Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/475

Rh dependence on foreign intervention for any cause. Cotton is not king. The English will not interfere, because it is not to their interest. Rather than make war on the United States, she would pay for the maintenance of her horde of starving operators in order to gain time to foster the growth of cotton in her colonies. Warning should be given to the South to prepare for a lengthy war, and that produce must be raised for subsistence.&quot; Mr. Wigfall suggested that England wished to see the Southern production of cotton destroyed in order to become both spinner and raiser and thus command the world. She abandoned the West Indies to abolition in order to foster cotton raising in India. The resolution was lost upon the final vote, but the debate showed on the one hand a conscientious and delicate regard for constitutional safeguards, even in doubtful questions, and on the other hand the admitted necessity for the production of ample supplies out of the soil to sustain the Confederacy. The allusions to England indicated the growing distrust of the policy of that influential power and the waning of the only hope that the Confederacy would have her sympathy.

In the matter of foreign affairs the Congress declined to send commissioners to the industrial exhibition to be held at London, and also refused to pass a resolution requesting the President to recall at once the Confederate commissioners who had been sent to Great Britain. The resolution further proposed to abandon all further attempts to conciliate the favor and secure the recognition of that government. The resolutions were not received with favor and failed to pass by a decided majority.

The policy of the Confederate States on the question of peace was indicated by a resolution unanimously adopt ed by the Senate, declaring that no peace propositions would be entertained which excluded any portion of the soil of the Confederate States. This was probably designed to reassure certain States which had at first