To-day the Secretary told me, in reply to my question, that
he had authentic information of the seizure of Messrs. Slidell and Mason, our
commissioners to Europe, by Capt. Wilkes, of the U. S. Navy, and while on board
the steamer Trent, a British vessel, at sea. I said I was glad of it. He
asked why, in surprise. I remarked that it would bring the Eagle cowering to
the feet of the Lion. He smiled, and said it was, perhaps, the best thing that
could have happened. And he cautions me against giving passports to French subjects
even to visit Norfolk or any of our fortified cities, for it was understood
that foreigners at Norfolk were contriving somehow to get on board the ships of
their respective nations.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 93-4
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