the “San Jacinto,” and Secretary Stanton “cheered and applauded” it.  Even Mr. Seward, cautious and conservative diplomat as he was, at-first “opposed any concession or surrender of the prisoners.”  But Lincoln said significantly, “One war at a time.”  Events have long since afforded the most ample vindication of his course in this important matter.  He avoided a foreign war, while at the same time, by committing Great Britain to the doctrine of “peace between neutrals,” gained a substantial diplomatic victory over that government.

An excellent account of the circumstances of the Trent affair is given by Benson J. Lossing, the author and historian, who was in Washington when the events occurred.  “The act of Captain Wilkes,” says Mr. Lossing, “was universally applauded by all loyal Americans, and the land was filled with rejoicings because two of the most mischievous men among the enemies of the Government were in custody.  For the moment, men did not stop to consider the law or the expediency involved in the act.  Public honors were tendered to Captain Wilkes, and resolutions of thanks were passed by public bodies.  The Secretary of the Navy wrote him a congratulatory letter on the ‘great public services’ he had rendered in ‘capturing the rebel emissaries, Mason and Slidell,’ and assured him that his conduct had ‘the emphatic approval of the department.’  The House of Representatives tendered him their thanks for the service he had done.  But there was one thoughtful man in the nation, in whom was vested the tremendous executive power of the Republic at that time, and whose vision was constantly endeavoring to explore the mysteries of the near future, who held calmer and wiser thoughts than most men at that critical moment, because his feelings were kept in subjection to his judgment by a sense of heavy responsibility.  That man was Abraham Lincoln.  The writer was in the office of the Secretary of War when the telegraphic despatch announcing the capture of Mason and Slidell was brought in and read.  He can never forget the scene that ensued.  Led by Secretary Stanton, who was followed by Governor Andrew of Massachusetts and others who were present, cheer after cheer was heartily given by the company.  A little later, the writer was favored with a brief interview with the President, when the clear judgment of that far-seeing and sagacious statesman uttered through his lips the words which formed the suggestion of, and the keynote to, the judicious action of the Secretary of State afterwards.  ’I fear the traitors will prove to be white elephants,’ said Mr. Lincoln.  ’We must stick to American principles concerning the rights of neutrals,’ he continued.  ’We fought Great Britain for insisting, by theory and practise, on the right to do just what Captain Wilkes has just done.  If Great Britain shall now protest against the act, and demand their release, we must give them up, apologize for the act as a violation of our own doctrines, and thus forever bind her