Now, on July 24, he addressed Russell referring to their interview of February, 1862, in which he had urged the claims of the Confederacy to recognition and again presented them, asserting that the subsequent failure of Northern campaigns had demonstrated the power of the South to maintain its independence.

The South, he wrote, asked neither aid nor intervention; it merely desired recognition and continuation of British neutrality[712].

On the same day Mason also asked for an interview[713], but received no reply until July 31, when Russell wrote that no definite answer could be sent until "after a Cabinet" and that an interview did not seem necessary[714].
This answer clearly indicates that the Government was in uncertainty.

It is significant that Russell took this moment to reply at last to Seward's protestations of May 28[715], which had been presented to him by Adams on June 20.

He instructed Stuart at Washington that his delay had been due to a "waiting for military events," but that these had been indecisive.