The Trent Affair: A Diplomatic Crisis.  By Norman Ferris. Knoxville The University of Tennessee Press, 1977, Pp. xi.

When Confederate commissioner to France John Slidell accompanied the Confederate commissioner to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, James M. Mason, neither man realized that their trip to Europe would almost start a war between Great Britain and the Union of the united States of America, who had been trying to end a Civil War.  Norman Ferris’s The Trent Affair: A Diplomatic Crisis elucidates how close the two nations actually came to conflict.  While delineating the elements of the misunderstanding, Ferris suggests that, “the press did not play the inflammatory role through out the Trent affair that some historians have attributed to it”(p. viii).  The author shows how an international incident can arise accidentally but diplomatic statesmanship can resolve the crisis without war. 

Ferris begins by giving a description of the Confederate emissaries Mason and Slidell as they departed on the 11 October 1861 to Nassau in the Bahamas on a privateer named the Gordon.  The U.S. government commanded the James Adger to sail across the Atlantic Ocean in search of the Confederate diplomats.  Brash, young U.S. Navy Captain Charles D. Wilkes, while sailing the San Jacinto, looked for Confederate ships when he happened upon a British mail carrier the Trent and boarded it.  Wilkes found the Confederates he sought and their entourage, seized them and their goods, but did not find any diplomatic papers.  The Union press exuberantly greeted the reported capture of the Trent and began quoting precedents, interpretations of mar-time law to justify Wilkes’ action. The British press immediately decried the affront and demanded retribution as the news sparked much criticism in regard to the conduct of the San Jacinto’s captain, ignited an anti-American backlash, and lighted smoldering animosity.  Feeling cut to the quick, and not knowing whether the U.S. possessed malicious intent, Britain began mobilizing for war.  While the press reacted, U.S. and British officials conferred regarding the best ways to mend the breech in the Anglo-American relationship.  Mediation provided an avenue that both sides could take but neither truly desired the interference of France and Napoleon III.  As diplomats tried to weather the storm, Secretary of State William H. Seward attempted to cut off the anti-British stigma that surrounded his name.  The anger in the newspapers began to wane becoming more pacific in both countries as the war appeared imminent.  Britain sent America a well-worded ultimatum that adamantly requested the release of Mason and Slidell to British custody and an apology.  On 26 December 1861 the U.S. government averted war when they decided to release their prisoners. 

 Ferris’ ability as a writer becomes evident as he discusses some of the troubling accusations about Secretary of State William Seward.  Many people within the credulous British press believed that Seward orchestrated the Trent affair to start a war with Great Britain.  Ferris easily explains the preposterousness of this by showing that Wilkes mainly acted of his own volition.  Ferris delves into some of the other objectionable stories attributed to Seward by many of his contemporaries.  One such story regarded the Secretary of State’s designs on Canada.  The British press wrote that Seward wanted to take Canada to compensate for the loss of southern states.  Ferris states that “the impetus for American absorption of Canada…would have to come from the foreign state or colony itself; at no time … did he advocate conquest or coercion to secure Canada or any other territory”(p. 98).  In this reviewer’s eyes, the author rehabilitates Seward from the fervent anti-British, war-mongering administrator that the press portrayed to a patriotic, well meaning, and proficient diplomat who would do almost any act for his country.

Ferris effectively shows that the press, while adding to the tensions on both sides, did not shape the course of events.  The author explains how statesmanship truly helped in the peaceful resolution of this important conflict. Norman Ferris’s well-researched book, The Trent Affair: A Diplomatic Crisis, stands as an excellent scholarly history that many Civil War historians will enjoy.  Students of diplomacy need to read this book so they too can understand how conflict can easily arise due to a subordinate’s inappropriate action.  

Brooks Sommer