Britannia's Fist: From Civil War to World War: An Alternate History (8 page)

Still, Seward was an enormous presence in any room. A slight man, thin-faced with a mop of tousled hair that no comb dared approach, he was the master of his own domain of foreign policy, subject only to Lincoln’s broad policy guidance. William Russell, the famous British journalist, described him in 1861 as “a subtle, quick man, rejoicing in power, given to perorate and to oracular utterances, fond of badinage, bursting with the importance of state mysteries, and with the dignity of directing foreign policy of the greatest country—as all Americans think—in the world.”
³
He had not hesitated to use that power in the dangerous first months of Lincoln’s presidency. He had recommended and executed the policy to suspend the writ of habeas corpus to arrest thousands of Southern sympathizers and collaborators. He had pressured the British diplomatically by putting on an aggressive, anti-British front to warn them off from supporting the South too much. That and every other
measure to curb British support for the Confederacy had failed. That failure was the subject of today’s cabinet meeting and Seward’s briefing. It would be laced with the Secretary’s widely acknowledge gift for swearing, something Lincoln took enormous amusement in.

“We are approaching a damned crisis we do not seem able to control. Ambassador Adams reports that the work on the two infernal rams at the Laird Brothers’ shipbuilding works in Birkenhead near Liverpool continues at an accelerated pace. Adams writes as of the 11th of last month, ‘All the appliances of British skill to the arts of destruction appear to be resorted to for the purpose of doing injury to the people of the United States.… It is not unnatural that such proceedings should be regarded by the government and people of the United States with the greatest alarm, virtually as tantamount to a participation in the war by the government of Great Britain.’”
⁴

Seward continued, “I do not need to remind you that Laird built the infamous
Alabama
. Her construction number was 292; that of the rams, 294 and 295. Laird Brothers is so damned confident that they mock us with the very ship’s construction numbers. Our consul in Liverpool, Thomas Dudley, has reported in minute detail the progress of construction and proof that they are intended for delivery to Confederate agents.” He brought a letter out his portfolio. “This is from Dudley on the 21st of last month, describing the construction of even another ram up in Glasgow. ‘On Thursday of last week I went to Glasgow and took with me one of my men. I obtained a good view of the Ram building for the Confederates by George Thompson from the river, which is very narrow. She is up high and so much exposed that I could see her as if in the yard. Only a part of the armour plates are on as yet, and from appearances I should judge she could not be ready for launching for two months at least.’ He also writes they intend to name this ram the
Virginia
.”
⁵

Seward went on, the steam almost rising from his collar. “Adams presents these proofs to the British Foreign Minister, and Sir John Russell, in turn, replied with a straight face that they constitute no real proofs, that they are based on ‘hearsay rumor.’ I am convinced he is only following the direction of the Prime Minister. Lord Palmerston is no friend of the United States and sets the tone for the entire cabinet. He is set upon the success of the rebellion. I am convinced that otherwise the English Ministry are our friends with the exception of the chief. His course and conduct are execrable.” He handed the papers to Lincoln.
⁶

“Seward,” began Lincoln with such a hard edge that the Secretary of State straightened in his chair, “I would not so easily assume Russell’s
good will. He has expressed the opinion that the South should be and will be independent. I still haven’t forgotten his comments on the Emancipation Proclamation.” His hand grasped the papers so tightly that they crumpled as his jaw set hard. “That man is no friend of the United States.” The cabinet was taken aback. None of them had ever heard him speak so harshly of anyone.

The President picked up another document from the table and went on, “Russell wrote, ‘There seems to be no declaration of a principle adverse to slavery in this proclamation. It is a measure of a very questionable kind.’
⁷
A very questionable kind? How dare he affront this great thing we are about? I have to bring the people along on emancipation step by step. They will not be rushed, but are willing to learn. I cannot beat into them what only time and the evidence of their own common and moral senses tell them.” His fist with the crumpled papers pounded the arm of his chair.
⁸

“England will live to regret her inimical attitude towards us. After the collapse of the rebellion, John Bull will find that he has injured himself much more seriously than us.”
⁹

Seward tried to lighten the mood. “I have this description from a fellow countryman of Russell’s, Sidney Smith. He said of Russell, ‘He would have been willing to have built St. Peter’s, commanded the Channel Squadron, or to have operated on a patient for the stone and would not have been deterred by the collapse of the sacred edifice, or the patient’s death.’” The corners of a few dour faces rose.

