Europe at last seemed ready to spring on the throat of America. Distinct
reports were in circulation in the Old World that the Emperor of France,
Napoleon III, intended to interfere in our affairs. On the 9th of
January, the French Government denied this. The Emperor himself,
however, sent to the President an offer of mediation so blunt and
surprising it could not be doubted that it was a veiled hint of his
purpose to intervene. Beyond a doubt he expected the Union to be
dismembered and he proposed to form an alliance between the Latin Empire
which he was founding in Mexico and the triumphant Confederate States.
Great Britain was behind this Napoleonic adventure. Outwitted by the
President in the affair of the _Trent_, the British Government was eager
for the chance to strike the Republic.
To cap the climax of disasters Lee was preparing to invade the North
with his victorious army. The announcement struck terror to the Northern
cities and produced a condition among them little short of panic.
The move would be the height of audacity and yet Lee had good reasons
for believing its success possible and probable. His grey veterans were
still ragged and poorly shod. With Southern ports blockaded and no
manufacturing this was inevitable, but they had proven in two years'
test of fire Lee's proud boast:
"There never were such men in an army before.
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