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cinto. The Trent then proceeded on her voyage. Captain Wilkes conveyed his captives to Boston, where they were consigned to Fort Warren, then a receptacle for political prisoners. When this transaction became known to the British government, immediate preparations were made for war. In the United States, the act was hailed as a victory. The Secretary of the Navy publicly applauded Captain Wilkes, and the House of Representatives did the same. The Secretary of State, upon whom the chief responsibility in the matter rested, saw, more clearly than others, that a breach of international law had been committed by the commander of the San Jacinto. The President coincided with Mr. Seward, and it was at once resolved to restore the rebel captives to the protection of the British flag.1

Mr. Seward's reasons for adopting this course are ably presented in his correspondence with Mr. Adams and the British and French ministers.2

On the publication of the correspondence a complete change in public opinion ensued. Mr. Seward was regarded every where as a peace-maker and a wise diplomatist. Great Britain accepted his solution of the threatening difficulty in proper terms, while the other European powers concurred.3

Thus was settled one of the most formidable questions that confronted our government during the civil war. Mr. Adams in his Oration reviews the transaction with a power of eloquence heightened by his intimate knowledge of the facts and circumstances.

While the excitement caused by the Trent affair was still alive, the British government, through Lord Lyons, asked permission to send a detachment of troops to Quebec across the state of Maine from Portland, Quebec at the time being blockaded with ice. Mr. Seward courteously granted the request although he was aware that these soldiers were probably originally intended to act in hostility to the United States. The prompt courtesy of Mr. Seward in this case helped to restore good feeling between the two countries.5

1 Mr. Webster Secretary of State, in 1851, said "I cannot bring myself to believe that these Govern ments (England and France) or either of them, dare to search an American merchantman on the high seas to ascertain whether individuals may be on board bound to Cuba and with hostile purposes." Private Correspondence, p 477.

2 See pages 295–310.

3 The points of International Law presented in the "Trent Case," are concisely discussed by Dana in his Notes to Wheaton.

4 See page 35.

It is a coincidence in history, that in 1790, Lord Dorchester asked leave of President Washington to march a British army from Detroit to the Mississippi River. See Hamilton's Works, vol. iv., page 48.

Despite the existence of the war, and the accumulation of labors it brought upon Mr. Seward, he found time to negotiate a treaty with Great Britain for the suppression of the slave-trade. On the 20th of May, 1862, it was ratified, and Congress proceeded at once to give effect to its provisions. The result was the total eradication of the nefarious traffic. In 1866, Mr. Seward was able to sug gest the withdrawal of the naval forces, no longer required to enforce the provisions of the treaty. Many attempts had heretofore been made, ineffectually, to negotiate a treaty not subject to national jealousies nor in conflict with the interests and policy of our slave-holders. In 1817, Wilberforce urged the matter upon the attention of John Quincy Adams, who, when he became Secretary of State in 1824, negotiated a similar treaty. But it failed to receive the confirmation of the Senate. The subject often wore a threatening aspect. In negotiating the present treaty, Mr. Seward and Lord Lyons removed every embarrassment. "Had such a treaty,' said Mr. Seward, " been made in 1808, there would have been now no sedition here and no disagreement between the United States and foreign nations." On another occasion he remarked, "The African slave-trade which has been so long clandestinely carried on from American ports was a mercenary traffic without even the poor pretext that it brought laborers into our country, or that other and worse pretext that it was necessary to the safety or prosperity of any state or section. It was carried on in defiance of our laws by corrupting the administration of justice. The treaty contains no provisions that can embarrass an honest and lawful trade, and none that can inflict a wound upon the national pride. It was freely offered by this government to Great Britain, not bought or solicited by that government. It is in harmony with the sentiments of the American people. It was ratified by the Senate unanimously, and afterwards distinctly approved with not less unanimity by both houses of Congress. Not a voice has been raised against it in the country."

Under Mr. Seward, "corrupting the administration of justice" ceased. Slave-traders were hanged in New York or delivered to their own governments for punishment. It was indeed through his very peremptory instructions that the laws of the United States against this crime, were, for the first time, rigidly enforced, against powerful influences, and execution carried into effect.

1 See the case of Arguelles, page 19.

After the capture of New Orleans by the Union forces, in May, 1862, a large number of foreign-born persons, not naturalized, residing there, made numerous claims and raised a variety of questions which, through the ministers and consuls of their respective countries, were brought to the attention of the Secretary of State. Many of these questions were of an intricate and delicate character. The military authorities in Louisiana failed to render any satisfactory solution of them.

