Fifty years in Wall Street

by Henry Clews

The Emperor was thoroughly posted in the affairs of this country. It seems that while he had resided in a small room in Hoboken, and took his meals at a twenty-five cent restaurant, paying for them with money borrowed from French patriots, on the very slim prospect of reaching the throne of France, he made the best use of his time, and he had studied the history and geography of the United States and Canada with great care and accuracy.

In justice to his character for gratitude, however, it must be said, in passing, that, like young “Corneel” Vanderbilt, he paid all the money he borrowed, and placed some of his New York and Hoboken creditors in good positions at the Tuileries, under the Second Empire. He never forgot a favor nor forgave an injury.

The Emperor’s knowledge of American affairs, as well as his ambitious designs, were briefly, but at the same time very fully disclosed, in conversation with Mr. Benjamin, at the Villa Eugenie, at Biarritz. “He turned with peculiar and undisguised eagerness,” said Mr. Benjamin, “to the Mexican question. He knew the very number of guns on the Morro, the sums the United States had spent on the fortifications in Florida, the exports and imports of Galveston and Matamoras, in fact everything which well informed local agents could have reported to an experienced statesman eager for information. He examined me again on Texas and its population, the disposition of the French residents, the tendencies of the German colonists, the feeling on the Mexican frontier. He observed that Louisiana was nothing but French at the bottom. I was fully persuaded that he proposed to seek in Mexico a compensation for the lost colonies in the West Indies, which, he said, could not be recovered, ‘sans nous brouiller avec nòs allies,’ (without embroiling us with our allies). He insisted upon it that France must, sooner or later, have a foothold (pied à terre) on the Florida coast, for the purpose of protecting her commerce in the Gulf, for, he added, ‘Nous ne voulons pas d’un autre Gibraltar de ce côté là,’ (we don’t want another Gibraltar on that side.”)

Mr. Slidell’s predecessor at Paris, Mr. Rost, had received assurance from the Duc de Morny, who was then next to the Emperor in his knowledge of State affairs, that the South would be recognized. It was only a question of time. After consulting with M. Thouvenel, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Persigny, Minister of the Interior; Fould, Minister of Finance; Rouher, Minister of Commerce; Baroche, President of the Council of State; Mocquard, Private Secretary of the Emperor; Count Walewski, De Morny and others, Slidell was satisfied that the Emperor was all right, and he wrote to Jeff. Davis & Co. as follows:

“The Emperor has invited the English Government to join with him in recognizing the South, but the English Government, owing to Earl Russell, has refused to act simultaneously with him.”

This statement of Slidell was true in one sense, but it was not strictly and diplomatically correct. There is no doubt that the English Government would have been anxious enough to join the Emperor in any scheme of conquest and spoliation that had a fair promise of success, and an average chance of avenging the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Bunker Hill, but both powers were playing at the game of diplomacy, each for the purpose of making the other responsible for taking the initiative in the recognition of the South. They were both very circumspect about committing themselves, and the Palmerston-Russell Cabinet, with that caution which always characterized old “Pam” in foreign affairs, would not recognize any suggestion from the Emperor that did not bear his signature. The Emperor thought to make use of a Mr. Lindsay, a wealthy shipowner and member of Parliament, to draw out the English Government, but the latter was not to be committed to any course of policy that might involve important responsibilities in the future through any second-hand authority.

The Emperor seemed to have opened his mind very freely to Mr. Lindsay. He told him that he would have taken steps to put an end to the blockade of the Southern ports if the English Ministry had intimated a willingness to act with him. He said he had forwarded intimation to this effect through Mr. Thouvenel, but had not received a satisfactory answer. He intimated that if England was ready, he was, and was prepared at once to despatch a formidable fleet to the Mississippi, on condition that England should send an equal force to demand free ingress and egress for their merchantmen, and for the cargoes of goods and supplies of cotton which were necessary to carry on the commerce of the world.

Napoleon was resolved to act, as he had always done, on the high ground of conferring universal favors on humanity.

This was an old trick in his family, but it did not work effectually this time. He said he had regarded the restoration of the Union impossible from the first, and for that reason had deprecated the continuance of the bloody contest, which could not lead to any other result than separation. He authorized Mr. Lindsay to make this statement to Lord Cowley, and to ascertain whether he would recommend the course indicated to his Government.

It is very refreshing to reflect on the sensitive exhibition of feeling displayed, in his ostensible attempt to stop the carnage and fratricidal strife, by the man who planned and directed the wholesale assassinations in connection with the sanguinary Coup d’Etat.