A Rainbow of Blood: The Union in Peril an Alternate History (7 page)

"And shame that when the great republic has remonstrated again
and again about the commerce raiders built at Birkenhead, this government has turned a blind eye. Lord Russell has told the House that the
Americans offered insufficient proofs that the purpose of the ships being
built was warlike. I have seen copies of these proofs, and there is nothing
insufficient about them. Had they been written with the finger of God
Almighty Himself, I doubt not Lord Russell would still proclaim them
insufficient. He would refer them to the opinion of Lucifer. Is there any doubt where his sympathies lie? Has anyone forgotten his efforts to force
a settlement on the Americans that would have served to achieve that independence, which the slave power has not been able to win on the field
of battle. I have it on good authority that the notorious Alabama escaped
on the warning of a friend of the slave power in the Foreign Office before
the government was moved to detain the ship. Strangely, North Carolina
seems to have bolted Liverpool in the same way." 15

The attention of the House turned to Russell, who betrayed no outward concern, but the other cabinet ministers were not so calm. Now
voices cascaded down the benches, "Answer! Answer! Answer!" Russell
stood almost languidly.

"I assure the House that every consideration was given the proofs
provided by Mr. Adams, the American minister. He was notified of the
decision to detain the ships in proper time."

Bright shot back, "Proper time? Mr. Adams had shown me before
his departure the correspondence with your lordship's office. Your own
signature, sir, says otherwise. For three crucial days after you had decided to detain the rams, according to what you have told this House, Mr.
Adams had no word of this decision. Instead, he could only contemplate
your last correspondence, which dismissed his proofs. Is it any wonder
that he then delivered his government's ultimatum and added to it the
fateful lines, 'It would be superfluous of me to say this means war?' Is it
any wonder that the American plan to intercept the rams at sea was then
set automatically into motion?"

The House became a bedlam. It was minutes before the Speaker
could regain order. Bright spoke again. "The government and privilege
have willfully and fecklessly heaped up a mountain of tinder, and they
are outraged that a match has fallen into it. The conflagration that rages
has touched many humble homes in this country and in America, and
for what, I ask the House, for what?"

"Treason!" shrieked a voice from above the ministers' bench.

Bright turned a baleful eye on its source. "Is it treason to want this
country to stand back from the precipice before we go tumbling over
into the abyss? For God's sake, make peace!"

A bushy-bearded, slovenly man in the gallery looked down with
glee at the roiling anger of the members. His small, dark eyes glinted in delight. Yes, he thought, make peace! But not just yet. He desperately
hoped the fools would not. War with the Union could deal the forces of
privilege and reaction a mortal blow and free the working class of their
chains. He could feel in his bones the revolutionary condition coming to
a boil. Still, it would be the title of his next day's editorial in the People's
Paper, but its main audience would be the New York Tribune, the largest
newspaper in the world, for which he worked as a correspondent.16 Karl
Marx had composed the piece in his head before he had even left Parliament that morning.

THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D.C., 7:00 PM, OCTOBER 15, 1863

Baron Edouard de Stoeckl came to the point. "Mr. President, we are then
agreed on the principles of the treaty of alliance between His Imperial
Majesty's government and the United States." It was a statement, not a
question.

Lincoln nodded and said, "We are, Baron." Secretary of State William H. Seward sat back with a look of supreme satisfaction. He had
done the detailed negotiations with the Russian ambassador. The day of
the Royal Navy's attack on USS Kearsarge in the Upper Bay of New York,
Baron Stoeckl had offered an immediate alliance under sealed instructions from Czar Alexander II, to be opened only upon an attack on the
United States by Great Britain or France. The devil was in the details,
though, and it took two weeks of wrangling to birth terms acceptable
to the world's greatest autocracy and the world's greatest democracy.
Hawk-faced with a roman nose and an unruly head of hair, the little
American was so thin he would not have had trouble hiding behind a
rail. Yet he had been a pillar of support for Lincoln once he had figured
out Lincoln would not let him run the government. Lincoln had also
found a good friend in Seward.

