Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Third Session Thirty-seventh Congress

[Extracts.]

Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward.

No. 175.]

Legation of the United States, London, June 18, 1862.

Sir: I have to acknowledge the reception of despatches from the department numbered from 259 to 26T, both inclusive. * * * *

The general tenor of these papers is more cheering than that of any received within a corresponding space of time since the day I first arrived at this post. I am in hopes that the effect of the intelligence may be useful here, where the genuine sentiment of the governing classes becomes more and more visible every hour. The only consolation now left for the disappointed spirits who have so confidently counted upon a division of the Union into two nations is the belief that at any rate there can be no lasting harmony whilst we remain one, The eagerness with which they hunt up the petty details to confirm this notion, and keep out of sight whatever goes to shake it, is deserving of notice only as it betrays the temper in which the struggle has been viewed in this kingdom from the outset.

Since the despatch of your No. 261 you will have received my letter of the 30th of May, No. 168, covering a copy of my note to Lord Russell and his reply, which close the correspondence respecting the case of the Emily St. Pierre. I am not sure whether, as the matter has been left, the government would consider it advisable that I should act on the suggestion in your letter. All the consultations with lawyers and efforts to invoke the aid of courts made thus far have terminated only in the payment of large fees to the one and the abnegation of rights of jurisdiction by the other. Should it be the wish of the President, however, after an examination of the whole correspondence, to take that course, I shall very cheerfully adopt it.

It is not a little strange that this very question appears to have occupied the attention of the two governments so far back as in the year 1800. My attention has been called to this fact by my under secretary, Mr. Moran, who happened to find the correspondence on the subject in the third volume of the collection of American State Papers relating to foreign affairs. It was the British government which then made the claim on almost the identical grounds taken by me, and the American declined acceding to it, substantially for the same reasons given by Lord Russell. The case is the more remarkable that it is shown to have been decided not without difficulty in the cabinet of President Adams. The opinion of Mr. McHenry, as given in that work, is not less remarkable for its soundness than for its singular sagacity in predicting the ill consequence of the course then taken. At that date the law of rescue had not been laid down with the distinctness which it had assumed under the dicta of Lord Stowell. In the course that I felt it my duty to take I have acted on my own responsibility, it is true, but as yet I see nothing to take back.

I have the honor to transmit copies of the correspondence relating to the claim of the ship Daring, of Boston, which has passed in consequence of the directions contained in your despatch No. 257.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS,

Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

Mr. Adams to Earl Russell.

Legation of the United States, London, June 11, 1862.

My Lord: I am instructed to submit to the consideration of her Majesty’s government copies of papers relating to the ship Daring, of Boston, in the United States, and to the damage and loss experienced by the owners, growing out of the detention of a shipment of a quantity of saltpetre at Calcutta, in the month of December last, made prior to the reception of her Majesty’s proclamation prohibiting the export thereof.

As I cannot entertain a doubt of the disposition of her Majesty’s government to administer relief in cases of hardship to citizens of a friendly nation engaged in legitimate trade, occasioned by the retroactive operation of a public act of which they could have had no knowledge, provided that the facts be clearly established, I simply content myself with expressing the hope that the papers will receive from your lordship such attention as they shall appear on examination to deserve.

Renewing the assurances of my highest consideration, I have the honor to be, my lord, your most obedient servant,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

Right Hon. Earl Russell, &c., &c., &c.

Earl Russell to Mr. Adams.

Foreign Office, June 16, 1862.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 11th instant, enclosing papers relative to the claim of the owners of the United States vessel Daring, to be compensated by her Majesty’s government on account of the detention of some saltpetre shipped on board that vessel at Calcutta, and I have to inform you that I have lost no time in forwarding these papers for the consideration of the proper department of her Majesty’s government.

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,

RUSSELL.

Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.