should not gain the ill-will of either American faction, an ill-will
that would be alike detrimental in the future, whether the Union
remained unbroken or was destroyed.

Strict instructions against offering advice are therefore repeated
frequently[66]. Meanwhile the first concrete problem requiring British
action came from the seizure by South Carolina of the Federal customs
house at the port of Charleston, and the attempt of the State
authorities to collect port dues customarily paid to Federal officials.
British shipowners appealed to Consul Bunch for instructions, he to
Lyons, and the latter to the American Secretary of State, Judge Black.
This was on December 31, 1860, while Buchanan was still President, and
Black's answer was evasive, though asserting that the United States must
technically regard the events in South Carolina as acts of violent
rebellion[67]. Black refused to state what action would be taken if
Bunch advised British shipowners to pay, but a way out of the
embarrassment was found by advising such payment to State authorities
"under protest" as done "under compulsion." To one of his letters to
Bunch on this topic, Lyons appended an expression indicative of his own
early attitude. "The domestic slavery of the South is a bitter pill
which it will be hard enough to get the English to swallow. But if the
Slave Trade is to be added to the dose, the least squeamish British
stomach will reject it[68]."

Nevertheless the vigorous action of South Carolina, soon followed by
other Southern States, made a deep impression on Russell, especially
when compared with the uncertainty and irresolution manifested in the
attempted compromise measures of Northern statesmen. In a private letter
to Lyons, January 10, 1861, he wrote "I do not see how the United States
can be cobbled together again by any compromise.... I cannot see any