Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, United States Minister to England 1856 to 1861

1858. July 5.—Yesterday, the Fourth of July, was commemorated for the first time, at a public dinner, by an association of Americans at London Tavern, in the city. The company was large, and remained together, speaking most tediously to toasts, until twelve at night. I thought the occasion a good one for announcing definitely the cessation of visiting or searching our merchant vessels.

Dined with the Duke of Newcastle; a brilliant and delightful company,—Lord Brougham, Earl Stanhope, Earl Grey, Lord Broughton, Bishop of Oxford, Sir Charles Wood, Lord Ashburton, Mr. Gladstone, etc.

1858. June 18.—The New York Herald disproves the reported aggression off Pensacola, and represents the idea of war as blown over. There would appear to have been great exaggeration in the accounts of outrage. It is, perhaps, owing to this discovery that I have had no new cases sent me from the State Department. The four or five received are far from being strong ones in incident or evidence.

At the Queen’s concert. An unusually numerous company. More than common display of plate in the supper-room, in consequence, I suppose, of the presence of the Belgian King, his daughter, the Duchess of Brabant, and his two sons. Quite unexpectedly to me, his Majesty singled me out of a group in which I was standing, conversing with Lord Palmerston. He said, “You are doing a great deal of good at this Court. Two such great nations as the United States and England should not quarrel, but remove all causes of difference.” He is certainly politically interested in preserving the general peace.

1858. June 17.—Rumor of an attack by a British cruiser upon one of our vessels in the Gulf of Pensacola, and a seaman killed. If this prove true, we shall be at loggerheads soon; and God speed the right.

In the afternoon went to the House of Lords. The Bishop of Oxford presented a petition from Jamaica against the conduct of Spain as to the slave-trade. He introduced it with an able speech. He was followed by Brougham, Malmesbury, Aberdeen, Grey, etc. Lord Malmesbury distinct in stating that his arrangement with me, giving up visit and search, was after consultation with the law officers of the Crown.

1858. June 10.—Reception and dance at Lady Palmerston’s. Had conversation with Stanley of Alderney, who seemed astonished when I gave an unqualified contradiction to the statement he borrowed from the Times, that slaves were sent into the United States from Cuba. I told him that was the way in which a bad cause was perpetually striving to bolster itself by inventions.

1858. June 8.—I ought to mark this day with a white stone, for, after great anxiety and labour, with varying hopes and fears for more than a week, I have succeeded in effecting an arrangement with Lord Malmesbury,—

1, that our construction of the law of nations, denying the right of visit and search in time of peace, is adopted; 2, that the aggressive acts complained of are, if true, wholly disavowed; 3, that a mode of verifying a flag hoisted by a merchantman shall be ascertained by negotiation alone; and, 4, that the practice of search be at once discontinued under peremptory orders. The concessions are complete; so much so that I should be unable to realize their having been obtained, but for the “Minute” made in writing at my request by the Earl himself.

1858. June 6.—Constant employment on the questions pending with the Foreign Office has prevented me from making memoranda. The conduct of the British naval cruisers is intolerable, and creates great anxiety as to the relations of the two countries. The cases of the Cortes, the A. A. Chapman, the Mobile, the Tropic Bird, and the comprehensive visitation of all our merchantmen in Sagua la Grande, connected with an arrogant general surveillance, make out a story of national outrage worse than anything heretofore experienced. I regard the emergency as justifying, nay, requiring, instructions to the United States Minister at this Court to demand peremptory orders to British naval officers on every station to cease visiting American vessels, and if not given in a fortnight, to ask his passports and quit the kingdom. My conviction is that such a course would be successful, and that our relations of amity would at once be restored and strengthened. I am afraid we are not prepared for so resolute a proceeding, and that we might suffer much at first; but we should soon rise to the proper national elevation and strength, and be advanced a century in dignity and character. The people at large never have faltered, and never will falter, in sustaining those who assert the independence and rights of their country.

A few days ago Sir E. B. Lytton accepted the Colonial Office, and Lord Stanley is transferred to the Presidency of the India Board of Control. The Ministry is becoming firmer and abler. It has a trump card in the American embroglio, which, if promptly and frankly played, will bind the Radicals permanently to them.

1858. May 29.—Two despatches from the State Department reached me on the subject of interference by British cruisers with our commerce in the West Indies and on the African coast, which may lead to important results. Have requested an interview with Lord Malmesbury.

1858. May 25.—Went in the evening to Lord Chief-Justice Campbell’s. Impossible to convey to his learned Lordship’s head an exact idea of the limited and federate character of the Government of the United States. He insists that Congress should suppress polygamy among the Mormons. I in vain tell him that, whatever may be the power of the local Legislature, Congress has nothing to do with religious belief, domestic relations, morals, or manners. Yet I hope the President will seize the opportunity given by their rebellion to disperse a vile superstitious sect which may, if allowed to take root, poison the whole frame of our social structure.