Mr. Stuart to Mr. Seward.
Sir: Lord Lyons addressed various despatches to Earl Russell, in the month of May and in the beginning of June last, relative to the restrictions placed upon the export trade of the United States, and more especially upon that from New York to the Bahamas, in consequence of the instructions given by the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States to refuse clearances to vessels laden with contraband of war, or other specified articles, as well as to vessels which are believed to be, in fact, bound to confederate ports, or which are laden with merchandise of whatever description, when there appears to be imminent danger of the cargoes coming into the possession of the so-styled confederates.
I have consequently been instructed to state to you that her Majesty’s government, after considering these despatches, in communication with the law advisers of the crown, are of opinion that it is competent for the United States, as a belligerent power, to protect itself, within its own ports and territory, by refusing clearances to vessels laden with contraband of war or other specified articles, as well as to vessels which are believed to be bound to confederate ports, and that so long as such precautions are adopted equally and indifferently in all cases, without reference to the nationality or origin of any particular vessel or goods, they do not afford any just ground of complaint.
But her Majesty’s government are unable to understand how the refusal of clearances to vessels laden with ordinary merchandise can be justified upon the mere assumption of some “imminent danger of the cargoes coming into the possession of the insurgents,” unless, indeed, there be reasonable ground for alleging and believing that some confederate port is the true destination of such vessels or of their cargoes. Under so vague and indefinite a pretext as that of “imminent danger of the cargoes coming into the possession of the insurgents,” any kind and amount of arbitrary restriction upon British trade might be introduced and practiced.
[Page 274]With reference to the measures that appear to have been taken by the United States government as to the trade with the Bahama islands, her Majesty’s government consider that a distinction ought to be made between shipments of coal and other articles ancipitis usus, the export of which may have been prohibited as contraband by general orders of the United States government, to any place within certain geographical limits, and shipments to the Bahamas, or any other part of the British dominions, of provisions and other articles of innocent use, not prohibited or made contraband by any such general order. The prohibition of the former class of shipments is public and general, and it falls equally upon the shipping and commerce of all nations, and may be justified on the ground of the exigencies of a belligerent.
Her Majesty’s government cannot, however, so regard the interference of the New York custom-house with the ordinary exports to the Bahamas of dry goods, plain and printed cotton fabrics, &c., shoes, medical drugs, flour, and provisions. Trade between the United States and the Bahamas is regulated by the treaty of 1815, between the United States and Great Britain, the stipulations of that treaty having been extended to the Bahamas in 1830 by the mutual acts of both governments. By the proclamation of President Jackson, dated the 5th of October, 1830, pursuant to the act of Congress of the 29th May, 1830, it was expressly declared to be lawful for British vessels from the Bahamas to import into the United States and to export therefrom any articles which might be imported or exported in vessels of the United States. This engagement is still in force, and any prohibition of or interference with exports of ordinary commodities, not contraband of war, from New York to the Bahamas, in British vessels, is plainly inconsistent with that engagement.
Her Majesty’s government cannot, therefore, in the absence of any evidence that the articles in question were destined for the so-styled Confederate States, pass unnoticed the general restriction which had been imposed on their export from New York to the Bahamas, and I have accordingly been instructed to address this representation to you upon the subject.
I avail myself of this occasion to renew to you the assurances of my highest consideration.
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.