Letter to William Seward from Henry S. Sanford

Letter to William Seward from Henry S. Sanford

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Foreign public opinion

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Economic aspects

Cotton

Sanford, the Union's minister to Belgium, describes a reception he attended held by the French minister of foreign affairs, Edouard Thouvenel, in Paris. Thouvenel stopped Sanford to tell him that he hoped the war would end soon to reopen the free flow of cotton from the U.S. to France. “We are nearly out of cotton, and cotton we must have," Thouvenel said, according to Sanford.

Henry S. Sanford

Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester.

1862-04-10

AB, PP

Public Domain

pdf

Excerpt: I left Brussels yesterday afternoon for a day’s sojourn here and on arriving went to M. Thouvenel’s reception, where I spent the evening . The conversation I had there I will give you in brief. He received me with great cordiality and stopping me before I proceeded into the reception room commenced upon our affairs. After speaking of our victories, his wishes, he said, was for the success of our cause, but above all for the early termination, one way or another, of the war, which was bearing heavily upon them in France. They were nearly out of cotton, he continued and cotton they must have.

Sanford, William. Letter to William Seward from Henry S. Sanford, April 10, 1862. Letter. William Henry Seward Papers, 1730-1917. From Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester. Letter cited in Chapter 9 of Empire of Cotton: A Global History by Sven Beckert. New York: Vintage Books, 2015.