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


, Hill had denounced bitterly the South
> ern movement. There was newer q
| day when he either expected or de-
: sired the Confederacy to live, (Life and
Speeches of b. H. Hill. by his son.)
, Neither text page or index Of the Ave
octave volumes prepared by Mr.. Da-
els and his wife: purporting to relate
, the tale of the rise and the fall of the
|, Confederacy and the parts acted by
many persons. contains the name OF
Robert Barnwell Rhett, William l..
Yancey. Louis T Wigfall and their as
ISOLATED secessionists. The massive
volumes leave a perfect hiatus between
that lucid account of the Incorporation
of the States rights principle in the
Federal system of the United States
and the application of the principle In
the perfected Confederate government.
Who prepared the people through long
years of public discussion, and what
the motive Of final action, the many
books omit to tell. We are denied the
simplicity Of facts for the qualification
Of a patriotic desire to find the men
and their motives who built a govern
ment which sought to live among the
nations.
In March, 1861, the Confederate Com
missioners to Europe. Messrs. William
and A. Dudley Mann. Associate Com
missioners, with their accomplish ed
young Secretary, Mr.. Fearn of Hunts
vile, Alabama, sailed out Of the port
of Charleston. Orders were obeyed.
Mr.. Yancey made Southern rights
speeches and all talked to the kind peo-
pie who received them into their con-
fidence. of the inherent virtue of the
Confederate cause. Yancey had no
inf xyh he lnff tn, h
mission. Don't go to Europe If you
value your reputation" his friends
warned him. Having exhausted the
field of his instructions, he asked to
be called home. The request was re-
luctantly granted by his government.
He was too fluent a talker to be spared.
The others remained. Mr.. John NJ.
Mason, long a distinguished Sem
ator from Virginia, and Mr..
John ySlidell, native of New
York, long a Senator from Louis
lana, were sent out to the Court OF st.
James and St. Cloud respectively.
The two Commissioners, their re-
spective secretaries, and the family of
Mr.. Slidell. passed uninterrupted
through the blockade at Charleston and
at Havana boarded Her Britanic Ma
Jesty's mail ship Trent" plying be-
tween Vera Cruz, Mexico, and South
State, had determined from the begin
ming of the war to bluff England and
alarm her ministry. Among the first
of his unrelaxing acts in this limo was
the capture of Messrs. Mason and Sill
dell under the British flag pm the high
seas off the coast of Cuba. Seward
held his finger firmly on the, pulse of
Palmerston's timid government. When
the time came, he surrendered the Conn
| m n Rrit tn,
Dor of Boston and in February, 1882
they were landed at Liverpool
Early in February, 1862, Mr.. Mason
delivered informally Secretary Hun
ter's message to the British Ministry.
There was absolutely nothing in 1t be-
yond the stale argument Yancey had
left behind him. that secession was not
revolution In the American system. that
the Southern people were not in rebel
lion, that the success of the South in
the war was inevitable, that the South
ern people would never return to the
Union, that there were vast stores of
cotton, on the plantations, which an en-
terprising neutral could have for the
asking. In the retirement of his later
years President Davis recounted the
success of the first Commissioners. as
ne mad anticipated success, in these
words:
our EFFORTS for recognition by Euro
pean powers, in 1861. served to make
| us. better known to awaken a kindly
| Keeling in our favor, and cause a re-
spectful regard for the effort we were
making to maintain the independence
OF the States which Great Britain had
recognized and her people knew to be
| our birthright" (Rise and Fall of the
Confederate. Government, Vol l. u.
469.) This after contemplation in fact
comprehended the whole scheme of
Confederate foreign diplomacy from
| first to last.
The Tories of England received
| Commissioner Mason with open arms.
They fiocked to his apartments to well
come him and to applaud his country.
| They escorted him to a seat in the gal
leries of Parliament, that he might
hear with his own ears how they prod
| ded the ministry and shamed it. Aney
| carried him to their country homes to
see their kennels, and their stables and
| to look upon their balls. They are
the same people here as in old Virgin
ia" wrote Mason to his wife. The
| Lord Mayor invited him to attend the
grand annual dinner. He was there
| called on to speak and his speech was
unanimously applauded.
Commissioner Mason took up the
| question of blockade with the English
ministry. to the limited extent that
the ministry would hear him. Eng
| land had insisted that the Confederate
States should informally accede to the
Paris Convention; and this Paris Con-
ventioh had committed the powers that
signed 1t to the proposition that: ~
Blockade by a belligerent must be eff
fective; CD That blockade once raised
even for an hour, could not be restored
without notice to neutrals.
Mr.. Mason showed 10 the British
minister conclusively that in the sec
| ond year of the war the blockade of
the Confederate ports was not effect
I've: that a lively trade continually
Lassed through the blockade, so called;
that. for instance. 100 vessels and more
had passed through the Confederate
ports laden with incoming and out
going merchandise in the three months
only of the winter OF 1S61-62 The
! Commissioner further showed the
| British Secretary for Foreign Affairs
| that in lieu of port blockade which it
| had failed ignominiously to maintain,
| the United States Government had es-
tablished a line of parole ships at sea,
| in front of the various Confederate
ports, and that the captures of several
neutral vessels made in their attempts
| to trade with the Confederacy, were
| actually captures made upon the high
seas, and not in the barbors or within
the Confederate jurisdiction. These
therefore, were unlawful prizs and