John Slidell

The Treatment of Traitors and Pirates.

This has nothing to do with the Civil War, but it mentions the government has decided that Mason and Slidell shall be treated in all respects as close to confinement and fair, like criminals guilty of the highest crimes against the laws until full assurance is received.

Anyway, they were guilty of piracy.

This is 1861, well after the age of pirates.

So first of all, this is gonna be in pieces, all right? Um, the Springfield Daily Republican Newspaper, November 25th, 1861, so, uh, Civil War was still pretty new.

Uh, the treatment of traitors and pirates, this has nothing to do with the Civil War, but it mentions, "The government has decided that Mason and Slidell shall be treated in all respects as close to con- uh, confinement and fair, like criminals guilty of the highest crimes against the laws until full assurance is received." Anyway, they were, they were guilty of piracy.

This is 1861-

Mm

Letter twenty.

Concerning a significant British outrage and the capture of Mason and Slidell.

Washington, D.C., November 24, 1861.

Mr. Seward, my boy, who takes the oath with much sugar in it and is likewise Secretary of State, will probably write twenty-four letters to all of the governors this week in consequence of a recent outrage committed by Great Britain.

That's the spirit of America, my boy, taken with nutmeg on top and a hollow straw.

Very good for invalids.

Next to the question concerning the capacity of gunboats for the sweet potato trade, my boy, the great topic of the day is the capture of Slidell and Mason, whose arrest so pleased the colonel of the mackerel brigade that he got up at nine o'clock in the morning to tell the president about it.

In the year seventeen seventy-six, my boy, this Slidell sold candles in New York and was born about two years after the marriage of the elder Slidell.

With crippling debt and constant threats of invasion, most Texans supported annexation into the United States, but it was a long road to get there.

Nevertheless, in 1845, President Polk saw Texas welcomed into the Union, and it would be up to his minister to Mexico, John Slidell, to iron out the details.

Let's get back to the story.

Here again is Monte Monroe.

There were strict prohibitions against state banks because many Jacksonians believed, as did these Texans of the time, that bankers were thieves.

There were also prohibitions against establishing big business corporations, especially monopolies.

There were strict prohibitions against any minister of the gospel holding public office.

Nobody who had been in a duel could hold public office.

Thus far, tension had been great, but in November of 1861, it rocketed.

Jefferson Davis sent Virginian James M. Mason and John Slidell of Louisiana to run the blockade to Cuba.

Their final destination? Europe.

In Havana, they boarded the British mail packet Trent.

That blockade not only inhibited trade, but communication.

Six months could be lost between sender and recipient, and in tense times, that could be crucial.

On July 15, 1862, John Slidell tempted Napoleon III with that same bribe.

He also pledged Confederate support in bringing down the Juarez regime in Mexico.

Sorry about that.

We were talking some time ago about Jose Herrera, who was president in 45, right before the war began, how he did not receive President Polk's envoy, John Slidell.

Herrera was up against really hard liners.

And they thought that he was being too consolatory in the matter of Texas.

Texas had successfully broken away in 1836 and had recently joined the United States at the same time President Polk attempted a peaceful purchase of surrounding territories.

Polk had sent diplomat John Slidell to Mexico offering to buy California and New Mexico.

The nation of Mexico refused to even receive the ambassador and had broken diplomatic relations after Texas annexation.

So, from the American perspective, war became necessary only after diplomacy failed and the incursion onto what the president considered American soil.