After all necessary arrangements for their departure had been made, Messrs. Mason and Slidell experienced some difficulty in getting out of the country. A strict blockade of all the Confederate ports was maintained at that time and it was necessary for these men to await a favorable opportunity to escape on some departing blockade-runner.

In the earliest days of blockade running, it was not always foreign vessels alone that engaged in the business. The Confederates possessed a few steamers that were armed for the naval service of the South and also did duty as blockade-runners, carrying cargoes in and out of the blockaded ports as often as they could conveniently do so. These vessels were commissioned as privateers, or bore Jefferson Davis’s letters of marque, in order that, while on their voyages, they might capture and burn Federal merchant ships whenever they fell in with them. To this class of vessels belonged the Gordon, which was afterward renamed the Theodora.

Charleston seems to have been a favorite port for the operations of the blockade-runners. It seems to have been more difficult to guard than any of the other ports, and it was conveniently near to the neutral ports of the West Indies. To this port, then, the commissioners accordingly came. It was announced by the Confederate press that they would take passage on the privateer Nashville, a very swift vessel which was then lying in the harbor. On the night of October 10, 1861, the Nashville passed out of the harbor in order to draw off any Federal cruiser which might be hovering around outside with the intention of giving chase to the vessel that should escape with the commissioners on board.

It was arranged for the envoys to take passage on the armed steamer Theodora. The entire party was composed of Mr. Mason and his secretary, Mr. McFarland; Mr. Slidell, his wife and four children; Mr. Slidell’s secretary, Mr. George Eustis, who was also accompanied by his wife, a daughter of Mr. Corcoran, the eminent banker of Washington city.

The night of October 12 was dark and stormy. Rain was falling in torrents as the Theodora left Charleston harbor a little past midnight. In the intense darkness which prevailed she escaped the watchful cruisers of the blockading squadron and arrived at Nassau, New Providence, on the 13th. This was a British port where blockade-runners and Confederate vessels of whatever kind always received a warm welcome.

The United States government sent armed vessels in pursuit as soon as it was learned that Mason and Slidell had escaped, but the ship which conveyed the envoys was not overtaken. The secret of their movements had been well kept and several days had elapsed before news of their departure was published, even in the Charleston papers. It is probable, therefore, that the Federal authorities did not learn of the escape in time for their steamers to have any chance whatever to overtake the Theodora.

At Nassau the envoys had fully expected to take passage on an English steamer, but were deterred from so doing when they learned that the vessel would stop at New York on her route to Liverpool. Their journey was, therefore, continued on board the Theodora to Cardenas in Cuba, whence they afterward proceeded overland to Havana, and took lodgings at the Hotel Cubana while waiting for the English steamer. The Theodora continued her voyage to Havana and steamed into that port on the 17th with Confederate colors flying. She was received with great honors at the Cuban capital. A public reception was held at the Tacon Theater in honor of her officers and crew. Captain Lockwood, of the Theodora, was presented with a “handsome Confederate flag” by the ladies of Havana, who sympathized with the southern cause. After a short stay the Confederate steamer returned to Charleston.

As soon as the envoys arrived they were waited upon by her Britannic majesty’s consul at Havana, Mr. Crawford, in full dress. This gentleman introduced them to Captain-General Serrano as ministers of the Confederate States on their way to England and France,⁠[1] but the Spanish officer would not receive them officially but only upon the footing of distinguished gentlemen and strangers. The English consul was very attentive to the envoys during their entire stay at Havana. No attempt was made to conceal their station or identity, and with a full knowledge of this, the consul’s son, who was agent for the British line of steamers touching at Havana, allowed them to engage passage to Southampton.

On November 7 the envoys and their party embarked on board the British steamer Trent at Havana, with the full knowledge and consent of her captain, who afterward did what he could to conceal their identity by refusing to allow his passenger list and papers of the vessel to be seen by a boarding officer from the San Jacinto.

The Trent was a British packet which made regular trips between Vera Cruz and the Danish island of St. Thomas. It is was one of a line of steamers which carried the English mails under contract with the government. At St. Thomas direct connection was made with steamers running to Southampton. The Trent had on board probably a hundred passengers, a cargo of considerable value and a large quantity of specie. The departure of the envoys from Havana on board this vessel seemed to assure the safety of the remainder of their journey, since it was to be made under a neutral flag.

The apparently successful journey of their commissioners was a cause of congratulation among the Confederates. In discussing this matter the Richmond Examiner probably voiced the sentiment of the Confederacy when it said: “By this time our able representatives abroad, Messrs. Mason and Slidell, are pretty well on their way over the briny deep toward the shores of Europe. We commit no indiscretion in stating that they have embarked upon a vessel which will be abundantly able to protect them against most of the Yankee cruisers they may happen to meet, and the chances are consequently a hundred to one that they will reach their destination in safety. The malice of our Yankee enemies will thus be foiled and the attempt to capture them fail of success. Great will be the mortification of the Yankees when they shall have learned this result. Our ministers did not choose to leave at any other port than one of our own or under any but the Confederate flag.

“We anticipate from Mr. Mason’s presence in England a very happy effect upon our interests in that quarter. Mr. Mason is, in his points of character, a very good representative of the best qualities of the English people. He is frank, bold and straightforward, disdaining all concealments or evasions. His diplomacy will consist in telling the truth in the language of a gentleman and a statesman. As the representative of a name linked with the earlier ages of the American republic, an ex-senator of the United States for many years, and the honored servant of the Confederate government, he will wield an influence abroad such as perhaps no other man could hope to enjoy. He is the very best man we could send abroad to show foreign nations that the Southerner is a different type altogether from the Yankee—that he scorns like the latter to lie, to evade or dissemble, to fawn or play the bully and the braggart; that the despicable traits of avarice, meanness, cant and vulgarity which enter into the universal idea of a Yankee were left behind us when we seceded from the Lincoln government. We are glad to be able to contrast such a gentleman with Charles Francis Adams, the Puritan representative of freedom at the Court of St. James, and he knows little of British character who is disposed to set a slight value upon the advantages derived from the personal character of a representative in this matter. We believe that at no distant day Mr. Mason will have the pleasure of signing a treaty of amity, on behalf of the Confederate States, with one of the oldest and greatest dynasties of Europe, and thus cement those relations of commerce upon which our future so largely depends.”⁠[2]

AUTHORITIES AND REFERENCES.

1. Battles and Leaders of the Civil War.

2. Bernard, Montague: Neutrality of Great Britain During the American Civil War.

3. Lossing, B. J.: The Civil War in America.

4. Sharf, J. Thomas: History of the Confederate States Navy.

5. Reports of Captain Wilkes.

6. Richmond Examiner, Oct. 29, 1861.

7. Victor, O. J.: History of the Southern Rebellion.