This was a convenient and reasonable ground for postponing action but did not imply that if the conviction were unrealized no mediation would be attempted.

McClellan, driven out of the Peninsula, had been removed, and August saw the Northern army pressed back from Virginia soil.

It was now Washington and not Richmond that seemed in danger of capture.

Surely the North must soon realize the futility of further effort, and the reports early in July from Washington dilated upon the rapid emergence of a strong peace party.
But the first panic of dismay once past Stuart sent word of enormous new Northern levies of men and of renewed courage[728].

By mid-August, writing of cotton, he thought the prospect of obtaining any quantity of it "seems hopeless," and at the same time reported the peace party fast losing ground in the face of the great energy of the Administration[729].