Item No. 6906536

Kentucky lawyer, diplomat, and soldier William Preston wrote this letter to former United States vice president and then-minister to Great Britain George Mifflin Dallas on August 17, 1860, while at sea aboard the steam ship Canada. In it Preston seeks passports for fellow travelers, discusses an antislavery snub received by Dallas, and laments division in the U.S. as “apathy that precedes death.”

Preston had been appointed minister to Spain by President James Buchanan in 1858, and was then en route to London following the defeat in the U.S. Congress of an agreement with Spain that would have resolved long-lingering diplomatic disagreements between the two nations, including settlement of Spanish claims stemming from the Amistad affair.

Writing to his colleague Dallas in London, Preston wishes his letter to vouch for two fellow Kentuckians on business in Europe whose passports had not come through before their departure. He writes:

Wm. Nave & Wm. Singleton, citizens of Kentucky, who are with me on this vessel, visit Europe to purchase stock, &c., for breeding. I applied for their passports to the State Department, as I know both of them to be citizens of the United States by birth, but from some delay or unexplained cause, they were not sent in time for the sailing of the Canada. I wrote to Wm. Trescot, the Asst. Secy. of State, to have their passports sent on to me by the Asia, but, as they will not arrive on time, I have given this note to Wm. Nave, so that they may obtain passports at London. I personally know that they are entitled to passports.

Preston then comments on the difficulty of the Canada’s journey. “We have had an unlucky voyage having been on the rocks at Halifax for two days,” he writes. “I shall debark at Queenstown [today’s Cobh] & go through Ireland to London, as I am heartily tired of the voyage.”

He then discusses the diplomatic snub Dallas had received in July at the Fourth International Statistical Congress. At this meeting, which Dallas attended as an observer, the former Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain Lord Henry Brougham had called Dallas out by name when noting that a “colored gentlemen”—a delegate from Canada—was in attendance. Unable to leave the room through the cheering delegates, and unprepared to make an immediate public response to the jab at U.S. slavery policy, Dallas remained silent. Lord Brougham’s apology before the Statistical Congress days later was considered unsatisfactory by the Americans, and these feelings would simmer through the tumultuous months leading up to the U.S. presidential election that fall.

In his letter do Dallas, Preston expresses his support:

Your dispatch in regard to the escapade of Lord Brougham at the Statistical Congress had been received at Washington before my departure. Notwithstanding some comments of our press may meet your eye, in favor of some active retort to the affront, yet the general opinion is that you pursued the course dictated by dignity and good sense, & that your impassibility was the most appropriate and emphatic rebuke that could have been given to his Lordship.

Closing his letter, Preston seems resigned to the calamity to come:

There is great disorder in the United States. Parties are irreconcilably divided by issues of incommensurate importance, & there is greater real danger, in my opinion, than at any former epoch. There is no longer violence, rage, & fury, but the apathy that precedes death.

Following the election Abraham Lincoln in November, Preston was determined to resign his diplomatic post. He officially did so March 5, 1861—the day after Lincoln’s inauguration. Returning to Kentucky, he would be appointed one of three commissioners to negotiate admission of Kentucky to the Confederacy. He would go on to serve as a volunteer aide to his brother-in-law General Albert Sidney Johnston, and would command a brigade at the battles of Murfreesboro and Chickamauga. In 1864 he would be appointed minister to Mexico, but was unable to reach his post. Following the war he would serve in the Kentucky State House.

The letter was written on four pages of a letter sheet measuring about 5 1/4” x 8”. Excellent condition with light toning. Creased at the original folds. The full transcript appears below:

Steamer Canada
At Sea, 17 August 1860

My dear Sir
Wm. Nave & Wm. Singleton, citizens of Kentucky, who are with me on this vessel, visit Europe to purchase stock, &c., for breeding. I applied for their passports to the State Department, as I know both of them to be citizens of the United States by birth, but from some delay or unexplained cause, they were not sent in time for the sailing of the Canada. I wrote to Wm. Trescot, the Asst. Secy. of State, to have their passports sent on to me by the Asia, but, as they will not arrive on time, I have given this note to Wm. Nave, so that they may obtain passports at London. I personally know that they are entitled to passports.

We have had an unlucky voyage having been on the rocks at Halifax for two days. I shall debark at Queenstown & go through Ireland to London, as I am heartily tired of the voyage.

Your dispatch in regard to the escapade of Lord Brougham at the Statistical Congress had been received at Washington before my departure. Notwithstanding some comments of our press may meet your eye, in favor of some active retort to the affront, yet the general opinion is that you pursued the course dictated by dignity and good sense, & that your impassibility was the most appropriate and emphatic rebuke that could have been given to his Lordship.

There is great disorder in the United States. Parties are irreconcilably divided by issues of incommensurate importance, & there is greater real danger, in my opinion, than at any former epoch. There is no longer violence, rage, & fury, but the apathy that precedes death.
I remain
Yours truly
W. Preston

His Excellency
Geo. M. Dallas