Wrong. As you earlier admitted, they also had the power to negotiate differences between the two sides.
Nonsense. Their instructions said nothing about paying for anything.
Wrong. These so-called "instructions" you keep referring to didn't stop Davis from sending them with bank papers to carry out payment if necessary.
Nonsense. Any other negotiations depended upon the Lincoln adminsitration acknowledging the legitimacy of the Davis regime and the success of the southern rebellion. Your suggestion that somehow the fate of Sumter and other federal property could have been negotiated without first settling that fact is absurd.
These so-called "instructions" you keep referring to didn't stop Davis from sending them with bank papers to carry out payment if necessary.
If true then wouldn't that be yet another example of the contempt that Davis had for the confederate constitution since only the congress could appropriate the funds necessary for paying such claims?
Wrong. These so-called "instructions" you keep referring to didn't stop Davis from sending them with bank papers to carry out payment if necessary.
There wasn't enough cash in the south to nearly pay for all the federal property in the south. And when you consider that the U.S. took on the debts of Texas, and spent $100,000,000 to remove and subdue the hostile indian tribes just in Florida, and that several of the so-called states were bought with federal money, the idea that the so-called CSA was going to make just restitution is absurd.
Southerners were in debt to northern creditors to something like the tune of $200,000,000. And their wealth was in land and slaves. They didn't have much liquid capital.
No. What the "commissioners" were trying to do was prove, by their offer to negotiate, that they were honorable "gentlemen." But they were no more honorable than a purse snatcher. And no less willing to use force.
Walt