“I’ve heard that Russell is only 5 foot 4 inches and barely weighs 8 stone. Why, Little Johnny Russell gives small men a bad name. He was once, as Smith said, ‘over six foot tall but he has been so constantly kept in hot water that he is boiled down to the proportions in which you now behold him.’” Half smiles broke into laughter.

Lincoln had quickly shed his uncharacteristic anger, and he was not to be outdone in story telling. “That reminds me,” he began—for those around Lincoln, those three words—were very familiar “of a barber in Sangamon County. He had just gone to bed, when a stranger came along and said he must be shaved; that he had four days’ beard on his face and was going to a ball, and that the beard must come off. Well, the barber reluctantly got up, and dressed, and seated the man in a chair with a back so low that every time he bore down on him he came near dislocating his victim’s neck. He began by lathering his face, including his nose, eyes, and ears, stropped his razor on his boot, and then made a
drive at the man’s countenance as if he had practiced mowing a stubblefield. He made a bold swath across the cheek, carrying away the beard, a pimple, and two warts. The man in the chair ventured the remark, ‘You appear to make everything level as you go.’ Said the barber, ‘Yes, and if this handle don’t break, I guess I’ll get away with what there is there.’ The man’s cheeks were so hollow that the barber could not get down into the valleys with the razor, and his ingenious idea occurred to him to stick his finger in the man’s mouth and press out the cheeks. Finally he cut clear through the cheek and into his own finger. He pulled the finger out of the man’s mouth, snapped the blood off it, glared at him and said, ‘There, you lantern-jawed cuss, you’ve made me cut my finger.’”

Lincoln concluded with a twinkle in his eye, “Now, England will find that she has got the South into a pretty bad scrape by trying to administer to her, and in the end she will find that she has only cut her own finger.”
¹⁰

The men burst out laughing. Even Gideon Welles nodded his great bushy beard. If ever there was a flinty New England Yankee, it was Welles. He was a good Navy Secretary and a War Democrat whom Lincoln brought into the cabinet to attract support for the effort to restore the Union. Welles had the wit to use Fox and did so now that Lincoln was in a good mood. “I would like Fox to discuss the potentialities of these ships.” Lincoln nodded, and an assistant went to fetch him.

But Lincoln was on a roll and went on. “It makes me think of an Indian chief that we had out West. He was visited by an Englishman once who tried to impress him with the greatness of England. ‘Why,’ said he to the chief, ‘the sun never sets on England.’ ‘Humph!’ said the Indian. ‘I suppose it’s because God wouldn’t trust them in the dark.’”
¹¹

They were still laughing when Fox entered the room to lay out the facts in stark detail. The two rams were iron hulled, 230 feet in length by 45 feet in the beam. They carried 4.5 inches of armor on the hull, which was designed to be only 6 feet above the waterline. They carried four heavy 9-inch British rifled guns, two each in twin turrets in 10 inches of armor. They had a speed of 10.5 knots and a cruising range of 3,000 miles. Most ominously, though, were the 7-foot steel rams jutting from the prows, an innovation reintroduced from ancient times.

“Those are facts, gentlemen, of the ships themselves. The ships are Numbers 294 and 295, and are being built in the same slip as the
Alabama
. Mr. Dudley’s quick fingers have acquired for us the intent of the rebels. Their chief agent in Britain, James Bulloch, has written, ‘I designed
these ships for something more than harbour or even coast defence, and I confidently believe, if ready for sea now, they could sweep away the entire blockading fleet of the enemy.’”

Lincoln calmly broke the silence that followed that announcement. “Gus, when do we expect the first ship to be finished?”

“Our best estimate is late September, sir.”

Lincoln turned to Seward. “Mr. Secretary, have we exhausted every means to persuade the British government to intervene and block the delivery of these ships?”

