The Implementation of Neutrality
On May 13, 1861, the British cabinet published a proclamation of neutrality accompanied by recognition of Southern belligerency. The French followed suit on June 10, 1861 with a proclamation of neutrality that employed the same cautious language to describe the Southern authority. Instead of taking a stance on the central problem, French Foreign Minister Edouard Thouvenel sought to anticipate the conflict’s damage to French interests in the U.S. However, by keeping an equal distance from both belligerents, France displeased the Lincoln administration, which denied that its enemy had any legitimacy to fight. The legal government remained the one in Washington because the French did not recognize the Confederacy as a state. France therefore maintained diplomatic relations with the Lincoln administration, while French relations with the authorities in Richmond remained unofficial. The Declaration of Paris of April 16, 1856 introduced changes to maritime law. It prohibited privateering, exempted nonbelligerent vessels carrying enemy goods from confiscation, and declared that blockades had to be physically effective in order to be legally binding. Thouvenel found it easier to depart from a strict reading of the Declaration of Paris because the text did not clearly specify any practical arrangements for certifying a blockade’s effectiveness.