Mr. Adams to Mr.
Seward.
No. 135.]
Legation of the United States,
London,
March 27, 1862.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
reception from the department of despatches numbered from 199 to 208,
inclusive.
It will have come to your knowledge, by the reception of my despatch No.
131, of the 13th of March, that I had already acted in conformity with
the suggestions contained in your No. 207, dated on the 11th, by
addressing, a note to Earl Russell in remonstrance against the notorious
activity of the subjects of Great Britain in efforts to set at nought
the blockade. To that communication I have not yet received a reply. The
reception of a letter from Mr. Dudley, the consul at Liverpool,
containing additional information to the same effect, supplied me with a
new occasion to write to his lordship in the spirit of your despatch No.
196, of the 27th of February. A copy of this latest note, dated the 26th
instant, is herewith transmitted. After a full conversation with Mr.
Morse, we both arrived at the conclusion that the evidence in our
possession would not sustain so broad a position as that contemplated in
your letter; for, whatever may have been the purposes of the confederate
emissaries and their friends pending the difficulties connected with the
Trent case—and I am inclined to believe they went to the full extent
indicated—I fancy they have shrunk within much smaller compass since
that speck of war has disappeared. The activity is now mainly directed
to the expediting of every species of supply through the means of steam
vessels, which may themselves be turned to some account in the way of
illicit trade or of piratical warfare. Of these last the Oreto seems to
be the only one likely to prove formidable. I thought it, therefore, a
good opportunity to place upon his lordship the responsibility of the
consequences of permitting himself to be deluded by what I cannot help
thinking the wilful blindness and credulous partiality of the British
authorities at Liverpool. From the experience of the past, I have little
or no confidence in the success of any application that may be made of
the kind. It is not the less important, for all that, to perpetuate the
testimony for future use. That Great Britain did, in the most terrible
moment of our domestic trial in struggling with a monstrous social evil
she had earnestly professed to abhor, coldly and at once assume our
inability to master it, and then become the only foreign nation steadily
contributing in every indirect way possible to verify its prejudgment,
will probably be the verdict made up against her by posterity on a calm
comparison of the evidence. I do not mean to say that such has been the
course of the whole people. A considerable portion of them in all
classes have been actuated by nobler views. There is, throughout
England, a great deal of warm though passive sympathy with America. But
there is likewise an extraordinary amount of fear as well as of
jealousy. And it is these last passions which have pervaded the mass of
the governing
[Page 54]
classes, until
they have inscribed for the whole nation a moral and political record
which no subsequent action will ever avail to obliterate.
I am bound to notice, in several of your late despatches, a strong
disposition to press upon the British government an argument for a
retraction of its original error in granting to the rebels the rights of
a belligerent. There may come a moment when such a proceeding might seem
to me likely to be of use. But I must frankly confess that I do not see
it yet. The very last speech of Lord Russell in the House of Lords is,
from beginning to end inspired by an opposite idea. The final disruption
of the United States and the ultimate recognition of the seceding States
are as visible in every word of that address as they were in the letter
of the same nobleman to Mr. Edwards on the 14th of May last. Lord
Palmerston has entertained the same conviction. * * * The foreign policy
of the government, upon which its friends almost exclusively depend for
what is left it of popularity in the nation, rests upon this basis. * *
* For these reasons I respectfully submit to your consideration my
doubts about the expediency of moving in this direction now. Indeed,
should it so happen that the existing indications of an early
termination of the struggle continue to multiply there will be little
occasion for further remonstrance of any kind here; for the disposition
to help a party once that it is felt to be certainly sinking is not very
common among either political or commercial men; and there are no others
in great Britain who would stop to shed a tear over the fallen fortunes
of the quasi belligerent of their own creation.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
[Enclosures.]
1. Copy of Mr. Adams’s note of March 25, to Earl Russell, on the
Oreto, &c.
2. Copy of Mr. Consul Dudley’s note to Mr. Adams, of March 22, about
the arming of the Oreto.
Mr. Adams to Earl Russell.
Legation of the United
States,
London,
March 25,
1862.
My Lord: I have the honor to submit to
your consideration the copy of a letter received from the consul
of the United States at Liverpool, touching the case of the
steam gunboat Oreto, which I have already made the subject of a
communication some time ago. It is with great reluctance that I
am driven to the conviction that the representations made to
your lordship of the purposes and destination of that vessel
were delusive, and that though at first it may have been
intended for service in Sicily, yet that such an intention has
been long since abandoned in fact, and the pretence has been
held up only the better to conceal the true object of the
parties engaged. That object is to make war on the United
States. All the persons thus far known to be most connected with
the undertaking are either directly employed by the insurgents
in the United States of America, or residents of Great Britain
notoriously in sympathy with and giving aid and comfort to them
on this side of the water.
