Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/339

 ABRAHAM LINCOLN remarkable success, the enormous duties devolving upon him of providing funds to supply the army at an expense amounting at certain periods to $3,000,000 a day; and Mr. Seward, in charge of the state department, held at bay the suppressed hostility of European nations. Of all his cabinet,, jhe president sustained with Mr. Seward relations 1 of the closest intimacy, and for that reason, per- 1 haps, shared more directly in the labors of his de- partment. JHe revised the first draft of most of Seward s important despatches, and changed and amended their language with remarkable wisdom and skill. He was careful to avoid all sources of controversy or ill-feeling with foreign nations, and when they occurred he did his best to settle them in the interests of peace, without a sacrifice of national dignity. At the end of the year 1861 the friendly relations between England and the United States were seri ously threatened by the capture of the confederate envoys, James Murray Mason and John Slidell, on board a British merchant-ship. Public senti ment approved the capture, and, as far as could be judged by every manifestation in the press and in congress, was in favor of retaining the prisoners and defiantly refusing the demand of England for their return. But when the president, after mature deliberation, decided that the capture was against American precedents, and directed their return to