In Washington, DC, Confederate diplomats request a meeting with the U.S. Secretary of State

Two of the three Confederate commissioners appointed to discuss affairs with the United States, John Forsythe of Alabama and Martin J. Crawford of Georgia, arrived in Washington, DC. on March 5, 1861. They requested a meeting with new Secretary of State Seward.  Four days later, in an official memorandum, Seward rejected the overture, and stated that they did not represent a foreign power and therefore he "could not recognize them as diplomatic agents, or hold correspondence or other communication with them."  (By John Osborne)