the british government helped the confederate states in the civil war by negotiating trade agreements on the texas border.
the british government helped the confederate states in the civil war by negotiating trade agreements on the texas border.
who helped the confederate states in the civil war by negotiating trade agreements on the texas border?
the british government
several european nations maintained diplomats in place who had been appointed to the u.s., but no country appointed any diplomat to the confederacy. those nations recognized the union and confederate sides as belligerents. in 1863 the confederacy expelled european diplomatic missions for advising their resident subjects to refuse to serve in the confederate army. both confederate and union agents were allowed to work openly in british territories. some state governments in northern mexico negotiated local agreements to cover trade on the texas border. pope pius ix wrote a letter to jefferson davis in which he addressed davis as the "honorable president of the confederate states of america". the confederacy appointed ambrose dudley mann as special agent to the holy see on september 24, 1863. but the holy see never released a formal statement supporting or recognizing the confederacy. in november 1863, mann met pope pius ix in person and received a letter supposedly addressed "to the illustrious and honorable jefferson davis, president of the confederate states of america"; mann had mistranslated the address. in his report to richmond, mann claimed a great diplomatic achievement for himself, asserting the letter was "a positive recognition of our government". the letter was indeed used in propaganda, but confederate secretary of state judah p. benjamin told mann it was "a mere inferential recognition, unconnected with political action or the regular establishment of diplomatic relations" and thus did not assign it the weight of formal recognition.
confederate states of america
a key feature of the legislation was its modification of the 1974 trade act's fast track authority, incorporating a "committee gatekeeping" device. congress opted to adapt the fast-track procedure to possible bilateral free-trade agreements with nations other than israel. going forward, the procedure provided that if a country other than israel requested free-trade negotiations with the united states, the president would be required to notify two "gatekeeper" committees – the house ways and means and the senate finance committees – and to consult with those committees for a period of 60 legislative days before giving the statutorily required 90-day notice of his intent to sign an agreement. if neither committee disapproved of the negotiations during this 60-day committee consultation period, any subsequently negotiated agreement would receive fast-track legislative consideration. the 1984 act thus greatly increased the influence of congress in negotiating trade agreements. for example, the 60-day pre-negotiation consultation period with the two committees secured their involvement in the canada-united states free trade agreement negotiations months before formal talks began, allowing congress to extract concessions from the president as a condition of letting negotiations proceed.
trade and tariff act of 1984