Talk:Diplomacy of the American Civil War

Article: "Every nation was officially neutral throughout the American Civil War, and none recognized the Confederacy. That marked a major diplomatic achievement for Secretary Seward and the Lincoln Administration."

The declarations of neutrality were not an achievement for the Lincoln Administration.

McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 388 (my emphasis):

"Lincoln had proclaimed the rebels to be insurrectionists. Under international law this would deny the Confederacy status as a belligerent power. But the North's declaration of a blockade constituted an act of war affecting neutral powers. On May 13 Britain therefore declared her neutrality in a proclamation issued by the Queen. This would seem to have been unexceptionable--except that it automatically recognized the Confederacy as a belligerent power. Other European nations followed the British lead. Status as a belligerent gave Confederates the right under international law to contract loans and purchase arms in neutral nations, and to commission cruisers on the high seas with the power of search and seizure. Northerners protested this British action with hot words....But northern protests rested on weak legal grounds, for the blockade was a virtual recognition of southern belligerency. Moreover, in European eyes the Confederacy with its national constitution, its army, its effective control of 750,000 square miles of territory and a population of nine million people, was a belligerent power in practice no matter what it was in northern theory. As Lord Russell put it: 'The question of belligerent rights is one, not of principle, but of fact.'

Northern bitterness stemmed in part from the context and timing of British action. The proclamation of neutrality came just after two 'un-official' conferences between Lord Russell and the Confederate envoys.." -BorderRuffian 9 May 2016  — Preceding unsigned comment added by BorderRuffian (talk • contribs) 14:00, 13 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Okay, I removed the offending sentence. Rjensen (talk) 07:19, 14 May 2016 (UTC)

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A bold view
This article seems to be making some bold claims with few checkable sources. Comments? --Pete (talk) 21:10, 24 February 2018 (UTC)