The Cotton Deals

[DanielC]

(01-05-2014 12:14 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I guess I will have to break down and read Higham's book. I dealt with the gentleman while he was researching. He was pleasant, but did not want to consider other options on some of the assassination details (not related to the cotton issue). His attitude sort of turned me off to reading his final work.

It makes sense that any of the political figures in Northern states whose economies were devoted to the textile industry would want in on the cotton trade. What about Connecticut ties?

One source citation that I ran across in the Trader or Traitor article intrigues me: L.H. Johnson, "Beverley Tucker's Canadian Mission, 1864-1865." Journal of Southern History, 29 (1963a), 88-99. Were some of the Canadian Cabinet officials for the Confederacy involved in the cotton trade as well as planning campaigns into the North and possibly the plot(s) against Lincoln?

R.I. Senator William Sprague (Sec. Chase' son-in-law) is probably a good example of a Northerner who had a vested interest. His guns for cotton scheme could have been a major embarrassment to Lincoln's administration had it not been squashed by Stanton.