The decision of the British Government was that this country was divided into two belligerent parties toward which Great Britain assumes the attitude of a neutral. Internationally this gave the Confederacy equal footing with the Union. This is clear when Confederate ships were allowed into ports and harbors around the world. Even while they were taking and sinking hundreds of union ships on the high seas, they were welcomed, not as pirates or an illegal navy, but as representatives of a legitimate (belligerent) government.

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David Upton