Slidell, John

Life Span
to
Full name
John Slidell
Place of Birth
Burial Place
Birth Date Certainty
Estimated
Death Date Certainty
Exact
Gender
Male
Race
White
Sectional choice
South
Origins
Free State
No. of Spouses
1
No. of Children
3
Family
John Slidell (father), Margery Mackenzie Slidell (mother), Mathilde Deslonde (wife)
Education
Columbia (King’s College)
Occupation
Politician
Diplomat
Attorney or Judge
Businessman
Political Parties
Democratic
Other Affiliations
Fire-Eaters (Secessionists)
Government
Polk Administration (1845-49)
Confederate government (1861-65)
US House of Representatives
State legislature
Local government

John Slidell (Congressional Biographical Directory)

Reference
SLIDELL, John, a Representative and a Senator from Louisiana; born in New York City in 1793; graduated from Columbia College (later Columbia University), New York City, in 1810; studied law; admitted to the bar in New York City; practiced law and engaged in business; moved to New Orleans around 1819 and engaged in law and business; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1828 to the Twenty-first Congress; United States district attorney 1829-1833; unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate in 1834, 1836, and 1848; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Congresses and served from March 4, 1843, until his resignation on November 10, 1845; chairman, Committee on Private Land Claims (Twenty-eighth Congress); appointed Minister to Mexico in 1845, but that government refused to accept him; offered the mission to Central America in 1853, but declined; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1853 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Pierre Soule; was reelected, and served from December 5, 1853, to February 4, 1861, when he resigned; chairman, Committee on Roads and Canals (Thirty-fourth Congress); on November 8, 1861, while on a diplomatic mission from the Confederate States to England and France, was taken from the British mail steamer Trent, sailing from Havana to England, and confined in Fort Warren, Boston Harbor; was later released and sailed for Paris; died in Cowes, Isle of Wight, England, July 9, 1871; interment in the private cemetery of the Saint-Roman family at Villejuif, near Paris, France, in the Departement de la Seine.
"Slidell, John," Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=s000487.
Date Title
New York Times, “Governor Walker in Washington,” December 15, 1857
New York Times, "Presidential Candidates," July 14, 1858
Norman Buel Judd to Abraham Lincoln, November 20, 1858
Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, “Mr. Douglas’ Chattels,” December 3, 1858
New York Times, “Douglas and the Democracy,” December 25, 1858
(St. Louis) Missouri Republican, “Senator Douglas,” December 31, 1858
Charleston (SC) Mercury, “Presidential Aspirants,” January 10, 1859
Memphis (TN) Appeal, “The Chicago Times, Senator Douglas and the Administration,” January 18, 1859
New Orleans (LA) Picayune, “Letter from Washington,” February 6, 1859
New York Herald, “The Black Republicans and Mr. Douglas,” February 22, 1859
New York Times, “The Charleston Convention,” April 24, 1860
New York Herald, “General Sherman in Kentucky,” October 13, 1861
Charles Wilkes, USN to Gideon Welles, Final Report on the seizure of Mason and Slidell, November 16, 1861
New York Herald, “Mason and Slidell,” November 17, 1861
President Jefferson Davis, Message to the Confederate Congress, November 18, 1861
Memorandum by Alexander T. Galt, Canadian diplomat, describing interview with Abraham Lincoln, December 5, 1861
New York Herald, "Settlement of the Trent Difficulty," December 29, 1861
Raleigh (NC) Register, “Mr. Vallandingham’s Speech,” January 18, 1862
Chicago Style Entry Link
Diket, A. L. "John Slidell and the ‘Chicago Incident’ of 1858." Louisiana History 5 (Fall 1964): 369-386. view record
Diket, A. L.. Senator John Slidell and the Community He Represented in Washington 1853-1861. Washington: University Press of America, 1982. view record
Kautz, Craig L. "Beneficial Politics: John Slidell and the Cuban Bill of 1859." Louisiana Studies 13, no. 2 (1974): 119-129. view record
Sears, Louis Martin . "Slidell and Buchanan." American Historical Review 27, no. 4 (1922): 709-730. view record
Sears, Louis Martin. John Slidell. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1925. view record
How to Cite This Page: "Slidell, John," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/17295.