Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/278

242 alliance for the purpose of breaking the blockade of the Confederate coast and of supporting Maximilian.

At this point Russia sent a large naval force to winter in American waters. The presence of this Russian fleet in American harbors was a menace to the European powers and perhaps defeated the combination. Great Britain and Spain withdrew their support and the empire of Maximilian remained under the protection of France. The close of the Confederate war left the United States free to act. France withdrew her troops and Maximilian was left to his fate.

Those who controlled the policy of the United States at this critical juncture, believed that the timely interposition of Russia had averted a serious danger. Says a distinguished participant in the affairs of this period: "Russia was our friend and the only friend we had among the great nations of Europe during the War of the Rebellion.

&quot;When Great Britain, France and Austria confederated for the purpose of establishing a monarchy in Mexico on the ruins of the Mexican republic, and as subsidiary thereto had secured, as was believed, the consent of the so-called Confederate States of America, on condition that their independence as a nation should be speedily acknowledged by the great powers, who were being urgently pressed for concurrence by these triumvir States, Russia not only refused to sanction our humiliation, but promptly, and, as it were, in the nick of time, sent part of her great navy to winter in our harbors, which resulted in the decisive defeat of this adverse diplomacy, a result most gratifying to our government; achieved by the expenditure of large sums of money for the maintenance of her navy in foreign waters in excess of what would have been needed at their home stations.

&quot;Russia may have had, and probably did have, other reasons for this naval campaign than a simple manifestation of friendship for the United States, but the benefit