The baron was a thorough professional in the highest traditions of
European diplomatic service. His English was excellent, and he was not
really a baron. The bogus title served to impress the Americans. Son of
an Austrian diplomat and the daughter of the Russian dragoman in Constantinople, he had risen in the Russian service through ability and the
patronage of the Russian foreign minister, Prince Aleksandr Mikhailov-
ich Gorchakov. His tact and good advice had been much appreciated by
Lincoln and Seward. In fact, it had been the Russian's good advice that had encouraged Lincoln to back off the confrontation with Great Britain
over the seizure of two Confederate emissaries from Trent, a British mail
packet, by a U.S. warship in late 1861. The baron had candidly advised
Seward that the United States had violated international law in the seizure, despite the fact that it had been wildly popular in the North in the
face of blatant British favor to the rebellion.

The baron's analysis of the situation and international law was so
lucid and compelling that Lincoln was convinced to return the emissaries and take the political heat. It also reinforced his "one war at a
time" policy. He realized that had Britain gone to war, as it seriously
threatened to do, it would have crushed the Union in short order, so
unprepared was it at the time. As it was, he had backed up only as far
as necessary. He would not accede to the additional British demand for
an apology. With the return of the emissaries, the British conveniently
dropped the issue.

Baron de Stoeckl said, "His Imperial Majesty has long felt that the
preservation of the American Union to be a vital objective of Russian
policy. We have had a long and friendly relationship, Mr. President. Our
mutual commerce has enriched both our nations. And uniquely among
great nations of the world, we have no strategic conflicts."

Seward added, "At the moment of this country's birth, Russia's
influence was benign. The British tried to buy mercenaries first from
Catherine the Great who responded that her subjects were not for sale.
German princes were not so solicitous of their subjects. Then that same
monarch formed the League of Armed Neutrality to resist by force of
arms British attempts to interfere with neutral commerce with the United
States. Russia's latest gesture of support has been the visit of her Baltic
Fleet's squadron to New York and her Pacific Squadron to San Francisco.
The London Times simply seethed. I had not been so gratified in a long
time."

Lincoln replied, "I cannot tell you, Baron, how much it meant to me
when you read to me your sovereign's letter of support in the dark days
of the first year of the war. It was, as I said at the time, 'the most loyal
manifestation of friendship' shown by any European government. We
shall never forget.""

The Baron picked up the cue. "Still, we must be realists, Mr. President. Nations do not go to war through sentiment and good feelings. There must be something that engages their vital interests. And it is
here that our mutual cordial relations reinforce the interest. British
world hegemony threatens Russia as much as it threatens the United
States. The British and the French attacked my country ten years ago
as Russia was engaged in loosening the bloody grip of the Turk upon
numerous Orthodox Christian peoples in the Balkans. They have now
attacked you while you are engaged in a similar liberating crusade."

"Yes," Seward said to Lincoln, "the Baron has put his finger on the
liberating missions of our two countries. The Czar's freeing of the serfs
and your issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in the same year
are enormously powerful statements to our purpose."

It took all Lincoln could do to control himself. For once no appropriate story was at hand. Yet butter would not melt in his mouth now.
"Liberating mission" indeed. He would have to ask Seward how much
he actually believed in what he was saying. He suspected strongly that it
was just a way for Seward to poke a sharp stick in the Lion's eye. Lincoln
had no doubt of the liberating mission of the United States in this terrible
war. Russia was brazen to pretend such lofty ideals while she was busy
suppressing the latest Polish revolt with marked brutality. Yes, freeing
any subject of the vile Turk was a humane goal by any standard, but the
Russians merely meant to replace one autocrat with another. Lincoln
supposed that in the balance of things, it would be an improvement.
Compared to Turkish cruelty, the Russian rule was indeed liberation.
Lincoln could only fall back on the aphorism that the only thing worse
than fighting a war with allies is fighting a war without them.

