Thus the northern
frontier of Virginia, which, in the first year of the war, had been the
main field of skirmishes, combats, and battles, of advance and retreat,
and the occupation and evacuation of fortified positions, ceased for a
time to tremble beneath the tread of contending armies.
To the foregoing narration of events immediately connected with the
efforts of the Confederate Government to maintain its existence at home,
may here be properly added an incident bearing on its foreign relations
in the first year of the war.
Our efforts for the recognition of the Confederate States by the
European powers, in 1861, served to make us better known abroad, to
awaken a kindly feeling in our favor, and cause a respectful regard for
the effort we were making to maintain the independence of the States
which Great Britain had recognized, and her people knew to be our
birthright.
On the 8th of November, 1861, an outrage was perpetrated by an armed
vessel of the United States, in the forcible detention, on the
high-seas, of a British mail steamer, making one of her regular trips
from one British port to another, and the seizure, on that unarmed
vessel, of our Commissioners, Mason and Slidell, who with their
secretaries were bound for Europe on diplomatic service. The seizure was
made by an armed force against the protest of the Captain of the vessel,
and of Commander Williams, R.N., the latter speaking as the
representative of her Majesty's Government.
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