Mr. Adams to Mr.
Seward.
No. 453.]
Legation of the United States,
London,
July 16, 1863.
Sir: I now have the honor to transmit a copy of
my note to Lord Russell of the 11th instant, making a representation on
the subject of the iron-clad vessel launched from Mr. Laird’s yard, at
Liverpool. It has been acknowledged by his lordship, in a note, a copy
of which is also appended.
I have received from Mr. Dudley two additional depositions, which I
purpose to transmit to his lordship this day.
In connexion with this subject, I beg to call your attention to the
reply, addressed by Mr. Hammond, on behalf of Lord Russell, to the
signers of the Liverpool memorial, suggesting some alteration in the
enlistment act. Both papers are printed in the copy of the Times of the
13th instant, which I transmit. It may be inferred from this that the
government will persist in their efforts to enforce the provisions of
the enlistment act through the courts, reserving to themselves an avenue
of escape by reason of any failure to be supplied with evidence of
intent to violate them. Whether they expect the duty of looking this up
to be performed by us, or they design to seek it also from other
sources, does not clearly appear.
It is stated in the newspapers that the lords of the admiralty have
issued a notice to the naval reserve that any member taking service with
a belligerent will forfeit all his privileges; shipping masters are
requested to report all cases, so that they may be dealt with.
On the whole, I think there is an increasing conviction of the necessity
to enforce the obligations of neutrality, notwithstanding the strong
leanings of the higher classes.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, &c.
[Page 361]
Mr. Adams to Lord Russell.
Legation of the United
States,
London,
July 11, 1863.
My Lord: It is with unaffected regret that
I perform the duty incumbent on me, as the representative of the
government of the United States, of laying before you copies of a
letter from the consul of the United States at Liverpool, and of
four depositions, all intended to show a determined perseverance in
the same acts of hostility at the port of Liverpool which have
formed the subject of my remonstrances almost from the day I had the
honor first to occupy this post.
In many preceding communications I have endeavored to set forth the
facts which appear to me to prove, beyond the possibility of a
doubt, the establishment on the part of the insurgents in the United
States of a systematic plan of warfare upon the people of the United
States, carried on from the port of Liverpool, as well as in less
degree from other ports in this kingdom. In this policy the persons
who have been sent out and have acted as agents have received the
aid and effective co-operation of numbers of her Majesty’s subjects.
The results of this conduct have been felt in the despatch of
numbers of steam vessels laden with arms and munitions of war of
every description, together with other supplies, well adapted to
procrastinate the struggle, with the purpose of breaking a blockade
legitimately established and fully recognized by her Majesty in the
proclamation issued by her forbidding all such acts.
It is needless to point out to your lordship how exclusively this
business has been carried on by British subjects in British vessels,
and how much the burden of war has been increased by the necessity
of maintaining a corresponding naval force on the ocean in order to
suppress it. Nor yet will I enlarge upon he use to which the British
islands of Bermuda and New Providence have been put by British
subjects, as convenient points for the storing of all these
supplies, to the end that they may be more easily despatched to
their illegal destination.
But, not satisfied with the aid thus obtained, the next step of the
agents alluded to has been to enlist the aid and co-operation of
British subjects in constructing for their use steam vessels
expressly adapted to the object of carrying on war against the
commerce of the people of the United States. The extent to which
this has been actually procured has been made visible to your
lordship in the various remonstrances heretofore presented by myself
to your attention, unhappily too little heeded to secure prevention,
and still more by the fact that, for all the vessels now on the
ocean engaged in the work of depredation on the commerce of the
United States, British subjects must be held responsible in regard
to their construction, equipment, manning, and outfit.
Furthermore, it appears that the aforesaid agents, under express
instructions from the so-called authorities of the insurgents, who
soon fell short in the pecuniary means to conduct these extreme
warlike operations, have solicited the assistance of her Majesty’s
subjects in this kingdom in advancing to them the funds to be
appropriated to these objects. The purpose of this application, to
carry on the war with the people of the United States with the means
thus raised, was distinctly declared. To that end a loan of three
millions of pounds sterling was proposed. That negotiation was
entered into, and the means have actually been obtained in a great
measure from the contributions of her Majesty’s subjects.
