of 1856, might be
construed as an engagement to interfere in the unhappy
dissensions now prevailing in the United States; an
interference which would be contrary to Her Majesty's public
declarations, and would be a reversal of the policy which Her
Majesty has deliberately sanctioned[249]."

Thus the negotiation closed. Seward in declining to accept the proposed
declaration gave varying reasons in his instructions to Adams, in
London, and to Dayton, in Paris, for an exactly similar declaration had
been insisted upon by France, but he did not argue the question save in
generalities. He told Dayton that the supposed possible "intervention"
which Great Britain and France seemed to fear they would be called upon
to make was exactly the action which the United States desired to
forestall, and he notified Adams that he could not consent since the
proposed Declaration "would be virtually a new and distinct article
incorporated into the projected convention[250]." The first formal
negotiation of the United States during the Civil War, and of the new
American Minister in London, had come to an inglorious conclusion.
Diplomats and Foreign Secretaries were, quite naturally, disturbed, and
were even suspicious of each others' motives, but the public, not at the
moment informed save on the American offer and the result, paid little
attention to these "inner circle" controversies[251].

What then were the hidden purposes, if such existed, of the negotiating
powers. The first answer in historical writing was that offered by Henry
Adams[252], in an essay entitled "The Declaration of Paris, 1861," in
the preparation of which the author studied with care all the diplomatic
correspondence available in print[253]. His treatment presents Russell
as engaged in a policy of deception with the view of obtaining an
ultimate advantage to Great Britain in the field of commercial rivalry
and maritime supremacy. Following Henry Adams' argument Russell, on May
9, brought to the attention of France a proposal for a joint request on
the American belligerents to respect the second and third articles of
the Declaration of Paris, and received an acquiescent reply. After some
further exchanges of proposed terms of instructions to the British and
French Ministers at Washington, Russell, on May 18, sent a despatch to
Lyons with instructions for his action. On this same day Russell, in his
first interview with Adams, "before these des