Morell discusses the prices of crops and meat in some detail then expresses excitement about the two steamships that are used to carry freight on the Hudson River. Near the end of the letter, Morell discusses the Trent Affair of the previous month, in which two Confederate diplomats, en route to Britain in an attempt to gain recognition as a sovereign nation and ask for support, were captured aboard a British mail ship by Union forces under the pretense that they were war "contraband." Morell calls the event an "unfortunate occurence" mainly because it risked drawing Great Britain into the war against the Union.
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