[Page 55]
It is with the deepest regret that the President directs me to
submit to her Majesty’s government a representation of the
unfortunate effect produced upon the minds of the people of the
United States from the conviction that nearly all of the
assistance that is now obtained from abroad by the persons still
in arms against their government, and which enables them to
continue the struggle, comes from the kingdom of Great Britain
and its dependencies. Neither is this impression relieved by the
information that the existing municipal laws are found to be
insufficient, and do not furnish means of prevention adequate to
the emergency. The duty of nations in amity with each other
would seem to be plain, not to suffer their good faith to be
violated by ill-disposed persons within their borders merely
from the inefficacy of their prohibitory policy. Such is the
view which my government has been disposed to take of its own
obligations in similar cases, and such, it doubts not, is that
of all foreign nations with which it is at peace. It is for that
reason I deprecate the inference that may be drawn from the
issue of the investigation which your lordship caused to be made
in the case of the Oreto, should that vessel be ultimately found
issuing safely from this kingdom and preying on the commerce of
the people of the United States. Not doubting myself the
sincerity and earnest desire of your lordship to do all that is
within your power to fulfil every requirement of international
amity, it is to be feared that all the favorable effect of it
may be neutralized by the later evidence of adverse results. It
is no part of my intention to imply the want of fidelity or of
good-will in any quarter. I desire to confine myself closely
within the pale of my duty, a representation of the precise
causes of uneasiness between the two countries, and an earnest
desire to remove them. Firmly convinced that the actual position
of things in connexion with the hostile equipment in British
waters by no means does justice to the true disposition of her
Majesty’s government, I am anxious to place the matter before
your lordship in such a light as to obtain the evidence more
perfectly to establish the truth.
I am further instructed to say that, well aware of the
embarrassment and losses sustained by the nations with which the
United States are in amity, through the operation of the
restrictive measures to which the government has felt itself
obliged to have recourse in its efforts to suppress the
insurrection within its borders, it has ever been its desire to
hasten the moment when it might be practicable to rescind them,
consistently with the attainment of its great object. But to
that end much must necessarily depend upon the degree in which
co-operation with its policy, or the contrary, may be
experienced from without. It is obvious that just in proportion
to the success of the efforts made by the ill-intentioned people
of foreign countries to violate the blockade must be the
endeavors to enforce it with increased stringency. So also in
proportion to the success of such persons in supplying, by
violation of law, the insurgents with the means of continuing
their resistance must be the delay in restoring to all honest
people the customary facilities of trade and intercourse to
which they are justly entitled. It has not been without great
regret that the government has been compelled to observe the
extent to which her Majesty’s flag has been abused to subserve
the purposes of the disaffected, and thus to continue the
present depressed condition of legitimate trade. A very great
proportion of the vessels which attempted to violate the
blockade appear to be fitted out directly from Great Britain or
some of her dependencies. The effect of permitting such
violations of good faith to go unnoticed by government is not
merely to create an unfortunate degree of irritation in America,
implicating many far beyond the sphere of the unworthy parties
concerned in producing it, but to postpone proportionately the
prospect of bringing about a better state of things. It is for
this reason, as well as from a desire earnestly felt
[Page 56]
by the President to
maintain unbroken all the customary relations of amity with
Great Britain, that I have been directed to make the present
representation. Any suggestion of the means best adapted to
remedy the evils complained of is deemed a matter exclusively
within the competency of those in whom the decision to act is
vested. Disclaiming every wish to solicit more than my
government would in its turn be prepared under similar
circumstances to concede, and entertaining full confidence in
the disposition of her Majesty’s ministers on their part to act
to the utmost of their ability in the same spirit, I pray your
lordship to accept the assurances of the highest consideration
with which I have the honor to be, my lord, your most obedient
servant,
Right Hon. Earl Russell,
&c., &c., &c.
Mr. Dudley to Mr. Adams.
United States
Consulate,
Liverpool,
March 22,
1862.
Sir: The Oreto is still in the river. A
flatboat has taken a part of her armament to her. A part of the
crew of the steamer Annie Childs, which came to this port loaded
with cotton, have just left my office. They tell me that Captain
Bulloch is to command the Oreto, and that four other officers
for this vessel came over in the Childs with them. The names of
three are Young, Law, and Maffet, or Maffit; the fourth was
called Eddy. The two first are lieutenants, and the two last
named midshipmen. They further state that these officers during
the voyage wore naval uniforms; that they came on the Childs at
a place called Smithville, some twenty miles down the river from
Wilmington; that it was talked about and understood by all on
board that their object in coming was to take command of this
vessel which was being built in England for the southern
confederacy. They further state that it was understood in
Wilmington before they left that several war vessels were being
built in England for the south. As they were coming up the river
in the Childs as they passed the Oreto she dipped her flag to
the Childs. I have had this last from several sources, and the
additional fact that the same evening after the arrival of this
steamer a dinner was given on the Oreto to the officers who came
over in the Childs. I understand she will make direct for
Madeira and Nassau.
I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
Hon. Charles F. Adams, United States Minister.
