rd chapter in their foreign affairs.

The agitation to arm the slaves, with the promise of freedom, had
another motive besides the reinforcement of Lee's army: it was intended
to serve as a basis for negotiations with England and France. To that
end D. J. Kenner was dispatched to Europe early in 1865. Passing through
New York in disguise, he carried word of this revolutionary program to
the Confederate commissioners abroad. A conference at Paris was held by
Kenner, Mason, and Slidell. Mason, who had gone over to England to sound
Palmerston with regard to this last Confederate hope, was received on
the 14th of March. On the previous day, Davis had accepted temporary
defeat, by signing the compromise bill which omitted emancipation. But
as there was no cable operating at the time, Mason was not aware of this
rebuff. In his own words, he "urged upon Lord P. that if the President
was right in his impression that there was some latent, undisclosed
obstacle on the part of Great Britain to recognition, it should be
frankly stated, and we might, if in our power to do so, consent to
remove it." Palmerston, though his manner was "conciliatory and kind,"
insisted that there was nothing "underlying" his previous statements,
and that he could not, in view of the facts then existing, regard the
Confederacy in the light of an independent power. Mason parted from him
convinced that "the most ample concessions on our part in the matter
referred to would have produced no change in the course determined on
by the British Government with regard to recognition." In a subsequent
interview with Lord Donoughmore, he was frankly told that the offer of
emancipation had come too late.

The dispatch in which Mason reported the attitude of the British
Government never reached the Confederate authorities. It was dated the
31st of March. Two days later Richmond was evacuated by the Confederate
Government.

Chapter XII. The Last Word

The evacuation of Richmond broke the back of the Confederate defense.
Congress had adjourned. The legislative history of the Confederacy was
at an end. The executive history still had a few days to run. After
destroying great quantities of records, the government officials had
packed the remainder on a long train that conveyed the President and
what was left of the civil service to Danville. During a few days,
Danville was the Confederate capital. There, Davis, still unable to
conceive defeat, issued his pathetic