Mr. Seward conceived the idea of establishing a provisional court in New Orleans, to be entirely independent, with powers unlimited, and whose decisions should be conclusive in all cases. An executive order to this effect was issued on the 20th of October, 1862, proclaiming that whereas

“The insurrection which has for some time prevailed in several of the States of the Union, including Louisiana, having temporarily subverted and swept away the civil institutions of that State, including the Judiciary and the judicial authorities of the Union, so that it has become necessary to hold the State in military occupation; and it being indispensably necessary that there shall be some judicial tribunal existing there capable of administering justice, I have therefore thought it proper to appoint, and I do hereby constitute a provisional court, which shall be a court of record for the State of Louisiana, and I do hereby appoint Charles A. Peabody of New York to be a provisional judge to hold said court. . . his judgment to be final and conclusive.

BY THE PRESIDENT WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State."

:

All causes, civil and criminal, including causes in law, equity, revenue and admiralty, were within the powers of this court, and no review of its judgments by any other court was allowed. Its authority and the validity of its acts were considered in the Supreme Court of the United States and fully sustained.1

The Saint Albans raid added not a little to the duties and responsibilities of the Secretary of State. He sent an agent to Montreal and engaged able counsel 2 to endeavor to secure the rights and property of the citizens of Vermont in the courts of her neighboring province, but without avail.

The Emancipation Proclamation of September 22, 1862, and that of January 1, 1863, both 3 received the hearty approval of Mr. Seward. At a cabinet meeting held to consider the September proclamation, Mr. Seward suggested two important amendments to Mr.

1 See Albany Law Journal, Vol. III, page 348.

2 George F. Edmunds, now United States Senator.

See post, pages 345, 594.

Lincoln's draft of the document. He had at a previous meeting advised a delay in issuing the proclamation, for the reason that we were then humbled by repeated defeats of our armies, and that a better impression would be made if the proclamation came after a victory, when it would not appear as a token of despair. The President accepted the advice and now that a grand success had been achieved at Antietam 2 the day had come. He called upon the members of his Cabinet for their views and criticisms on his important paper.

Mr. Seward suggested that it would be better to leave out all reference to the act being sustained during the present administration, and not merely say the government “recognizes" but that the army and navy will "MAINTAIN" the freedom proclaimed.

Mr. Lincoln characterized the suggestion as "very judicious," and favored its adoption. The modification was concurred in unanimously.

Mr. Seward then further proposed that in the passage relating to "colonization," it should plainly appear that the colonization proposed was to be only with the consent of the colonists and the consent of the States in which colonies might be attempted. This suggestion also was adopted.

When the first day of January, 1863, arrived, nearly all opposition had ceased, and the public mind was prepared for the great proclamation. At noon on that day, Mr Seward took the engrossed copy to the executive mansion, where, in the council chamber of the President, it was signed by Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward, and afterward received the seal of the United States at the Department of State, and was deposited among the archives.

During the period of gloom and excitement which succeeded the appalling defeat of the Union army before Fredericksburgh, December 13th, 1862, a caucus of Republican senators gathered and hastily passed resolutions advising the President to change the chief member of his Cabinet, and appointed a committee to lay the resolution before him.

Learning of the action of the caucus, Mr. Seward instantly wrote his resignation, and placing it in the President's hands, withdrew from the department. When the senatorial committee arrived at the executive mansion they found the President had convened all

1 September 22, 1862.

2 September 19, 1862.

the remaining members of the Cabinet to meet them and discuss the question. They were informed that if they proposed to take the untenable ground that Cabinet appointments or changes were to be dictated by Congress or caucuses, it would be making a radical change in the national system, in which the Cabinet were not prepared to acquiesce. The action of the caucus was the more unreasonable in this case, because the Secretary of State was in no wise responsible for the military disasters.

Rather than consent to the proposed change, the whole Cabinet were prepared to resign their seats. The Secretary of the Treasury had already placed his resignation in the President's hands, and the others would follow his example.

Meanwhile, as the news got abroad, protests and animadversions upon the uncalled-for action of the caucus began to pour in through the press and the mails. More sober counsels then prevailed, and those who had taken part in the caucus began to explain and modify their course. The following letters show the result:

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 20, 1862.

HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD AND HON. SALMON P. CHASE.

Gentlemen: - You have respectively tendered me your resignations as Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. I am apprised of the circumstances which may render this course personally desirable to each of you; but, after most anxious consideration, my deliberate judgment is, that the public interest does not admit of it. I therefore have to request that you will resume the duties of your departments respectively.

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DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, December 21, 1861. Sunday Morning. My Dear Sir: - I have cheerfully resumed the functions of this department, in obedience to your command.

With the highest respect, your humble servant.
WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Mediation between the government of the United States and the rebels was offered by different foreign powers, at several stages of the war. The disloyal element of the North encouraged such propositions, while the government repelled every offer of the kind. Mr. Seward had promptly rebuked the first suggestion of foreign arbitration in his letter to the Governor of Maryland in April, 1861.1

1 See page 609.

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