The Prince Consort, "The Times," and the "Trent" Affair

THE PRINCE CONSORT, "THE TIMES," AND THE "TRENT" AFFAIR Norman B. Ferris the first and probably the most serious diplomatic crisis of the American Civil War was the "Trent" Affair. On November 8, 1861, Confederate Commissioners James M. Mason and John Slidell were taken forcibly from the British mail packet "Trent" in the Bahama Channel and transferred aboard the United States warship "San Jacinto" commanded by Captain Charles Wilkes. The first news of the seizure reached England on November 27. Within twenty-four hours Englishmen seethed with resentment and indignation.1 Prime Minister Palmerston hurriedly summoned a cabinet council and, meeting on the following afternoon, the ministers heard the opinion ofthe law officers of the crown that Her Majesty's government would "be justified in requiring reparation for the international wrong which has been on this occasion committed."2 A daylaterthe ministers called upon Lord John Russell, the foreign minister , and drew up instructions to Lord Lyons, British minister in Washington , directing "that the Washington Government should be told that what has been done is a violation of international law, and of the rights of Great Britain, and that [Her] Majesty's Government trust that the act will be disavowed and the prisoners set free and restored to British protection ; and that ... if this demand is refused he [Lord Lyons] should retire from the United States."3 The cabinet met a third time on November 30 and approved Russell's draft of a dispatch to Lyons which recited what appeared to be the facts ofthe case and stated: "We could not but suppose that the American government would of itself be desirous to afford us reparation, and said that in any case we must have (1 ) the Mr. Ferris is a native of Richmond, Virginia, and former staff historian with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He L· at present completing his doctoral requirements at Emory University. ? Donaldson Jordan and Edwin J. Pratt, Europe and the American Civil War (Boston, 1931), p. 29. 2 J. P. Baxter, III, ed., "Papers Relating to Belligerent and Neutral Rights, 18611865 ," American Historical Review, XXXIV ( 1928), 87. 3 A. C. Benson and Viscount Esher, eds., The Letters of Queen Victoria: First Series (London, 1907), III, 595-596. 152 commissioners returned to British protection; and (2) an apology or expression of regret." A second dispatch instructed Lyons to remove himself to London within seven days if the British demands were not met.4 Off to Windsor went the drafts for the Queen's approval. It was evening when they arrived at the Castle, and the Queen, immersed in the routine of a royal dinner party, paid no heed to Russell's suggestion that he would "be glad to have your Majesty's opinion on the draft . . . without loss of time," in order to get Lyons' dispatches aboard the evening mailpackettoAmerica. Thedrafts were apparentlylaid aside until some timelater in the night, when theywerepicked up by the Prince Consort, who was already gripped by the illness that was in another two weeks to end his life. According to his official biographer, they "doubtless occupied much of the Prince's thoughts, in the long hours of the winter morning, when he found sleep impossible."5 Before eight o'clock Prince Albert completed a memorandum on the subject of the dispatches, which he then took to the Queen. Traces of the Prince's mortal illness are alleged by his biographer to be evident in his handwriting; it was at all events the last such document that he ever wrote.6 The Queen modified the Prince's memorandum slightly in phraseology , but not at all in essential meaning. She then sent it to the cabinet, where Palmerston approved the suggestions contained in it for a fuller and considerably more temperate treatment of the subject.7 What was substantially Prince Albert's memorandum, prefaced by a statement of the facts about the seizure as then understood in London, formed the basis of the British note to Washington. Moreover, the Prince's obviously pacific proclivities (as transmitted via the Queen) were probably a determining factor in impelling Russell to dash off a private note to Lyons advising him to use the greatest tact...