Evening star., 1895-06-15
he protested against any interference with

he protested against any Interference with
his passengers.
But there stood the San Jacinto ready for
action,J her company at quarters and her
port holes open. What could one British
captains wealth of verbiage accomplish
in that threatening presence? Still less
effect had the words of Capt. Williams,
who was in charge of her majesty's mails,
and who declared, that as the representa-
tive of ner majesty's government, he de-
bounced the proceeding as wanton piracy
on the figh seas.
To Williams care Mr.. Macfarland, avail
ing himself of the opportune moment when
Fairfax turned to summon his men, con-
signed the satchel containing their COM
missions and other valuable papers.
Net by SIideIrs Daughter.
Masons was the first arrest, Lieut.. Fair
fax, who owed his Annapolis appointment
to Mason. Using merely enough force to
convince his prisoner that resistance was
useless. Such are the strange necessities
of war.
At the door of Slidell's state room, whittier
he had gone for parting word with his
wife, Fairfax encountered very beautiful,
very sorrowful but none the less i'm
movable sentinel Mathilde. Slidells eldest
daughter. AS he approached with some
hope of quieting her distress with assur-
ances of her fathers safety, she raised her
hand and waved him away. This is the
meager foundation for the report after
wards set in active circulation, that she
had struck Fairfax. Slideu ended the pain
full scene by leaving his state room through
the window.
The secretaries having been secured the
beats pushed Off toward the San Jacinto,
and the Trent went on her way. bearing
four women, who, having refused Wilkes
invitation, must endure the awful suspense
of days and weeks of uncertainty-not
knowing what fate hung over the men who
had so unQuestioningiy risked all for the
cause of the south.
Their immediate fate. however. was not a
hard one. Capt. Wilkes received them
courteously even resigning his own quarters
that they might be made comfortable.
They had fallen among friendly hostiies,
between whom and themselves existed
Independent of the war cause-many ties
of sympathy. Lieut.. Fairfax, executive
officer of the San Jacinto, was Virginian;
Greer, second officer, had married Vir-
ginian; Hertil. the ships surgeon, was a
Georgian; Tatnall captain of marines, son
of Commodore Tatnall, had been put under
arrest for declaring to his superior officer
that so entirely were his sympathies with
the southern cause that in the event of
their meeting a confederate man-of-war he
must refuse to fight. Add to all this the
fact that Wilkes had two sons in the
armies of the confederacy, and the capture
effected by men of such connections be-
comes truly coincidence.
RejOicinEs in the South.
Ac cdi StOpDeu at FOTtreSS
Monroe, Wilkes sending thence to Wash
ington the news of his capture and asking
for instructions as to the disposition to be
made of his prisoners. Off Sandy Hook he
received orders to conduct them to Fort
Warren.
The news, not of the capture, but of the
manner in which 1t had been effected,
created universal rejoicings at the south.
The north had been guilty of that very
breach OF International law for which the
United States had called Great Britain to
such sharp account in 1872. The hope that
1t would maintain it's position even to the
defiance of England opened new vistas to
the southern people Gov. Letcher of Vir-
ginia admitted that he prayed nightly that
''Linccln's backbone might not give way"
But the Joy at the south was but faint
echo of the cheers that went up from mil
lions Of threats at the north. Wilkes was
the hero of the day. Boston covered her
self with glory in the banquet she gave in
his honor.
The Secretary of the Navy wrote him a
letter of emphatic approval in which he
congratulated him on the great public serv-
ice he had rendered, and expressed only
the reservation that' his conduct in omit
ting to capture the vessel must not be al
loved to constitute a precedent.
Congress convened on the I'd of December
and, without dissenting voice, thanked
Capt. Wilkes for his brave, adroit and
patriotic conduct
proclaimed his praises. From the New
York Times came rather extrayagant
proposition: There rs no drawback to our
jubilation. The universal Yankee nation
is getting decidedly awake. AS for Capt.
Wilkes and his command, let the hand
some thing be done. Consecrate our other
Fourth of July to him; load him down
with services of plate, swords of cunning
est and coStliest art. Let Us encourage the
happy inspiration that achieved such a
victory"
EngluIL's Demand.
But the north awoke from her dream of
conquest to find Great Britain knocking at
her prison door. 1t was the courteous
rap of diplomacy. Mr.. Seward, through
the loophole of friendship, announced that
he would be down presently to an official
consideration of the matter. expressing at
the same time his surprise that they should
have called on that business. He said he
had no idea they would take it SO seriously
How seriously they had taken it may be
gathered from Palmerstons emphatic brew
ity-who said, unotficially, however, he'd
be d if he'd stand it.
The result of that diplomatic conference
between Mr.. Seward and Lord Lyons and
that long Christmas day cabinet meeting
is as familiar to US that of any of the
Well-fought contests of those bitter days.
Amid the angry denunciations of a wild
ly excited populace, Lincoln, never losing
sight of the principle at stake, liberated
his prisoners.
When the news of their capture had
reached Richmond Jefferson Davis notified
the government at Washington that from
among the prisoners then held by the
confederacy he had selected four hostages
and that whatever treatment was visited
upon the commissioners and their secre-
taries the same would be meted out to
them.
On the 1st of January, 1852, Mason and
Slidell and their secretaries, Macfarland
and Eustis, were quietly conducted to a
British man-o-war and once again turned
their faces Engiandward, whittier their
fame had preceded them
So ended an episode whereby the issue
of the civil war had hung in the balance
Seward, in writing of it later, referred to
it as a crisis.
VIRGINIA TATNALL PEACOCK.