Biography

Lyons was an English diplomat who served in the United States during the Civil War. From Wikipedia:

Lyons was successful in healing the rift in Anglo-American relations. He moved quickly to resolve the San Juan Island crisis in 1859 (the "Pig War"). Moreover, Lyons planned and oversaw the wildly successful 1860 tour of Canada and the United States by the Prince of Wales. Lyons received high praise on both sides of the Atlantic, from no less than President Buchanan and Queen Victoria. For these two diplomatic triumphs Lyons was made GCMG.

However, a few weeks after the Prince's tour, the diplomatic and political landscape changed radically. Abraham Lincoln was elected President in November 1860 and the Secession Crisis began. Lyons wrote to Lord John Russell, the foreign minister, "It seems impossible that the South can be mad enough to dissolve the Union."[2] Lyons feared that American politicians might try to divert public opinion from domestic problems by quarreling with foreign powers, especially Britain. He was particularly suspicious of William Henry Seward, Lincoln's Secretary of State.

As the war unfolded, Lyons had to deal with numerous problems. One was the threat to Canada, which he believed could be the target of a possible attack by the Union. Another was the cotton supply to Britain from the Confederacy in spite of the Union blockade of the southern coast.

In 1861, Lyons declared to Lord Russell that "the taint of slavery will render the cause of the South loathsome to the civilized world."

The most dangerous moment was the Trent affair, which established Lyons' lasting reputation. In the autumn of 1861, the Confederacy sent two envoys (James Mason and John Slidell) to Europe to try to secure formal recognition. They traveled on the (neutral) British mail steamer Trent. A Union warship intercepted the Trent and seized the envoys, outraging British opinion. Public excitement over the affair grew so intense that war between Britain and America seemed for a time unavoidable. Through tact and firmness Lyons was largely responsible for the avoidance of open war between the two countries, persuading the reluctant United States government to release the envoys. The author Raymond A. Jones in his work The British Diplomatic Service, 1815-1914 has stated, unequivocally, that Lyons' handling of the "Mason-Slidell affair... established his well-deserved reputation as Britain's greatest mid-century ambassador." (see p. 126)