The baron went on. "The world has not seen such a war that is beginning since the wars against Napoleon. Now England fills the roll of
international tyrant. She has not made many friends by bestriding the
world. The pretext upon which she goes to war, the sinking of a ship, is
flimsy. All Europe knows she went to war to support the slave power
in a malicious attempt to ruin her strongest commercial rival. She sees
your future, and it frightens her. I assure, you, gentlemen, that the slave
power is thoroughly detested throughout Europe. The English are now
in a poisonous embrace, not only internationally but, our ambassador
in London assures me, domestically as well.

"It is common knowledge that she has grown even richer by selling
the Rebellion the weapons and supplies without which it could not have continued the war for more than six months. But let us look a few moves
beyond the present in this great game, gentlemen. His Imperial Majesty's
government will declare war on Britain and France with much regret. All
of Europe will see that Russia was forced to do so by an unprovoked attack upon His Imperial Majesty's ships in a friendly, peaceful port.

"Then it will be a time of choosing sides. The smaller powers will,
as usual, attempt to stay neutral lest they be crushed by the great powers. Without Russia, no one would come to your assistance. With Russia
as your ally, your active ally, the pieces on the board will all begin to
move.

"Unfortunately, the coming winter will limit the ability of Russia to
support you with anything more material than official belligerence, but
even that is useful. Much of the rest of the fleet will go to sea before our
declaration of war is presented in London and Paris. That and the state
of war will add enormously to cost of war for the enemy, as the shipping
insurance rates will become crippling. Our enemies will have to begin
looking both east and west at the same time.

"But when spring allows active operations, we will then be able to
stress the British and French at opposite ends of the planet. You see, they
were successful against us in the Crimean War because the full power of
both empires could be directed against Russia at one critical point. Now
they will have to split their forces at opposite ends of the planet, never
quite sure which is the more important.

"The offensive operations of the Russian Imperial Army, I assure,
you will provoke the entry of Austria into the war. Whether she declares
war on the United States as well as Russia is uncertain. She would be
foolish to do so, but the Hapsburgs have often acted fecklessly. In any
case, she can apply no power against you.

"The Prussians, on the other hand, will be the critical player. With
Austria in alliance with France, Prussia will see her two ancient enemies
at war with Russia and the United States. These two powers have had
the continued fragmentation of Germany as a primary policy. Prussia
has been slowly unifying Germany, a process that holds no threat to Russia. She gains nothing by remaining neutral or by joining them. I believe
that Prussia's interest lies in the defeat of France and Austria. I have no
doubt the able Prussian chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, is pursuing just such a long-range policy. This war gives him the perfect opportunity to
advance that plan. Prussia's intervention on our side, leading a German
confederation, would tip the balance."

"Don't forget, Mr. President," Seward added, "the Germans are the
most intensely anti-slavery people in Europe. The Prussian king refused
to receive or allow any of his subjects to receive the Rebel emissary."

The baron resumed, "Also do not forget, sir, that it will be Prussian
interest that will decide their actions. If it aligns with sentiment, so much
the better. It will make the Prussians feel virtuous.

"Since our mutual enemies have gone to war to destroy the territorial integrity of the United States, the maintenance of that integrity is
the primary objective of both our countries. We agree to make no separate peace. Since it is the pursuit of hegemony that impels the English
to seek to destroy that integrity, His Imperial Majesty believes that the
means of that hegemonic power must be destroyed. In this, both the
United States and Russia can play complimentary roles. To that end, we
support the conquest of Canada by the United States. Russia, in turn,
will endeavor to encourage revolt in India, which the English call so
charmingly the 'jewel in the crown.' They will be even more sensitive to
the loss of India than Canada, for India is the cornerstone of their empire,
the greatest source of wealth and position in the world. Let them worry
about keeping what is theirs for a change rather than stealing what
belongs to others. The threat to India coming on the heels of the Great
Mutiny will ensure that the English will not dare to strip the garrison of
India by so much as a drummer boy."18