It had never been worse. When the war began, there were many Southerners who confidently predicted that King Cotton—as they called it—would defeat all their enemies. England and France would have to intervene just in order to obtain the cotton that their factories so desperately needed. This prediction proved mistaken, however, in large part because England and France both enjoyed a surplus of cotton when the war began. By the time their supplies declined, the cause of the Union was rising so strongly that it was practically impossible for them to intervene.

Also, it must be admitted that the North generally had men of greater skill in its diplomatic posts. Charles Francis Adams, the son of one president (John Quincy Adams) and the grandson of another (John Adams), was the American minister to the Court of St. James. He faced many difficulties, but most observers concluded that he played his hand very well, and never better than where the Laird Rams were concerned.