The lost Chapter.
With these opportunities for an inside view of all that passed at
Richmond from October, 1861, to April, 1865, I have been able to appreciate at its true value the fiction in reference to the Confederate Government concocted from time to time.
If there be a ‘lost chapter’ of the history of the
Confederate State Department, I believe that I am the only one capable of supplying it. The story that has been made public to the effect that Prince Polignac was sent by the
Richmond government about the close of the civil war on a mission to the Emperor Napoleon, with authority to offer a transfer of
Louisiana to
France in exchange for his intervention in favor of the
Confederacy is not a ‘lost chapter,’ for the good and sufficient reason that no such chapter was ever written, and, therefore, could not well be lost.
Mr. Davis was always a great stickler for adhering to the
Constitution, and he clearly had no constitutional authority to propose such a transfer.
Moreover, Louisiana,
Arkansas, and
Missouri were three of the States belonging to the
Confederacy, though at the time largely occupied by the
Federal troops, and their soldiers were performing their duties in the Confederate army with singular zeal, fortitude and heroism.
The suggestion to turn over these soldiers, their homes, and liberties to any
European government in order to save the other States from being overrun would not have been entertained for a moment by
Mr. Davis or any one of his Cabinet.
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Prince Polignac was a gallant brigadier of the western army, and is a gentleman of high character and intelligence, but he was not at any time in the diplomatic service of the Confederate Government.
The Confederacy possessed a singularly able representative at
Paris in the person of
Hon. John Slidell, of
Louisiana, a former associate of
Mr. Jefferson Davis in the United States Senate.
He was trusted to the fullest extent by the
President and by
Mr. Benjamin; and, from the time he entered on his duties soon after the the affair of the
Trent, no other person was ever chosen to make any representation, oral or written, to the
Emperor or his
Ministers of Foreign Affairs.
To these officials he had easy access, and from them received the most respectful consideration.
Slidell was a wise, sagacious, experienced man of affairs, and was probably better fitted to succeed at
Paris of all places than any other man. Indeed, I doubt if he had an equal in the
South for a diplomatic post, unless, possibly,
Lamar or
General Dick Taylor, of
Louisiana.
These two were men of very striking gifts, and had, I think, the special qualifications requisite for diplomatic service.
