Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-02-14
|QUEEN OUR FRIEND
HOW VICTORIA PREVENTED a
WAR WITH UNITED STATES.
SMOOTHED A BAD TANGLE
fair-Lord Paimerston's Insulting
Note Modified by the Sovereign
Tactful Message Averts Combat Be-
tween the Nations.

1t was due to Queen Victoria that
the American government was not
plunged into war with Great Britain
soon after the southern rebellion broke
out. Nov. s, 1861, Captain Wilkes of
the San Jacinto, al American man-of-
war, stopped the British mail steam
ship Trent a short distance from Hav-
ana by the summary process of firing.
first a round shot, and then a she'll
across her bows. Captain Wilkes had
been ordered to arrest Messrs. Mason
and Slidell, who were on board the
Trent. Mr.. Mason was accredited by
the confederate government to the
English court, Mr. Slidell to the court
of France. They had run the block
ade from Charleston to Cuba, and were
on their way to Europe. After a Wig
orous protest on the part of the cap
tain of the mail steamer the confed-
crate ENJOYS surrendered and were
carried off by Captain Wilkes.
Of course looking at the matter
after a lapse of nearly forty years, it
is quite obvious that the action of
Captain Wilkes was utterly indefensi-
Bile. Captain Wilkes had no more
right to kidnap the confederate ENJOYS
when they were on the high seas in a
vessel protected by a foreign flag than
he would have to land an expedition
in England and carry them off from a
London hotel. 1t was, in plain Eng
fish, a distinct act of war, and came
peTilously near involving the two ma
tons in hostilities. Their was a strong
war party in both countries English
society as a whole was passionately
in sympathy with the confederates,
and eagerly seized the opportunity af-
forded by this outrage on the flag to
force on breach between London and
Washington. On the other hand, there
were not wanting those in America
who imagined that it would be posi-
BILE to bride the Emperor Napoleon, by
the offer of French Canada, to make
common cause with the north against
should she espOuse the cause
of the cOnfederacy The action of
Captain Wilkes, however, by Selling
the envoy accredited to France, under
incompatible with any
theory of international law, led the
emperor to support, instead of oppose,
the action of the British government.
For a moment all Britain rang with
the clamOr and clangor of preparations
for war. Lord Palmerston was then
prime minister, a man ever inclined
to mount the high horse and ''stan 20
The case was clear. rhe
law officers Of the crown advised the
cabinet that there could be no doubt
whatever as to the merits of the ques-
ton, and when the cabinet met, in the
last days of November, the atmos-
phere was electric with menace of
war. The press was unani-
nous in resenting what was declared
to be an objectionable and intentional
insult to the flag. English arsenals
were resounding with the din of war
like preparations. For the defense of
5000 troops were being got
ready to cross the Atlantic. The sit
uation, in short, was fraught With
every element of mischief.
Queen and Consort Say "No."
On the Both of November the queen
received from Lord John Russell, the
foreign minister, the draft of a dis
patch, which was to be sent-perhaps
hurled would be better term-at the
government 1t was an
document, the tone
of which reflected, with only too much
accuracy, the prevailing mood of pub
lie opinion. The prince consort at
that time was stri ken with his last
had, indeed, but another
fortnight to live. But the moment the
draft dispatch reached Windsor for
the royal approval, i'll though he was.
he reused himself to examine the mo-
mentOus paper on which the issues of
peace and war would probably hang.
Rising at the next morning. he drew
up memOrandum-the last political
memorandum of his life-in which he
embodied his objections to the draft
dispatched to the British minister at
Washington, and suggested altera-
lions calculated to throw oil upon the
troubled waters, and render it possible
Tor the American government to retire
from an untenable position with dig
nifty and grace. He was wretchedlv
Ill, and could scarcely hold his pen
While writing it. The queen, going
over the memorandum with him. made
one or two suggestions, modifying. for
instance, the phrase quarrel into the
mllder term "a question of dispute"
and sent it to her ministers.
Their sober second thoughts recog-
n1zed the justice of the corrections of
the prince and the queen. Lord Palm
erston said he thought the changes
excellent; Lord Granville, afterward
foreign minister, expressed his delight
that the dispatch had been rewritten
IN accordance with the suggestions of
her majesty.
War Is Averted.
When the dispatch reached Wash
ington Mr.. Seward told Lord Lyons
how pleased he was that the dispatch
was courteous and friendly. Habit been
as dictatorial and menacing as it was
in the original draft it would have
been extremely difficult for him to
hive succeeded in reconciIing the gov
eminent TO the pacific course which
OF