Trent Affair

Uncommon card · No. 193652

The Trent Affair was a diplomatic incident in 1861 during the American Civil War that threatened a war between the United States and the United Kingdom. The U.S. Navy captured two Confederate envoys from a British Royal Mail steamer; the British government protested vigorously. American public and elite opinion strongly supported the seizure, but it worsened the economy and was ruining relations with the world's strongest economy and strongest navy. President Abraham Lincoln ended the crisis by releasing the envoys. On November 8, 1861, USS San Jacinto, commanded by Union Captain Charles Wilkes, intercepted the British mail packet RMS Trent and removed, as contraband of war, two Confederate envoys: James Murray Mason from Virginia and John Slidell from Louisiana. The envoys were bound for Britain and France to press the Confederacy's case for diplomatic recognition and to lobby for possible financial and military support. Public reaction in the United States was to celebrate the capture...

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