(1861) Incident in the American Civil War involving freedom of the seas.
On Nov. 8, 1861, the Union frigate San Jacinto stopped the neutral British steamer Trent to seize Confederate commissioners John Slidell and James Murray Mason , who were en route to England and France to seek support for the Confederacy. Protests in Britain denounced the action and called for war. On December 26, William Seward admitted the Union's error in not bringing the ship into a U.S. port for adjudication, and the two men were soon released.