INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 201 
Court. All three of these sons were giving important service 
to their country. 
Part of Cyrus Field’s service to his country came from his 
personal influence among the British. Henry Field wrote of 
him: “No man in America was better known abroad, no 
house received more foreign guests, many of whom he had 
not met before, but who brought letters to him, and there 
was no end to his hospitality.” ‘There was need at that time 
of men who understood international complications. 
The troublesome Alabama claims against England were 
causing ill feeling between the two countries. Delicate ques- 
tions of national honor, as well as a large sum of money, were 
involved. Field deprecated the flaming diatribes against Eng- 
land that were being broadcast from Congress by such ordi- 
narily trustworthy leaders as Charles Sumner of Massachu- 
setts. In an effort to ward off unreasonable appeals to passion, 
he wrote to Senator Sumner from Ardsley, as follows: 
Irvington-on-the-Hudson, June 24, 1869. 
My dear Mr. Sumner,—Many thanks for your letter of the 13th 
instant; it should have been answered at once, but it was sent to 
my house in Gramercy Park. 
I thank you for your letter to Secretary Fish. I do most sin- 
cerely hope that we shall soon have a better feeling between this 
country and England, and I know of no one that can do more to 
bring about this desirable result than yourself. 
You may be sure that I shall do all I can. I wish you would 
write our mutual friend, Mr. John Bright, frankly. 
I hope soon to have the pleasure of seeing you again and re- 
newing our late conversation. 
With respect I remain, my dear Mr. Sumner, 
Very truly your friend, 
Cyrus W. Field. 
A few weeks later an able and conciliatory article on the 
Alabama claims by President Woolsey of Yale appeared in the 
periodical The New Englander. Field sent Woolsey his 
thanks for the article and told him that he was forwarding it 