“Mr. President, we face the subtle but no less malevolent hostility of Palmerston. The Prime Minister works his hostility out like a puppeteer. Russell can do nothing to block him. His Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Gladstone, is his ally. Is there anyone in this room that forgets his open endorsement of British recognition of the Confederacy last October?” Seward snorted in disgust. “He openly stated that the rebels had made a government and an army, and infamously ‘what is more than either, they have made a nation.’
¹²
He publicly announced that the Confederacy would win its independence. The announcement caused a sensation in Europe and a case of delirium in the South.”

Lincoln seemed lost in thought once Seward finished speaking, and no one else wanted to break into it. The clicking of the clock filled the room. The President leaned back in his chair, crossed his gangly legs, and put his long hands on the armrests. “Since the early days of this administration, I have done everything in my power to avoid being dragged into a second war, firm in the belief that the Union can bear only one war at a time. That is why during the Trent Affair I chose to suffer the public outrage and return the Confederate commissioners. The British were serious about war, and we were not.”
¹³

Turning to look at John Bright’s picture on the wall, he said, “There are times when a policy simply can no longer be sustained. Our foreign trade is in a shambles, our merchant fleet in ruins or fled to foreign flags, economic ruin spreads along the East Coast. There may come a time when I can no longer ignore these injuries.” Looking at Seward, he said, “Mr. Secretary, we must prepare a message for Mr. Adams to present to Lord Russell, a message that his government cannot ignore, that there is a line that cannot be crossed.”

Fox saw his opening. “Mr. President,” then remembering Welles, he added, “Mr. Secretary,” and nodded. Navy Secretary Welles was a man who could be ruffled, if the proprieties were ignored. “May I
suggest another measure that could prevent a war even if the British look the other way while the ships escape into international waters?”

Lincoln was intrigued, “Go on, Gus.”

“As you know, the Foreign Enlistment Act was passed some years ago ostensibly to prevent British subjects from violating British neutrality by providing overt military assistance to a belligerent. Unfortunately, for us, the law was written so loosely that the Confederates have been able to sail the equivalent of a commerce-raiding fleet through it.

“The law forbids British subjects and firms from supplying ships of war to a belligerent, that is, ships outfitted with guns, ammunition, and military fittings in general. It also forbids the recruitment of British subjects as crews for belligerent warships. Our rebel friends get around this by building what are obviously commerce raiders but without the guns, ammunition, and fittings. Then as with the
Alabama
, they sneaked it out of Liverpool Harbor and sailed it off to the Azores, where it married up with another ship carrying guns, ammunition, fittings, and military stores, as well as a mostly British, former Royal Navy crew. The military cargo was transferred and fitted to the commerce raider in short order.”

Seward added, “We have evidence that British officials from the harbor master in Liverpool to the Foreign Ministry itself connived to alert the Confederate agents in the port to take the ship out when our diplomatic pressure became too great.” He nodded to Fox to continue.

“Yes, that is just my point. We can expect the British to try this again. If we intercept the rams just outside of British waters in the Irish Sea, we can seize or sink them easily since they will be unarmed and with minimal crew.”

Seward thumped the table with a bang. “Excellent. Just what I have been recommending to you, Gideon!”

Welles glowered. “And I have told you, Bill, we simply do not have the warships to pull off blockade duty. Even one purpose-built warship is too much.”

Fox had an answer. “Mr. Secretary, we do not need to use such ship. The rams will be unarmed and with only a small transfer crew on its sea trials voyage. What we need is something fast with a bold captain to strike suddenly like a shark.”

Lincoln said, “I like what I’m hearing. Go on, Gus. And what will you use if not a purpose-built warship? And who will be our bold captain?”

“I have him downstairs, Mr. President. It is Lt. Roswell Lamson of the
Nanesmond
. I took the liberty of ordering him to the Navy Yard.”

“I’ve heard of this young man. Didn’t he bring in quite prize just a few days ago?”

“Yes, sir, the fastest ship on record, the British mail packet the
Margaret and Jesse
. And here is my second point. Such a stroke requires the greatest speed and agility, and that is just what the
Margaret and Jesse
has—sixteen knots to the ten and a half knots for the rams.”