Palmerston had sent word that he favoured the Society's resolution but not that of the Association, and as a result the joint letter of the two organizations would be on the mild lines of Lindsay's original motion: "Although this quite expresses the object of our Society, still I do not think the 'Independence Association' ought to have 'ratted' from its principles.

It ought not to have consented to ignore the question which it was instituted to bring before Parliament--that of the Independence of the Confederacy--and more than that, the ambiguous ending of the resolution to be submitted is not such as I think ought to be allowed.

You know the resolution and therefore I need only quote the obnoxious words 'That Her Majesty's Government will avail itself of the earliest opportunity of mediating, etc.' "This is just leaving the Government where they have been all along.

They have always professed to take 'the earliest opportunity' but of which they are to be the judges[1183]!" Evidently there was confusion in the ranks and disagreement among the leaders of Southern friends.

Adams, always cool in judgment of where lay the wind, wrote to Seward on this same day that Lindsay was delaying his motion until the receipt of favourable news upon which to spring it.
Even such news, Adams believed, would not alter British policy unless it should depict the "complete defeat and dispersion" of Northern forces[1184].