Conclusion

President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William Henry Seward confronted the greatest foreign policy challenge of their young, and still impermanent, nation’s existence. With the South’s secession and potential European intervention in the Civil War, national survival was literally at stake. Neither President Lincoln nor Secretary of State Seward could boast of the relevant foreign policy background and experience of several of their better-prepared predecessors, such as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, or John Quincy Adams. Still, both were highly intelligent, well-read, shrewd political operatives, who had developed great skill in managing difficult contemporaries and complex public issues and problems. They were also quick studies who learned from both successes and failures....