Note 287 — BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND JOHN SLIDELL AT PARIS.

Mr. Slidell never returned to the United States. On his death, in Europe, July, 1871, the London “Daily Telegraph” of August 2d recognized the parallel with Franklin. After remarking that “during the whole of 1862, and the first six months of 1863, it was the general belief of the most far-seeing statesmen in Europe—among them Lord Palmerston and the ex-Emperor of the French—that the Confederate States would succeed in establishing their independence,” this journal proceeds to say: “Mr. Mason and Mr. Slidell were therefore invested, during these brief and halcyon days of Secession’s prosperity, with something of the diplomatic influence which between 1776 and 1783 attached to Benjamin Franklin, when accredited by our insurgent North American Colonies to the French Court.”