f the North, however, with comparatively few but very
troublesome exceptions, gave earnest and enthusiastic support to the
National Government. Committees were formed everywhere to aid the armies
in the field, to provide for the wounded and the sick and to assist the
families of absent soldiers. In the darkest days of the struggle the
people never lost faith in the ultimate triumph of the Union. While
statesmen and editors professing to be superior to their fellows in
knowledge and foresight saw only the gloomy side and predicted the defeat
and downfall of the Republic, the popular heart was true and confident
and courageous. Upon the people's arms Lincoln could always lean in times
of severest trial and anxiety, assured of comfort, support and strength.

* * *

The unfriendliness of Great Britain and France was a most serious and
ever-present danger to the United States throughout the whole period of
the war, and was prolific of injury to American interests. From the
first Great Britain showed a conscious unfriendly purpose. That
government privately proposed to France, even before Queen Victoria's
proclamation recognizing the insurgents as belligerents, to open direct
negotiations with the South, and the British Legation at Washington was
used for secret communications with the Confederate President. When the
Confederate agents, James M. Mason and John Slidell and their secretaries,
were taken from the British mail-steamer Trent by Captain Wilkes, of the
American warship San Jacinto, the course of the British Cabinet indicated
an unfriendliness so extreme as to approach a desire for war. Peremptory
instructions were sent to Lord Lyons, the British Minister at Washington,
to demand the release of the men arrested, and to leave Washington if the
demand was not complied with in seven days. Vessels of war were fitted
out by the British, and troops pressed forward to Canada. The official
statement of the American Minister at London that the act had not been
authorized by the American Government was kept from the British people,
and public opinion was encouraged to drift into a state of hostility
toward the United States. The surrender of Mason and Slidell removed all
excuse for war, much to the disgust, doubtless, of the ruling class in
Great Britain. Leading English statesmen made public speeches favoring
the Confederacy. Lord Russell, himself, the Secretary of State for
Foreign A