Palmerston instructed his foreign minister, Lord John Russell, to compose a belligerent, curt message, which Queen Victoria and her mortally-ill husband, Prince Albert, toned down. The revised document stated that British authorities would accept an American explanation that Wilkes had acted without instructions; but the United States must agree within seven days to offer an apology, pay indemnities, and forthwith release Mason and Slidell. If the Lincoln administration balked, Lord Lyons must pack his bags and return home. Lyons was to give Seward informal notice of this message in order to allow the administration sufficient time to consider its response. Ominously, 11,000 British troops set sail for Canada; Great Britain refused to sell the United States any more saltpeter (then the principal ingredient of gunpowder, imported from India); and several warships were ordered to the North American Station. As hostilities between America and Britain loomed, Wall Street panicked. “It looks like war,” observed Foreign Minister Russell. One of the most dangerous moments of Lincoln’s presidency had arrived.
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