This has been interpreted as an attempt
to tie European powers to the United States in such a way as to hamper
any friendly inclination they may have entertained toward the
Confederacy (Treat, _Japan and the United States_, 1853-1921, pp. 49-50.
Also Dennet, "Seward's Far Eastern Policy," in _Am. Hist. Rev_., Vol.
XXVIII, No. 1. Dennet, however, also regards Seward's overture as in
harmony with his determined policy in the Far East.) Like Seward's
overture, made a few days before, to Great Britain for a convention to
guarantee the independence of San Domingo (F.O., Am., Vol. 763, No. 196,
Lyons to Russell, May 12, 1861) the proposal on Japan seems to me to
have been an erratic feeling-out of international attitude while in the
process of developing a really serious policy--the plunging of America
into a foreign war.]
[Footnote 211: _U.S. Messages and Documents_, 1861-2, p. 88. The exact
facts of Lincoln's alteration of Despatch No. 10, though soon known in
diplomatic circles, were not published until the appearance in 1890 of
Nicolay and Hay's _Lincoln_, where the text of a portion of the
original draft, with Lincoln's changes were printed (IV, p. 270). Gideon
Welles, Secretary of the Navy in Lincoln's Cabinet, published a short
book in 1874, _Lincoln and Seward_, in which the story was told, but
without dates and so vaguely that no attention was directed to it.
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