Assured of support, the emperor, through Rouher, a supporter of the absolutist "régime", refused all fresh claims on the part of the Liberals. He was aided by international events such as the reopening of cotton supplies when the American Civil War ended in 1865, by the apparent closing of the Roman question by the convention of 15 September, which guaranteed to the Papal States the protection of Italy, and finally by the treaty of 30 October 1864, which temporarily put an end to the crisis of the Schleswig-Holstein question.