Trent Affair.

Trent Affair. In October 1861 Captain Charles Wilkes, U.S.N., intercepted at sea the British mail-steamer Trent, bound from Havana to St Thomas, and took off two Confederate commissioners accredited to France, senators Mason and Slidell, who were among her passengers. They were taken to Boston, and imprisoned in Fort Warren, but were released on January 1, 1862, on the demand of the British government, and suffered to proceed to Europe. The affair created intense excitement at the time, but Secretary Seward accepted Britain's demand as an adoption of the American doctrine which denied the 'right of search,' and on that ground replied that the prisoners would be 'cheerfully given up.'