Slate I )< /xtf/meni. 345
inet. Prince Polignac was a gallant brigadier of the western army, and is a gentleman of high character and intelligence, but he was not at any time in the diplomatic service of the Confederate Govern- ment. The Confederacy possessed a singularly able representative at Paris in the person of Hon. John Slidell, of Louisiana, a former associate of Mr. Jefferson Davis in the United States Senate. He was trusted to the fullest extent by the President and by Mr. Ben- jamin; and, from the time he entered on his duties soon after the the affair of the Trent, no other person was ever chosen to make any representation, oral or written, to the Emperor or his Ministers of Foreign Affairs. To these officials he had easy access, and from them received the most respectful consideration. Slidell was a wise, sagacious, experienced man of affairs, and was probably better fitted to succeed at Paris of all places than any other man. Indeed, I doubt if he had an equal in the South for a diplomatic post, unless, possibly, Lamar or General Dick Taylor, of Louisiana. These two were men of very striking gifts, and had, I think, the special quali- fications requisite for diplomatic service.
THE DENIAL.
When the account of this alleged Polignac mission was published in 1895, I gave it a brief contradiction in the press. At that time President Davis was dead, and, I believe, only two of his Cabinet still survived namely, Judge John H. Reagan, of Texas, and the Hon. George Davis, of Wilmington, N. C. Judge Reagan, who, I am happy to say, still lives, who wrote me June '28, 1895, saying that "any measure of this importance would necessarily have been con- sidered by the Cabinet of the Confederacy, and no such project was ever mentioned or hinted at in the Cabinet."
The denial of the Hon. George Davis, ex-Confederate Attorney- General in 1864, to whom I also wrote, is not less emphatic. I ap- pend his letter :
."WILMINGTON, N. C, June 29, 1895. "/,. Q. Washington, Esq., Washington, D. C. :
" Dear Sir, After long years I am glad once more to hear from you. I have been confined for a long time with a lingering sickness from which I am not yet recovered, and so I am compelled to write to you by the hand of my daughter.
" I never heard a word of the Poglinac canard, and I don't believe a word of it. I know that your relations with your chief, Mr. Ben-
