The purpose of this thesis is not only to trace the diplomatic activities of the Confederate government with its neighbor, Mexico, during the period 1861 to 1865, but to evaluate these diplomatic efforts as to their practical consequences on behalf of the Confederate cause.

"This thesis is an attempt to study the Texas question in its setting with particular emphasis on the sectional ramifications of the issue. It is not an attempt to document the diplomatic negotiations which led to annexation. It is not a attempt to prove that it was the Texas issue which irreconcilably divided the North and South, but it is an effort to assess the importance of the Texas question as a factor in the sectional struggle, by studying the origin, struggle, and climax of the effort to annex Texas to the United States. The chief concern here is with politics and sectionalism in the United States in the years, 1835-1846, and the way in which they affected, or were affected by the question of Texas annexation. Only incidentally, and insofar as they affected the matter under consideration, is there any concern with affairs and events in Texas." --leaf v.

This thesis describes the history of the Southern unity movement beginning in the mid nineteenth century, with a focus on the legal and political conflicts that surrounded it.