ear to European nations that
the United States was still powerful enough to resent foreign
interference. The final decision in the _Trent_ affair, such was the
situation in the American Cabinet, rested on Seward alone and that
decision was, from the first, for peace.

Nor did Seward later hold any grudge over the outcome. America in
general, however, though breathing freely again as the war cloud passed,
was bitter. "The feeling against Great Britain is of intense hatred and
the conclusion of the whole matter is, that we must give up the
traitors, put down the rebellion, increase our navy, perfect the
discipline of the 600,000 men in the field, and then fight Great
Britain[486]." Lowell, in one of the most emotional of his "Bigelow
Papers," wrote, on January 6, 1862:

"It don't seem hardly right, John,
When both my hands was full,
To stump me to a fight, John--
Your cousin, tu, John Bull!
Ole Uncle S., sez he, 'I guess
We know it now,' sez he,
'The lion's paw is all the law,
Accordin' to J.B.,
Thet's fit for you an' me[487]!'"

It was not the demand itself for the release of Mason and Slidell that
in the end so stirred America as the warlike tone of the British press
and the preparations of the Government. Even after their surrender
America was further incensed by British boasting that America had
yielded to a threat of war, as in the _Punch_ cartoon of a penitent
small boy, Uncle Sam, who "says he is very sorry and that he didn't mean
to do it," and so escapes the birching Britannia was about to
administer. America had, in all truth, yielded to a threat, but disliked
being told so, and regarded the threat itself as evidence of British
ill-will[488]. This was long the attitude of the American public.

In England the knowledge of America's decision caused a great national
sigh of relief, coupled with a determination to turn the cold shoulder
to the released envoys. On January 11, the _Times_ recounted the earlier
careers of Mason and Slidell, and stated that these two "more than any
other men," were responsible for the traditional American "insane
prejudice against England," an assertion for which no facts were offered
in proof, and one much overestimating the influence of Mason and Slidell
on American politics before secession. They were "about the most
worthless booty it would be possible to extract from the jaws of the
American lion ... So we do sincerely hope