Scope and Content Note
The papers of James Murray Mason (1798-1871) span the period 1838-1870, with the bulk of the material dating from 1862 to 1865. The collection consists chiefly of Mason’s diplomatic communications as Confederate commissioner to Great Britain and includes correspondence, dispatches, lists, statements and depositions, cotton bonds and warrants, circulars, and printed matter.
The papers include instructions to Mason from Confederate officials R. M. T. Hunter, J. P. Benjamin, and William M. Browne as well as letters from the British Foreign Office. Also included is correspondence regarding the Trent Affair; the log of the HMS Rinaldo, 1862; letters and other papers regarding British merchant vessels; a report on the attack of the CSS Virginia (Ironclad) on Federal ships in Hampton Roads, Virginia; and letters concerning fuel to Mason from officers commanding Confederate ships in European waters.
Correspondents include William M. Browne; James Dunwody Bulloch; Alexander Collie; Fraser, Trenholm, and Co.; Henry Hotze; Caleb Huse; L. Q. C. Lamar; W. S. Lindsay; A. Dudley Mann; C. G. Memminger; James H. North; Charles O'Conor; John Russell, Earl Russell; George T. Sinclair; John Slidell; the Society for Promoting the Cessation of Hostilities in America (London, England); the Southern Independence Association (Manchester, England); James Spence; and James Williams.