Drouyn de L'huys. News of
this resolution had preceded him. He was met by the curt
question, "Do you bring peace or war?" Again, the Washington
Government was skillfully evasive. The Ambassador was instructed
to explain that the resolution had not been inspired by the
President and "the French Government would be seasonably apprized
of any change of policy...which the President might at any future
time think it proper to adopt."
There seems little doubt that Lincoln's course was very widely
condemned as timid. When we come to the political campaign of
1864, we shall meet Henry Winter Davis among his most relentless
personal enemies. Dissatisfaction with Lincoln's Mexican policy
has not been sufficiently considered in accounting for the
opposition to him, inside the war party, in 1864. To it may be
traced an article in the platform of the war party, adopted in
June, 1864, protesting against the establishment of monarchy "in
near proximity to the United States." In the same month
Maximilian entered Mexico City.
The subsequent moves of Napoleon are explained elsewhere.* The
central fact in the story is his virtual change of attitude, in
the summer of 1864. The Confederate agent at Paris complained of
a growing coolness. Before the end of the summer, the Confederate
Secretary of State was bitter in his denunciation of Napoleon for
having deserted the South.
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