He had been met with what he considered a "cold" and premature as well as unjustifiable declaration of neutrality.

From the first day of the conflict Lyons and Mercier had been constant in representing the hardships inflicted by the American war upon the economic interests of their respective countries.
Both men bore down upon the interruption of the cotton trade and Seward kept repeating that Northern victories would soon release the raw cotton.

He expected and promised much from the capture of New Orleans, but the results were disappointing.

As time went on Seward became convinced that material interests alone would determine the attitude and action of Great Britain and France.

But the stored supplies were on hand in the South, locked in by the blockade and would be available when the war was over _provided_ the war did not take on an uncivilized and sanguinary character through a rising of the slaves.