The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2010

A Cautious Approach In August 1861 Sanford traveled to Turin, then the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, to confer withMarsh, who was not yet convinced that his diplomatic mission was appropriate. He had al- ready politely dismissed several Italians who had volunteered to organize units to join the Union forces. Negotiating with Garibaldi, who was likely to set impossible conditions, was sure to be a difficult undertaking. Accordingly, the two decided to ap- proach the matter cautiously and chose Marsh’s Italian-American secretary, Giuseppe Artomi, to sound out Gari- baldi before making any formal pro- posal. But once Garibaldi responded pos- itively to Artomi’s exploratory approach, Sanford chartered a ship in Genoa and went to Caprera. There he offered Garibaldi a major-general commission in the U.S. Army and the payment of travel expenses for the general and his staff. But just as Marsh had feared, Garibaldi upped the ante, demanding to be appointed commander-in-chief of all Union armies and given the au- thority to abolish slavery. These con- ditions obviously could not be met. For one thing, the slavery question was a political one, which Lincoln would decide on his own time and schedule. Moreover, appointing a foreigner with authority over all other U.S. generals J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 53 Sent to Rome as minister in 1861, George Perkins Marsh held his post for 21 years, longer than anyone else there, before or since.