Thus it is manifest that all of those things denominated the sinews
of war, to wit: men and money, ships, arms, gunpowder, and supplies,
have been continually furnished by her Majesty’s subjects almost
from the beginning of the contest. A war has thus been practically
conducted by a portion of her people
[Page 362]
against a government with which her Majesty is
under the most solemn of all national engagements to preserve a
lasting and durable peace.
The government of the United States has in the mean time tried not to
be wanting in performing the obligations incumbent upon it as a
friend of Great Britain. In every particular in which it has been
called upon in a suitable manner it has labored promptly to meet and
satisfy every just cause of complaint. So far as possible,
consistently with the difficulties in which it has been placed, it
has assiduously striven to cultivate the most friendly relations. It
has been, therefore, with the greatest regret that it has been
compelled to feel itself the innocent object of a degree of active
malevolence from a portion of her Majesty’s subjects, which has
largely contributed to aggravate the severity of its trials. The
fact that the aid extended to this rebellion has had its source
almost exclusively from her Majesty’s subjects is made too notorious
by the events of the struggle to need to be further enlarged upon.
In making this representation, I do not intend to be understood as
implying the smallest disposition on the part of her Majesty’s
government in any way to sanction or even to tolerate the
proceedings complained of. On the contrary, I cheerfully renew my
conviction that they condemn them as practical infringements of
international obligations, which it is their desire to prevent with
all the means under their control. Fruitless as have been the
greater part of remonstrances which I have had the honor to make, I
am well aware that the causes assigned for it do not relate to the
want of will so much as to the absence of power in the existing laws
to reach a remedy. But admitting this to be the case, if an injury
be inflicted upon an innocent friendly nation, it surely cannot be a
satisfactory reply to its complaints to. say that the government
having the will is not also clothed with the necessary powers to
make reparation for the past and effective prevention for the
future.
Having thus acquitted myself of the painful duty of recapitulating
the points I am instructed by my government to present, I now have
the honor to solicit your attention to the evidence of the last and
gravest act of international hostility yet committed. It is the
construction and equipment of a steam vessel-of-war, of the most
formidable kind now known, in the port of Liverpool. All the
appliances of British skill to the arts of destruction appear to
have been resorted to for the purpose of doing injury to the people
of the United States. The very construction of such a vessel, in a
country itself in a state of profound peace, without any explanation
of the object to which it is to be applied, is calculated to excite
uneasiness on the part of those involved in a contest where only it
could be expected to be made of use. But when it further appears
that it is constructed by parties who have been already proved to
have furnished one vessel-of-war to the insurgents in America, and
who are now shown to be acting in co-operation with their well known
agents on the spot in the preparation of that now in question, it is
not unnatural that such proceedings should be regarded by the
government and people of the United States with the greatest alarm,
as virtually tantamount to a participation in the war by the people
of Great Britain to a degree which, if not seasonably prevented,
cannot fail to endanger the peace and welfare of both countries. I
trust I need not assure your lordship how deeply concerned is the
government which I have the honor to represent in the view of any
such possibility, and how earnestly it hopes that her Majesty’s
government having the will may find itself likewise vested with the
needful power to guard against any such occurrence.
I pray your lordship to accept the assurances of the highest
consideration with which I have the honor to be your lordship’s
obedient servant,
Right Hon. Earl Russell, &c., &c.
[Page 363]
Lord Russell to Mr. Adams.
Foreign Office,
July 13, 1863.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your letter of the 11th instant, and I have to state to
you that I have lost no time in communicating with the proper
departments of her Majesty’s government relative to the steam
vessel-of-war which is stated to be in process of construction at
Liverpool, in order that such steps may be taken in the matter as
can be legally and properly adopted.
I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your
most obedient, humble servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c.
