[Footnote 455:  Davis to Adams.  New York.  Dec. 21, 1861.  C.F.  Adams, The Trent Affair, (Proceedings, Mass.  Hist.  Soc., XLV, p. 107.)]

[Footnote 456:  There has crept into American historical writing of lesser authenticity a story that just at this juncture there appeared, in the harbours of New York and San Francisco, Russian fleets whose commanders let it be understood that they had come under “sealed orders” not to be opened except in a certain grave event and that their presence was, at least, not an unfriendly indication of Russian sentiment in the Trent crisis.  This is asserted to have bolstered American courage and to give warrant for the argument that America finally yielded to Great Britain from no fear of consequences, but merely on a clearer recognition of the justice of the case.  In fact the story is wholly a myth.  The Russian fleets appeared two years later in the fall of 1863, not in 1861.  Harris, The Trent Affair, pp. 208-10, is mainly responsible for this story, quoting the inaccurate memory of Thurlow Weed. (Autobiography, II, pp. 346-7.) Reliable historians like Rhodes make no mention of such an incident.  The whole story of the Russian fleets with their exact instructions is told by F. A. Colder, “The Russian Fleet and the Civil War,” Am.  Hist.  Rev., July, 1915.]

[Footnote 457:  Weed, Autobiography, II, pp. 354-61.]

[Footnote 458:  Ibid., p. 365.  Peabody to Weed, Jan, 17, 1862.]

[Footnote 459:  A Cycle of Adams’ Letters, I, p. 91.  Charles Francis Adams to his son, Dec. 27, 1861.]

[Footnote 460:  See ante.  Ch.  IV.]

[Footnote 461:  The Times, Dec. 25, 1861.]

[Footnote 462:  James, William Wetmore Story and his Friends, II, pp. 108-9.  The letters were sent to Robert Browning, who secured their publication through Dicey.]

[Footnote 463:  C.F.  Adams, The Trent Affair.  Adams to Motley, Dec. 26, 1861. (Proceedings, Mass.  Hist.  Soc., XLV, p. 109).]

[Footnote 464:  Ibid., p. 110.]

[Footnote 465:  Palmerston had very close relations with Delane, of the Times, but that paper carefully maintained its independence of any party or faction.]

[Footnote 466:  Gladstone Papers.  Argyll to Gladstone, Dec. 30, 1861.]

[Footnote 467:  State Dept., Eng., Vol. 78.  No. 97.  Adams to Seward, Jan. 2, 1862.]

[Footnote 468:  Palmerston MS.]

[Footnote 469:  Bancroft, Seward, II, p. 233.  Lyons officially reported that he carried no papers with him (Parliamentary Papers, 1862, Lords, Vol.  XXV.  “Correspondence respecting the Trent.”  No. 19.  Lyons to Russell, Dec. 19, 1861).  Newton (Lyons, I, pp. 55-78) shows that Seward was, in fact, permitted to read the instructions on the nineteenth.]

[Footnote 470:  A Cycle of Adams’ Letters, I, p. 86.  C.F.  Adams, Jr., to Henry Adams, Dec. 19, 1861.]