GDG- Re: Defeat of AoP, Recognition by Britain

[Margaret D. Blough]

Congratulations on the new arrival.

FWIW,  from what I've read, Lee was not particularly optimistic about the prospects for foreign recognition.  I think he was looking more towards affecting the 1864 US presidential elections by having the Confederates doing sufficiently well militarily to make the northern votes sufficiently war wearing and pessimistic about the prospects of victory that Lincoln would be defeated and a peace candidate elected.

Regards,

Margaret

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: Michael Davidson <mldavidson at verizon.net> 

> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes: 
> 
> 
> Margaret, 
> 
> Sorry with the late response. My email was down, and then I was celebrating the 
> arrival of 
> my third grandchild. (From an objective point of view entirely, she is 
> beautiful, not to 
> metion alert and highly intelligent.) 
> 
> You are quite correct that popular emotion must be taken into consideration by 
> any 
> modern democracy, even in pursuit of imperialist aims. I would simply add that 
> any 
> major power worth its salt could find a way to "spin" that opinion in a 
> favorable direction. 
> If Lee was a realist, he knew that. How that might have played out is sheer 
> speculation, 
> since the ANV was handed its lunch at Gettysburg. 
> 
> Michael 
> 
> >>I think it is a fair assessment, although, from what I have read, Lee was the 
> most realistic 
> of the group on the prospects of British recognition. I do have one 
> caveat-while empires 
> don't have emotions, people, including in large groups, do. The sort of event 
> that can 
> provoke a collective national emotional response is very rare but does exist: 
> the North 
> before and after Ft. Sumter and the US before and after Pearl Harbor are classic 
> examples. 
> Regards, 
> Margaret<< 
> 
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