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| John Slidell |
BOSTON, November 17, 1861.
Honorable WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington.
DEAR SIR: The excitement of the day - the seizure of Mason and Slidell - must plead my apology for addressing you. I have conversed with many of our leading merchants, heard the opinions of many of our ablest lawyers, and all agree that the action of Captain Wilkes in seizing these men is commendable and that the Administration ought to sustain him and hold them at all hazards. In New York the English interest will be loud in condemnation and ought not to be heeded.
We think here the results will justify the act of Wilkes and there are preceedents in abundance in the records of the British courts to sustain it. Public sentiment in New England will be all right and entirely sustain this course. The question of opening a port of trade at Beaufort, S. C., if seriously entertained involves numerous questions and difficulties and here it is generally considered that it will be a mistake to attempt it.
With great respect, yours, truly,
PHILO S. SHELTON.
Official Records, Series II, Vol. 2, Part 1, Page 1094
Shelton, a Boston merchant and speculator who had extensive overseas dealings, writes to Seward in the aftermath of the Trent Affair. On November 8 the Union warship San Jacinto stopped the British mail steamer Trent and removed Confederate commissioners Mason and Slidell, on their way to England. The men were held in Boston until January 1, 1862. The boarding of a British vessel on the high seas had the effect of inspiring sympathy for the Southern cause in England. Hostilities were only averted when Seward ordered the men released on the grounds the men were "personal contraband" and should have been brought back to port along with the Trent itself instead of being removed from the vessel. Shelton's estimate of the situation was, at best, simplistic.
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