Francis Preston Blair's "Fantastic" Plan

Apparently, in December of '64, as the American Civil War was nearing its end, General Francis P Blair believed that he had come across a stroke of genius, and developed a plan he thought would end the War right then and there. When initially mentioned to Abraham Lincoln, the President wanted absolutely nothing to do with it, but gave Blair enough leeway that he might be allowed to meet with Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Davis in turn refused to commit to the plan, but had promised to have it mentioned at the coming peace conference to be held at Hampton Roads. Ultimately it was never mentioned there either, and Blair's "Genius" was lost to history.

What was his "Fantastic" Plan you say? It was as follows:

  1. An Armistice between the Confederate States of American and the United States of America would occur, not only as a basis for future peace, but for further military action.
  2. Jefferson Davis would personally lead a joint Union-Confederate force into Mexico.
    1. An alliance would be struck with Benito Juarez.
    2. The "Bonaparte-Hapsburg Dynasty would be expelled from the Southern Flank" of the United States.
    3. Jefferson Davis could mold the Mexican States as he saw fit, even to the point where they might find ascension into the United States.

So, how "Fantastic" was Blair's plan? :D:p


Note: I came across this while reading up on Seward's time as Secretary of State. As you could expect, he basically wondered if Blair was smoking opiates at the time.
 
Francis Preston Blair was an unfortunate case: by 1865 he remained lucid enough to keep his extraordinary influence, but was senile enough to shoot out random gibberish like this.
 
Now, I should mention that his plan..............well actually a far-cry from his plan, but something like it nonetheless was almost enacted. An army of I think some (60,000) men, both Union and Confederate veterans, was being formed in Texas with the intention of Allying with Juarez and kicking the French out. However, knowing that enthusiasm for the French venture in Paris was low, and fearing that direct American intervention, or outright humiliation might swing political opinion there back in favor, Seward nixed the plan in favor of simply arming the Mexican Rebels.

Seward did what he could to save the "Emperor of Mexico" as well, but Juarez sought to send a forceful message to Europe through the Hapsburg's death, and had Maximilian executed.

There were similar discussions as early as 1862, but as one would expect, those went nowhere fast as well. The closest the United States came to enacting a joint Union-Confederate action against a foreign power (in this case Spain) was in the weeks before Sumter.
 
I doubt such enemies would be able to reconcile that quickly, and the French weren't that much a threat to the US. This plan most likely will not work.
 
Top