THE TRENT AFFAIR

By John Bigelow.

AT THE time of "The Trent Affair" a diplomatic episode growing out of the seizure by the Union frigate San Jacinto, November 8, 1861, of two Confederate commissioners on board the British mail steamer Trent John Bigelow was the United States Consul in Paris. As here related, it was largely due to his prompt action in securing the publication of a statement declaring the seizure of the commissioners, Mason and Slidell, to have been unauthorized by the United States government, that a serious rupture with Great Britain was avoided.

The first ship from America carried word to Europe that Lincoln and Seward recognized the impropriety of the act; and when a formal demand was made by the British Minister for the surrender of the commissioners, it was complied with and an apology tendered. Bigelow thus reviews the affair in his "Retrospections of an Active Life,' , published by Doubleday, Page & Company, by whose permission it is given.

A LITTLE before midnight of Friday, the 11th of October, 1861, a dozen or more ladies and gentlemen were gathered together upon the wharf in Charleston Harbor. The night was pitchy dark, and it was raining violently. Ina few minutes only after their arrival, the party were seated in a ship's pinnace, till then invisible, that had apparently been waiting for them at a few oars' length from the landing. Two or three strokes of the oars were heard, and the boat with its new burden was swallowed up in the darkness again.

The party in the boat, who were embarking upon a voyage which was destined to make some of them more famous than any other event of their lives, consisted of James M. Mason, of Virginia, and John Slidell, of Louisiana, commissioners from the "Confederate States," the first to England and the second to France ; Mr. McFarland, secretary to Mr. Mason ; Mrs. Slidell, Miss Matilda Slidell, Miss Rosia Slidell, Mr. Eustis, who was Mr. Slidell's secretary; Mrs. Eustis, a daughter of Mr. Corcoran, the head of a leading banking-house in Washington, but at that moment a prisoner in Fort Lafayette ; Colonel Le Mat, of Louisiana, and two or three others of less political importance. who were profiting by the opportunity to find a refuge in foreign lands.

In a few minutes after leaving the wharf, the party were on board the small steamer "Theodora," lying in wait for them inside the bar. By 1 o'clock her cables were slipped, and she was gliding as noiselessly and as invisibly as possible down the bay. As she passed Fort Sumter the lights on board were darkened, the engine slowed, and other precautions were taken to escape notice, and with entire success. She was soon beyond the reach of the glasses or the guns from the fort, and on the open sea.

On the 16th she arrived at Cardenas, on the island of Cuba, where the commissioners disembarked. On the 7th of November, with their families and secretaries, they sailed from Havana for Southampton in the British royal mail-steamer "Trent." About noon of the following day, while running the narrow passage of the old Bahama Channel, a steamer was sighted from the "Trent," directly in her course, and apparently waiting for her, but showing no colors. On approaching her, Captain Moir of the "Trent" hoisted the British ensign, which, however, received no attention. When the two ships were within about a quarter of a mile or something less, the strange vessel fired a shot across the "Trent's" bow, and ran up the American flag. The "Trent," declining to receive orders from the stranger with or without the American flag, held on her course, and paid no attention to the summons.

As soon as time enough had elapsed to leave no doubt of her purpose, a shell from the American's forward deck burst about one hundred yards in front of the "Trent." This was a summons Captain Moir could not disregard, and the "Trent" was slowed. Presently a boat put out from the American vessel and boarded the "Trent." The officer in command, Lieutenant Fairfax, asked for a list of her passengers. The captain refused to give it or to recognize the right of the officer to ask for it. Lieutenant Fairfax then called out the names of the rebel commissioners and their secretaries, and said those were the persons he was in quest of: that he knew they were on board, and his orders were to bring them away with him at all hazards. Captain Moir declined to recognize the authority of the intruder to meddle with his ship or passengers, and refused to give up the commissioners.

Lieutenant Fairfax then said he would be obliged to take possession of the ship, and thereupon made the appropriate signal to his commander. Without delay three boats, containing thirty marines, and about sixty sailors heavily armed, put out from the American ship and rowed alongside. Seeing that further resistance would be worse than fruitless, Messrs. Slidell, Mason, Eustis and McFarland, who meantime had come on deck, proceeded to get their personal baggage and descended with it into the boats, the ladies of the party deciding to remain on board the "Trent" and go on to Liverpool. The commissioners were taken to the frigate, which proved to be the "San Jacinto" under the command of Captain Wilkes, which had just arrived from the coast of Africa and was on her way to New York. The commissioners were brought to New York, and, by orders from Washington, placed in confinement in Fort Lafayette.

The effect of this "outrage upon the British flag," as it was the fashion to term it, was startling. It absorbed the conversation of the drawing-room and the council-chamber, and was a subject of fierce debate in every college club and palace of several continents. Immediately upon the receipt of the news at the admiralty, a cabinet council was summoned by Lord Palmerston to determine whether Mr. Adams's passport should not be sent to him. To the rebels and their sympathizing partisans in Europe the news gave infinite delight, for they assumed that Captain Wilkes had not acted without the sanction of his Government. They hoped and believed England had received an insult to which she could not submit; that the United States would never make the only reparation possible that would be satisfactory the surrender of the commissioners ; and, finally, that a war between the two countries must ensue, that England would be obliged to help fight the battle and thus help establish the independence of the Confederate States.

The loyal Americans in Europe were filled with concern, for this event seemed to have deprived them of the few friends in the press and in public life that had not already abandoned the Union cause. The Tory press of London were, of course, anxious to make the most of their grievance. The "Morning Herald" [London] trusted there would be no delay in avenging an outrage unprecedented, even in American lawlessness." The "Post," which was reputed to reflect the policies of Lord Palmerston said: "The insult was most gratuitous; was unwarranted by the code of nations; was not only to be duly felt, but deeply resented." The London "Daily News," which had been neutral at least, if not friendly to the Unionists, for a few days lost its balance and scolded us very sharply.

The only journals in England that refused to join in this cry were two papers established by the political friends of Mr. Bright, one in London and one in Manchester, and which the "Morning Herald" signalized for public execration in an editorial article commencing as follows: "With two exceptions, which together constitute but one, all the morning journals of London and of the country are unanimous in their expression of disgust and indignation at the American outrage. Mr. Bright, by his London and Manchester organs, stands forth in opposition to the honor and the universal feeling of his country; now, as ever, hateful in the eyes of all educated and thoughtful men; now, as ever before, the object of the scorn and reprobation of all Englishmen."

The French press naturally took a somewhat more dispassionate view of the seizure, not being directly interested. Besides, the French people are wont to contemplate with Christian composure any event which promises to embroil their insular neighbors with foreign powers, and at this time especially with America. Besides, in Paris, as in London, those who for any one of manifold reasons desired the success of the Confederates rejoiced over the seizure of the commissioners, and sought to give the grievance great international importance.