Palmerston branded Butler’s conduct “infamous. Sir, an Englishman must blush to think that such an act has been committed by one belonging to the Anglo-Saxon race.” This was more than Charles Francis Adams could stand. For months he had silently endured the gibes of Englishmen. But this self-righteous condemnation of Butler, with its implied approval of a people who held two million women in slavery, evoked an official protest by Adams. Palmerston’s huffy reply caused an estrangement between the two men at a time when Anglo-American relations were entering a critical stage.11
