Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 13.djvu/464

 Letter of Instructions to Hon. John S Udell. 463

ease of access to their markets which are so important to the manu- facturing and commercial nations of the earth. If it were possible for the United States to subdue the Confederates and subject them once more to their government, then France would have much cause for apprehension in regard lo the future condition of her commerce and manufactures. The non-slaveholding States would undoubtedly use their control over the markets and staples of the South to secure a supremacy in commerce, navigation and manufactures. There are, also, political considerations, connected with this question, which cannot be uninteresting to the Government of France. By the estab- lishment of a great Southern Confederacy, a balance of power is se- cured in North America, and schemes of conquest or annexation on the part of a great and overshadowing empire would probably no longer disturb the repose of neighboring nations.

Heretofore the South has desired the annexation of territory suita- ble to the growth of her domestic institutions in order to establish a balance of power within the government that they might protect their interests and internal peace through its agency. This reason no longer exists, as the Confederate States have sought that protection by a separation from the Union in which their rights were endangered. But with the establishment of something like a balance of power be- tween the two great and independent Confederacies, the disputes would precede the annexations and probably do much to prevent them.

Certain it is that the Southern Confederacy would have every reason to preserve peace both at home and abroad, and would be prevented, both by its principles and interests, from intervention in the domestic affairs and government of other nations. The power of that Confederacy would undoubtedly be felt not as a disturbing, but as a harmonizing influence amongst the nations of the earth. There is yet another question of great practical importance to us and to the world which you will present on the first proper occasion to His Imperial Majesty's Government. It was declared by the Five Great Powers at the Conference of Paris, that " blockades to be bind- ing, must be effectual," a principle long since sanctioned by leading publicists, and now acknowledged by nearly all civilized nations.

You will be furnished with abundant evidence of the fact that the blockade of the coasts of the Confederate States has not been effectual or of such a character as to be binding, according to the declaratu of the Conference at Paris. Such being the case, it may, perhaps, fairly urged that the Five Great Powers owe it to their own consistency