Original sentence: It was generally agreed at this time that a nation at war had the right to stop and search a neutral merchant ship if it suspected that ship of carrying the enemy's dispatches.Mason and Slidell, Wilkes reasoned, were in effect Confederate dispatches, and he had the right to remove them.So on November 8, 1861, he steamed out into the Bahama Channel, fired twice across Trent's bow, sent a boat's crew aboard, collared the Confederate commissioners, and bore them off in triumph to the United States, where they were lodged in Fort Warren, in Boston Harbor.The ship put in at a Cuban port, looking for news of Confederate agents who were reported to be active in that vicinity.While there, the ship's commander, Wilkes, heard about Mason and Slidell
Edited sentence: A nation at war (it was generally agreed) had a right to stop and search a neutral merchant ship if it suspected that ship of carrying the enemy's dispatches.He now worked out a novel interpretation of international law.Mason and Slidell, Wilkes reasoned, were in effect Confederate dispatches, and he had a right to remove them.So on November 8, 1861, he steamed out into the Bahama Channel, fired twice across Trent's bows, sent a boat's crew aboard, collared the Confederate commissioners, and bore them off in triumph to the United States, where they were lodged in Fort Warren, in Boston Harbor.The ship was put in at a Cuban port, looking for news of Confederate  aiders which were reported to be active in that vicinity, and there the ship's commander, Wilkes, heard about Mason and Slidell