1861年4月1日,美国内战前夕,对国际国内形势十分担忧的国务卿威廉·亨利·西沃德提交给林肯总统一份备忘录,要求联邦政府对欧洲发动敌对行动和战争,以期南方放弃分裂行动。林肯反对西沃德的变内战为外战的政策,主张集中全力打赢国内战争,以拯救联邦。西沃德备忘录的根本目的是创建一个和平的环境,全力以赴投入海外扩张,实现“太平洋商业帝国”的伟大梦想。 On April 1, 1861, on the eve of the U.S. Civil War, Secretary of State Wilhelm Henry Seward, with great concern both at home and abroad, submitted a memorandum to President Lincoln asking the federal government to launch hostile operations and wars against Europe in the hope that the South would abandon its separatist actions . Lincoln opposed Seward’s change of civil war as a policy of foreign war and advocated a concentrated effort to win the civil war to save the Commonwealth. The fundamental purpose of Seward’s memorandum is to create a peaceful environment and devote all efforts to expanding overseas to realize the great dream of “Pacific Business Empire.”