Two Kentuckians Evaluate the Mexican Scene from Vera Cruz, 1853-1861

Interesting insights into the Mexican scene were provided the State Department by two Kentuckians, John T. Pickett and R. B. I. Twyman, who shared the office of United States consul at Vera Cruz from 1853 to 1861. Pickett, the more dramatic of the two, has been described as a “Southern filibuster of the type of William Walker.” He had been a “general” in the Hungarian nationalist army of Kossuth, and had engaged in the López expeditions against Cuba. Most readers of United States diplomacy are well aware of Pickett's subsequent exploits in Mexico after having been appointed by Robert Toombs, Confederate Secretary of State, as diplomatic commissioner to the Juárez Government. Pickett had been recommended to Jefferson Davis by John Forsyth, former U.S. Minister to Mexico, who described him as eminently qualified. Pickett believed that he could advance the interests of the Confederacy by revealing to the Juárez Government the true nature of the Yankee Union's Puritan fanaticism; and, if the Juárez Party were to make cause with the Union, then he urged Confederate support of the Conservative Party. Upon arrival in Mexico, in July, 1861, he spoke with the Governor of Vera Cruz, Ignacio de la Llave, who assured him that his government would give equal treatment to the ships of the Union and of the Confederacy. Meantime, Thomas Corwin, Minister of the United States to Mexico, had the support of Liberal President Juárez. As the preference became more marked, Pickett became more indiscreet. Mr. Pickett was forceful, shrewd and widely known in Mexico; and had for a number of years been closely associated with Benito Juárez and a group of Liberals. But he was tactless when angry and sharp-tongued. The telling of his adventures, between May, 1861 and 1864 is found in Frank L. Owsley's King Cotton Diplomacy

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