Circa 1865
Dudley Mann was appointed as one of three Special Commissioners
to Europe in 1861, to represent the interests of the Confederate States
of America. He met with Pope Pius IX in mid-November 1863 to explain
the actions of the Confederate States in seeking independence. When the
wisdom of gradual emancipation was suggested, Mann properly advised the
Pontiff that the States themselves were the ones to decide this, not the
Confederate government. He could have further explained that this is
precisely how African slavery had been abolished in the Northern States
by the action of individual States, not the federal government. In March
1865, with the agreement of the States, the Confederate Congress
authorized the enlistment of 300,000 emancipated black men.
His Holiness and the Civil War
“His Holiness now stated, to use his own language, that Lincoln and
Company had endeavored to create an impression abroad that they were
fighting for the abolition of slavery, and that it might perhaps be
judicious in us to consent to gradual emancipation. I replied that the
subject of slavery was one over which the Government of the Confederate
States, like that of the old United States, had no control whatever;
that all ameliorations with regard to the institution must proceed from
the States themselves, which were as sovereigns in their character in
this regard as were France, Austria, or any other Continental power . . .
I availed myself of [Lincoln’s emancipation] declaration to inform
His Holiness that it was not the armies of Northern birth which the
South was encountering in hostile array, but that it was the armies of
European creation, occasioned by the Irish and Germans, chiefly by the
former, who were influenced to emigrate (by circulars from Lincoln and
Company to their numerous agents abroad) ostensibly for the purpose of
securing high wages, but in reality to fill up the constantly depleted
ranks of our enemy, that those poor unfortunates were tempted by the
high bounties amounting to $500, $600 and $700 to enlist and take up
arms against us; that once in the service they were invariably placed in
the most exposed points of danger in the battlefield; that in
consequence thereof an instance had occurred in which almost an entire
brigade had been left dead or wounded upon the ground; that but for
foreign recruits the North would most likely have broken down months ago
in the absurd attempt to overpower the South.
His Holiness expressed his utter astonishment, repeatedly throwing up
his hands at the employment of such means against us and the cruelty
attendant upon such unscrupulous operations.”
(A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Confederacy,
Including the Diplomatic Correspondence 1861-1865, James D. Richardson,
editor, US Publishing Company, 1905, excerpt pg. 594)
