James Murray Mason "Envoy To England" November 3, 1798 - April 28, 1871
James Murray Mason, a descendant of a prominent Virginia family, became a lawyer and served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. He very actively supported backcountry interests at both state and federal levels. As a senator (1847-1861), Mason was a staunch states'-rights Democrat. He drafted the Fugitive Slave Act, which supported his conviction that slavery was the cornerstone of Southern society. When Abraham Lincoln was elected president, Mason became convinced that the only way the South could preserve its identity was by establishing its sovereignty.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis chose James Mason to serve as the Confederacy's envoy to England. It was a natural choice for Davis: Mason was an old friend and a 10-year veteran of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
When Mason and John Slidell were seized in 1861 on the British steamer Trent, a war almost started between England and the United States, and sympathy for the Confederacy grew in the British business community. This sympathetic attitude toward the Confederacy aided Mason in coordinating purchases for Confederate agents and in selling bonds in the private sector in England. The British refused, however, to receive him officially.
Mason wanted to convince the British government that its best interests lay in supporting an independent Southern nation. Rather than compete with Britain's industrial position, Mason proposed that the Confederate states function as an agricultural satellite, with the Confederacy buying manufactured goods from Britain and supplying cotton for British mills.
Mason's "cotton diplomacy" was not effective with the British government, largely because England had a two-year inventory of cotton set aside. A loss of Southern cotton threatened Britain less than the loss of the lucrative Northern wartime market.
Fascinating Fact: It was James Mason who, as a U.S. Senator, drafted the Fugitive Slave Act, which passed both houses of Congress in 1850. This controversial law provided for the return to their owners of slaves who had escaped to freedom in the North.
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