestic division". These "disloyal citizens", as Lincoln called had offered the ruin of our country for "aid and comfort". Their attempts had failed, and they received less encouragement than they expected. But what if these countries "discarding all moral, social and treaty obligation" acted out of selfish interests. Economy was of great concern to Europe. What if the countries of Europe considered the "acquisition of cotton" of "higher principle" than their moral and treaty obligations? What then? Would Europe had considered it better to give encouragement to the rebellion, than aid to crush it? That would have been a devastating blow to the United States. Yet, Abraham Lincoln remained confident that "sound argument could be made to show them that they can reach their aim more readily and easily by aiding to crush this rebellion than by giving encouragement to it." Lincoln explained that the principal lever these "disloyal citizens" used to excite "foreign nations to hostility against us" was "the embarrassment of commerce", that is the disruption of the Cotton Trade. Fortunately, these foreign nations understood that in the long run, "that one strong nation promises more durable peace and a more extensive, valuable, and reliable commerce than can the same nation broken into hostile fragments."
Here are the full words of Abraham Lincoln's opening paragraphs of this first State of the Union Address:
"In the midst of unprecedented political troubles we have cause of great gratitude to God for unusual good health and most abundant harvests.
You will not be surprised to learn that in the peculiar exigencies of the times our intercourse with foreign nations has been attended with profound solicitude, chiefly turning upon our own domestic affairs.
A disloyal portion of the American people have during the whole year been engaged in an attempt to divide and destroy the Union. A nation which endures factious domestic division is exposed to disrespect abroad, and one party, if not both, is sure sooner or later to invoke foreign intervention.
Nations thus tempted to interfere are not always able to resist the counsels of seeming expediency and ungenerous ambition, although measures adopted under such influences seldom fail to be unfortunate and injurious to those adopting them.
The disloyal citizens of the United States who have offered the ruin of our country in return for the aid and comfort which they have invoked abroad have received less patronage and encouragement than they probably expected. If it were just to suppose, as the insurgents have seemed to assume, that foreign nations in this case, discarding all moral, social, and treaty obligations, would act solely and selfishly for the most speedy restoration of commerce, including especially the acquisition of cotton, those nations appear as yet not to have seen their way to their object more directly or clearly through the destruction than through the preservation of the Union. If we could dare to believe that foreign nations are actuated by no higher principle than this, I am quite sure a sound argument could be made to show them that they can reach their aim more readily and easily by aiding to crush this rebellion than by giving encouragement to it.
The principal lever relied on by the insurgents for exciting foreign nations to hostility against us, as already intimated, is the embarrassment of commerce. Those nations, however, not improbably saw from the first that it was the Union which made as well our foreign as our domestic commerce. They can scarcely have failed to perceive that the effort for disunion produces the existing difficulty, and that one strong nation promises more durable peace and a more extensive, valuable, and reliable commerce than can the same nation broken into hostile fragments.
It is not my purpose to review our discussions with foreign states, because, whatever might be their wishes or dispositions, the integrity of our country and the stability of our Government mainly depend not upon them, but on the loyalty, virtue, patriotism, and intelligence of the American people. The correspondence itself, with the usual reservations, is herewith submitted.
I venture to hope it will appear that we have practiced prudence and liberality toward foreign powers, averting causes of irritation and with firmness maintaining our own rights and honor."
Letter from Millard Filmore
Shortly after, Lincoln's address former President Millard Fillmore sent a letter to Abraham Lincoln warning him that a breach of relations with Britain had to be avoided. Fillmore felt that the Trent Affair was putting our nation at grave risk, and could end with us surrendering our nation in a "dishonorable peace". Here is an except from his letter."I can in some measure appreciate the difficulties with which the administration of the Government is now embarrassed by this unholy rebellion; for I heard the muttering thunder, and viewed the gathering storm at a distance in 1850; and while I approve most cordially of the firm stand which you have taken in support of the constitution, as it is, against insane abolitionism on one side and rebellious secessionism on the other, and hope and trust that you will remain firm; yet, it was not to speak of this that I took up my pen, but of a new danger which threatens more immediately our Northern frontier, but in its consequences, most fatally, the whole country. You of course must anticipate that I refer to a threatened rupture with England;1 for if we are so unfortunate as to be involved in a war with her at this time, the last hope of restoring the Union will vanish, and we shall be overwhelmed with the double calamities of civil and foreign war at the same time, which will utterly exhaust our resources, and may practically change the form of our government and compel us in the end to submit to a dishonorable peace."
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29502
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Cotton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_diplomacy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaconda_Plan
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1861-1865/trent-affairhttps://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2016/12/16/millard-fillmores-letter-to-abraham-lincoln-december-16-1861-the-trent-affair/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trent_Affair
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