• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 6659 0

McIlvaine, who was to woo the Anglican clergy; and his own old political partner Thurlow Weed, who Seward knew would be more than a match for James Mason. William Howard Russell could see why Seward admired Weed as a political lobbyist, although he doubted that the skill would serve him as well in a foreign environment. “Thurlow is a crafty old fellow,” he wrote to the Times correspondent in New York, “but he will be of small weight among the polished politicians of France or England.”40 Weed, Archbishop Hughes, and General Scott sailed together on November 8 from New York. Weed was angered by a newspaper report that exposed the nature of their mission. He was sure that Charles Sumner had either written it or told the writer what to say in order to embarrass Seward. Weed had seen him the day before and noticed that he had a “hang-dog look.” But they had only Seward to blame for the pandemonium on the docks.

All persons wishing to depart from New York, including foreigners, were suddenly required to have their passport countersigned by the secretary of state. Among those most severely affected were British travelers passing through New York on ship connections to other ports. British consul Archibald’s Manhattan office was filled with stranded families seeking his help. Some of them would have to wait another month for the next boat to their destination. Even a British Army officer who was en route from Canada to his regiment in Nassau was forcibly detained at the quayside. Archibald begged Lyons to make Seward appoint a civil servant with signatory powers, so at least the process might be done in New York.41 Archibald assumed that the purpose of all this was to annoy England.42 He was not alone in thinking so; Anthony Trollope accused Seward of having “resolved to make every Englishman in America feel himself in some way punished because England had not assisted the North.”43

The real reason lay with Mason and Slidell. Initial reports claimed that they had managed to sail out of Charleston on board CSS Nashville, another converted steamship like the Sumter. The secretary of the navy, Gideon Welles, had immediately dispatched several warships to run her down before she reached Europe, but the only ship that spotted the Nashville—USS Connecticut—lost sight of her in the pursuit. Then Seward received a different report: the Confederates had traveled by way of Cuba and were going to dock in New York in early November.44 No longer sure what to believe, Seward imposed the passport regulation to save the administration from the embarrassment of the Confederates’ escaping in full view.

—

The Nashville was not carrying the envoys, although her mission was no less dangerous to the North. The Confederate secretary of the navy, Stephen Mallory, had ordered her to England to be fitted as a war steamer. The Nashville had reached St. George’s harbor in Bermuda when the Fingal arrived on November 2, carrying Edward Anderson and James Bulloch. The two ships anchored only a few hundred yards from each other. “The Nashville ran up the Confederate flag as we stood in,” recorded Anderson, “& I supposed had been sent out by Mr. Mallory for the express purpose of communicating with us, but how to learn this was the question.” Their disguise was working a little too well. “To all intents and purposes we were an English merchant steamer,” he recorded. “We were sporting the British flag, had an English captain and crew, and desired above all things to keep our movements secret. To send a boat to the Nashville direct would be to betray ourselves.” It was a ridiculous situation. The ships rocked gently side by side, neither daring to make the first move. Anderson grew impatient. “Taking a spyglass from one of the quarter masters I affected to be admiring the surrounding objects until by degrees my vision turned upon the Nashville. Her officers were on deck scrutinizing us.” He ordered coded signals to be raised, but it soon became clear that they meant nothing to the Nashville. Finally, one of the Fingal’s officers rowed over on the pretext of