federate
Government.

The Southern Confederacy thus became parties, as Mr. Blaine says, to "an
international compact"; and when, a few months later, Mr. Seward offered
to waive the point made by Secretary Marcy many years before, and accept
the four articles of the Paris convention, he found himself blocked,
because the Confederate States had not accepted the first article,
abolishing privateering, and her privateers must, therefore, be
recognized. It was by these privateers that great damage was inflicted
upon American shipping.

The Confederate States had no regular navy, and but few vessels; they
were an agricultural community, not a commercial or a ship-building
people. Quite a number of vessels were put in commission under letters
of marque, and these reached the high seas by running the blockade. Many
prizes were taken and run into Southern ports. Later on steamers were
fitted out and sent to sea under command of experienced officers. This
naval militia captured millions of the enemy's property, and produced a
great sensation at the North. A Southern agent was sent abroad by the
naval department to get ships and supplies. "In three years' time," says
Mr. Blaine, "fifteen millions of property had been destroyed by Southern
privateers, given to the flames, or sunk beneath the waters. The
shipping of the United States was reduced one-half, and the commercial
flag of the Union fluttered with terror in every wind that blew, from
the whale fisheries of the Arctic to the Southern Cross."

On the 21st of May, the Confederate Congress, after providing for the
disposition of these naval prizes, and the treatment of prisoners of war
brought into Southern ports, adjourned to meet on the 20th of July in
the City of Richmond, now selected as the permanent seat of Government
of the Confederacy.

The powers of Europe never recognized the Confederate States as a
separate nation. The leaders of the English Government were, no doubt,
inclined to this step, but the rank and file of the Liberal party, under
the leadership of John Bright, refused to sanction such a course toward
a government whose corner stone was slavery. Mr. Seward ingeniously
pressed the point that Southern success meant a slave oligarchy around
the Gulf of Mexico. Russia remained the strong ally of the Northern
States. England, with the Crimean War fresh upon her hands, hesitated
before engaging Russia again or imperiling India in the East. France
could not af