Slidell, John

Submitted by Mike Miller

John Slidell, born at New York in 1795, died in 1871. In 1838 he married Miss Deslondes, a beautiful creole, and after his return from a European tour was elected to congress from the First Louisiana district. After the defeat of Martin Van Buren in 1844, Slidell went to Europe to smother his disappointment, but returned and entered with earnestness into party politics. He was sent as United States envoy to Mexico, completed his arguments in a short time and returned with the news that war was the only alternative. In 1849 he was defeated by Soule' in his memorable battle for the United States senate. He, however, succeeded Soule'. The events connected with his name in 1861 are too well known. He was taken off a British boat by the federals while en route to Europe as an ambassador of the confederacy. The British enforced international law in this case, and by filling Canada, from bleak Labrador to the St. Clair river, with British regulars and Canadian militia, drove the federal authorities to surrender their prisoners, almost before Lincoln could obtain the acknowledgment he desired from the British, namely, that it is against international law to make an arrest on a boat sailing under the British or any other flag, unless it be the flag of an open enemy.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 498-499. Published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.