Confederate States of America Confederacy, immediately following Fort Sumter the Confederate Congress proclaimed that "war exists between the Confederate States and the Government of the United States, and the States and Territories thereof". A state of war was not to formally exist between the Confederacy and those states and territories in the United States allowing slavery, although Confederate Rangers were compensated for destruction they could effect there throughout the war. Concerning the international status and nationhood of the Confederate States of America, in 1869 the United States Supreme Court in ruled Texas' declaration of secession was legally null and void. Jefferson Davis, former President
Confederate States of America of the Confederacy, and Alexander H. Stephens, its former Vice-President, both wrote postwar arguments in favor of secession's legality and the international legitimacy of the Government of the Confederate States of America, most notably Davis' "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government". Once war with the United States began, the Confederacy pinned its hopes for survival on military intervention by Great Britain and France. The Confederates who had believed that "cotton is king" – that is, that Britain had to support the Confederacy to obtain cotton – proved mistaken. The British had stocks to last over a year and