Charles M. Hubbard, 2: The Failure of Diplomacy Produces War, in The Burden of Confederate Diplomacy, Knoxville, University of Tennessee Press, 1998, pp. 25–26, ISBN 978-1-57233-092-4. URL consultato il 13 agosto 2017.
«Although congressmen frequently debated a national cotton embargo act, it never passed beyond the point of discussion. Davis was convinced that any such overt, coercive embargo would provoke the Europeans, as well as limit their motivation to confront the Northern blockade. [...] He encouraged Congress to talk freely, but never act, and depended on other factors to keep cotton from Europe. A nationwide enthusiasm for cotton diplomacy made a de facto embargo an accomplished fact. State legislatures and extra-legal citizens committees prevented most cotton from leaving the Confederacy in 1861. So effective were these citizens movements that the British Consul in Charleston, Robert Bunch, reported to London on June 5, 1861, when referring to an embargo, 'Any act of Congress would be superfluous.'»
