Introduction

The North’s victory in the American Civil War had profound domestic and international significance. By prevailing in this epic conflict, the United States preserved both the nation’s territorial integrity and its experiment in republicanism and democracy. Sustaining territorial integrity and republicanism enabled the nation to continue its ascent toward world power status and to emerge in the twentieth century as the world’s foremost democratic government. The South’s secession and forceful defense of slavery challenged US nationalism, liberalism, and sense of providential destiny. The young nation had been an independent country for fewer than eighty years, and neither its survival nor its form of government was firmly established in 1861. To the contrary, at the midpoint of the nineteenth century, it was unclear that the “nation state—as opposed to empires or confederations—would define the political organization of Europe and the Americas” or that democratic government would not fall before monarchial or aristocratic rule in the western world. Therefore, the Union’s victory provided a great boost to both nationalism and liberalism in the Americas and Europe and reinforced the American self-image as a chosen people....

The Recognition and Cabinet Crises, 1862

This chapter focuses on Lincoln’s decision to reject calls for Seward’s replacement as secretary of state and on the two partners’ successful efforts to block European diplomatic recognition of the Confederacy and intervention in the American war. Seward skillfully managed maritime issues associated with the blockade, and Lincoln shifted the primary stated emphasis of US diplomacy from preserving the Union to freeing the slaves. This shift was embodied in the Emancipation Proclamation and linked northern victory to abolishing slavery. When combined with the Confederate retreat following the battle of Antietam and Seward’s ongoing threats, the North’s stand on the side of liberty ultimately convinced British leaders not to intervene or to recognize the South—making 1862 the war’s pivotal foreign policy year.

Conclusion

President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William Henry Seward confronted the greatest foreign policy challenge of their young, and still impermanent, nation’s existence. With the South’s secession and potential European intervention in the Civil War, national survival was literally at stake. Neither President Lincoln nor Secretary of State Seward could boast of the relevant foreign policy background and experience of several of their better-prepared predecessors, such as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, or John Quincy Adams. Still, both were highly intelligent, well-read, shrewd political operatives, who had developed great skill in managing difficult contemporaries and complex public issues and problems. They were also quick studies who learned from both successes and failures....

Victory and the Death of the Partnership, 1863–1865

This chapter examines US foreign policy challenges over the final two years of the war. Those challenges included the repercussions arising from US efforts to restrict neutral trade with the South, Confederate shipbuilding efforts in Great Britain and France, Confederate attempts to provoke an Anglo-American crisis by attacking the United States from Canada, and Napoleon III’s military and political intervention in Mexico and attempt to install a European monarch in the Western Hemisphere. By continuing their policy of belligerent warnings and timely conciliation, Lincoln and Seward successfully resolved all of these issues. Finally, this chapter includes coverage of the military and imperial dimensions of Lincoln’s policies toward Native Americans.

Origins of the Foreign Policy Partnership, 1801–1861

This chapter examines the genesis of the unlikely Lincoln-Seward foreign policy partnership. Attention is given to their respective childhoods and educational opportunities, marriages, family lives, and legal careers. Both men gravitated to politics and moved from the Whig to Republican Party in the 1850s. Despite Seward’s much greater political prominence and success, Lincoln was selected as the Republican nominee for president in 1860 and went on to win the general election. Lincoln then made Seward his secretary of state, established his status as senior partner, and instituted his one-war policy as the administration responded to the South’s secession from the Union.

The First Perilous Year, 1861

This chapter analyzes the bases and evolution of Lincoln and Seward’s personal friendship and professional partnership during the first year of the war. As Lincoln solidified his one-war policy and Seward implemented his purposeful bluster warning against European intervention in the American conflict, the two leaders responded to British and French recognition of the South’s status as a belligerent and instituted the North’s blockade of the Confederacy. Lincoln initiated his brilliant representation of the war’s international significance and assumed an increasingly active role as commander in chief, and Seward took the lead in the North’s decision to compromise and accept British demands in the dangerous Trent affair. All of this is set against British and French responses to the American war.