For ‘modification of sham neutrality.’
General H. W. Allen, an accomplished gentleman and distinguished officer, still suffering from a wound received in the field, was then
Governor of
Louisiana.
I enjoyed his friendship and confidence.
He honored me with his esteem, and had lately offered me a presentation sword in the name of the
State of Louisiana.
To him I also imparted my purpose, and the question was fully discussed in all its bearings between him,
General Kirby Smith, and myself.
It is true that as to the intrinsic nature and merits of the conflict I could only repeat what others had said, yet both
Governor Allen and
General Kirby Smith concurred in the opinion that my acquaintance with the
Duke de Morny was an interesting feature, which I might well try to turn to good account during a period of anticipated calm, in which my presence among my troops did not appear of absolute necessity.
None of us three was over sanguine about the result of my undertaking, and in our wildest flights of fancy never looked to an armed intervention as within the range of human possibilities; but it did not seem impossible to obtain a modification of a sham neutrality, which worked
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entirely in favor of the
North, to which a stream of mercenaries from all parts of the world was constantly flowing, and to secure something like equal treatment to the
Confederate States, especially as regarded their navy.
French commercial interests, I well knew; made the mercantile world lean toward the
South, and in fact, it is difficult for me even now to comprehend how
England and
France could, from the first, submit to a mere paper blockade, in direct opposition to some of their most important commercial and manufacturing interests, when they might have set it aside by a mere stroke of the pen, without probably ever firing a gun over it.
My journey was, after due consideration, finally decided on. In order to give more weight to my presence abroad I asked
General Kirby Smith to allow my chief-of-staff,
Major T. C. Moncure, to accompany me; and
Governor Allen said he would avail himself of this opportunity to write a letter to the
Emperor of
France, of which his aide-de-camp,
Colonel Ernest Miltenberger, should be the bearer.
It lay within the sphere of authority of
General Kirby Smith to grant
Major Moncure and myself a leave of absence of six months. Neither the chief of the War Department nor
President Davis had to be consulted in the matter, and in point of fact they were not.
I did not read the letter which
Governor Allen wrote, and, therefore, cannot speak ‘
de visu’ of its contents, but in a letter addressed to the editor of the Washington Post, bearing date
Washington, March 16th, and published in that paper under the heading, ‘Lost Chapter in History,’ I note the passage:
“A paper was prepared, which I read, to be presented to Napoleon III, quoting the third article of the treaty of
Paris, ceding
Louisiana to the
United States,” etc., etc.
There was no other paper prepared than
Governor Allen's letter, and since the correspondent of the Washington Post has read it, he knows as well as I do that it contained no such bargain as that suggested by the
Washington Post—viz., the retrocession of
Louisiana to
France in return for armed intervention, nor does he assert it verbatim.