Russian warships dock at New York to begin a goodwill tour, during which U.S. officials hope to persuade the Russians to keep Britain and France from recognizing Confederate independence.
Category: Foreign Relations
The Confederacy Looks to France
Edmund Kirby Smith urges Confederate foreign envoy John Slidell to get France to intervene on the Confederacy’s behalf so that the French puppet regime in Mexico will have a friendly neighbor to the north.
A Suicidal Game
Charles Francis Adams, U.S. minister to Great Britain, threatens war unless the British honor their neutrality and stop construction on a warship allegedly being built for the Confederacy.
The Erlanger Loan
Confederate commissioner John Slidell and representatives of Emile Erlanger, head of France’s most influential bank, negotiate a loan to the Confederacy for $15 million to help finance the war.
The Peterhoff Affair
A U.S. warship seizes a British merchant vessel in neutral waters, which threatens to cause an international crisis.
Interference in a Family Dispute
U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward unilaterally declines an offer by French Emperor Napoleon III to mediate the conflict between the U.S. and the Confederacy.