Julian Vannerson, 1859
John Slidell, Senator from Louisiana, Thirty-fifth Congress
When the New Orleans & Northeastern Railroad was being built after the Civil War, one of its construction camps was located on Lake Pontchartrain’s north shore. The camp was incorporated as a town in 1888, and Baron Frederic d’Erlanger, a Frenchman and major railroad investor, was instrumental in naming it Slidell.
The town’s namesake was John Slidell (1793-1871), d’Erlanger’s father-in-law. Slidell was a New York native who had moved to Louisiana in 1819 after suffering business failures and being involved in a rather scandalous duel over a woman. He became one of the state’s most powerful politicians, serving in both the legislature, Congress and Senate. Slidell was also involved in an international incident during the Civil War that nearly led to another war between the U.S. and Great Britain.
Relations between the two countries were strained because of Britain’s sympathy for the rebels. Not only did British aristocrats admire the elite Southern planters, it would be to Britain’s advantage if the U.S. were to split into two republics. The Americans were beginning to challenge the British in trade and influence, and Britain’s world position would be strengthened if there were two weaker, competing Americas rather than one united powerhouse.
Anglo-American relations took a dramatic turn for the worse in late 1861 when Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed James Mason and John Slidell envoys to Great Britain and France, respectively, to try to gain support and foreign recognition.
Mason was a Virginian who had served as a U.S. congressman and senator and was the chairman of the Confederate Foreign Relations Committee. Although a moderate on the slavery issue, Slidell had resigned his senate seat in 1861 after Abraham Lincoln was elected president and accepted Davis’s appointment even though he did not speak French.
Captain Charles Wilkes, commander of the USS San Jacinto, learned of Mason and Slidell’s mission and on November 8, 1861, without authorization, intercepted the British mail packet Trent east of Cuba and forcibly removed the two envoys.
While Wilkes was an able seaman and had gained some fame before the war by proving Antarctica was a continent, he was a rash martinet. One man described him as having “a superabundance of self-esteem and a deficiency of judgment.” Some believe that Herman Melville based Moby Dick’s Captain Ahab partly on Wilkes’s abusive personality.
Initially, Northerners praised Captain Wilkes as a hero, despite the fact that he had acted without orders and had violated the long-held American principle of freedom of the seas. Wilkes justified his actions by claiming international law allowed belligerents to stop neutral vessels to search for contraband or enemy dispatches. With rather ingenious logic, he argued that Mason and Slidell were, in fact, dispatches because of their knowledge of rebel plans.
Outraged at the seizure, British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston roared at his cabinet, “You may stand for this but damned if I will!” Rightfully complaining that British neutral rights had been violated, he demanded an apology and the envoys’ immediate release.
The so-called Trent Affair put Lincoln in a difficult spot. Despite Captain Wilkes's arguments to the contrary, Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward knew the seizures were indefensible and worried that the incident might cause Great Britain to intervene in the war. Releasing the diplomats, however, would be unpopular with the people and could politically damage the administration.
While Lincoln pondered what to do, the British prepared for action. In a dangerous display of saber rattling, Palmerston formed a War Committee, prepared the navy for possible action and shipped 11,000 troops to Canada while bands on the dock played “Dixie.” Britain’s actions worried Seward because war with both Great Britain and the Confederates could be catastrophic.
Fortunately, Seward came up with a clever plan. On Christmas Day, he convinced Lincoln to release the Confederate envoys but without an apology. Seward pointed out that Wilkes’s action was essentially impressment, the same British policy that started the War of 1812. By releasing the envoys, he argued, the U.S. was simply staying true to its long-standing commitment to freedom of the seas. Lincoln agreed and put it succinctly when he declared, “We fought Great Britain [in 1812] for insisting, by theory and practice, on the right to do precisely what Wilkes has done.”
Although he claimed it was “the bitterest pill” to swallow, Lincoln released Mason and Slidell on January 1, 1862, and they continued to Europe.
After all the trouble their capture had caused, Mason and Slidell failed as envoys. Despite Britain’s favorable attitude toward the Confederacy, it finally decided the South could not win the war and refused to extend diplomatic recognition. Slidell was a popular figure in France and did gain some economic support by selling bonds through his son-in-law d’Erlanger. But, in the end, Napoleon III followed Britain’s lead and refused to get involved in the war.
When the South was defeated in 1865, Slidell was so despondent that he refused to return Louisiana and settled down in France.
Dr. Terry L. Jones is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. An autographed copy of “Louisiana Pastimes,” a collection of the author’s stories, costs $25. Contact him at tljones505@gmail.com
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