Assessment of Foreign affairs during the late 1862 during the Civil War

Despite its evolutionary character, the 1861 Foreign Relations volume marks an important starting point for understanding the modern history of U.S. diplomatic documentation. This chapter explores the specific conditions surrounding the 1861 volume and the reaction to it, as well as the production of and response to subsequent volumes issued during the Civil War. Several broad conclusions emerge: these volumes represent a mature expression of the checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches established over the previous seven decades, the editors selected documents with an eye to both domestic and overseas audiences, the volumes tell modern historians what the Lincoln administration wanted U.S. citizens to know about its foreign policy, and the volumes continued a longstanding commitment to promote government openness despite the controversy such efforts generated.