The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1904-07-17


| and in lieu restore the Clay American
system, or protective duties for the
benefit of the commerce and manufac-
turers of the North. He showed that
as imports are paid for by exports and
as the exports of the South were great
and of the North small, the South real
ly paid three-fourths of the Federal
revenues, only to be denied an equita-
BILE disbursement of the collections. The
| Emperor admitted the probable cor
| rectness of Mr.. Lindsay's view and re-
iterated his readiness TO join England
| in recognition of the Confederacy at
once and to sustain that proceeding
| at all cost why not advance Co that
step alone, may L ask your Majesty"
inquired Lindsay. "Ah. what then be-
comes OF my fleet off Vera Cruz" was
the reply.
While the Commissioners were thus
employed. Moncure d. Conway, a Vir-
ginian of extraordinary ability, who
had in his youth gone North to enlist
with Garrison. Phillips, Mrs. Howe and
the most radical of the abolitionists,
advertised in London that he would
| lecture in that city under the auspices
of Mr.. John Bright and that the object
of his lecture was to give moral sup
port to a party in the United States
that would rise up and coerce the Lin
coin administration to stop the war
and concede the independence of the
Confederacy. Conway sent Commits
sloner Mason a ticket to his lecture.
Again and again the Confederate
Commissioners urged upon England
and France the rights of their Govern
ment under the terms c. the Paris
Convention. 1t was shown that now in
the third year of the alleged blockading,
IN nf foH-
crate navy had attacked the blockading
squadron off Charleston, destroyed
some of it's vessels and entirely dis
persed the others from view. The next
winter 1t may not be amisS at this
place to say. Captain Dixon and crew
ran the submarine torpedo boat Hun
ley" the first boat of the kind known
to naval warfare. under the blockadcr
"Housatonic," a powerful warship off
the harbor of Charleston. The "Hou-
satonic" and all on board, about 400
persons, went to the bottom, carrying
the "Hunley" with IT. Every block
ader taking fright, fed. and the port
was open for several days. At the
same season in which Ingraharn opened
the port OF Charleston. Semmes opened
Galveston. But neither England or
| France enforced the terms of the Paris
Conventions In the winter Of 1862
| eracy destroyed eleven warships of the
| United States, while the Alabama and
the Sumter drove the merchant marine
of the enemy off the high seas.
Among those in high place. early
impressed with the Importance OF for
| eIgn sympathy and trade, especially in
the matter of procuring arms for the
| Confederacy. was the first Secretary of
| War General Leroy Pope Walker. The
Secretary suffered rare experience.
He was so beset by importunate Cap
tains or Companies to receive their COM
| mands into the army that he found 1t
| essential 70 his personal comfort to
reach his Office in Montgomery by the
back way to avoid the opportunities of
the soldiers He made a requisition on
his Government for 100000 foreign
! rifles hut was shut of with $4,000. The
| Government did nevertheless promptly
! select n purchasing agent and ordered
| him to Europe with full discretionary
| power to buy arms and army equip
\ r,ents The person selected was an
| "old" army officer. who had been de-
tailed as drill master and commandant
| al tho University of Alabama. a young
| man CaptaIn Caleb Huse of Massachu-
| setts, Captain Huse was graduate of
West Point and a good soldier. but
citizens and prudent soldiers thought
General Beaurcgard, with a competent
staff must have been a more serviceable
officer to have sent abroad on so vital
a responsibility.
As the sequel proved, when General
Joseph e. Johnston, soon after the First
Manassas, proposed to invade the
North as the necessary strategy of war.
President Davis assured him the War
Department had not the arms needed.
The President said. with apparently
deep feeling. that he had tried to get
arms, but had failed, and he did not
know when he could get them" So
about the same time, when General AL
bert Sidney Johnston had recruited and
put in camp ten or twelve thousand vol
unteers for the Western army. the Sec
rotary of War ordered the camps
broken UP and the men returned home