Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir:. Your despatch of the 18th of September, No. 500, has been received, together with a copy of the correspondence which has been held by you with Earl Russell on the subject of the claims of the owners of the ship Nora, which was destroyed by the war steamer Alabama. Earl Russell produces what he pronounces satisfactory evidence that that steamer was not fitted out at Liverpool as a ship-of-war. He then says, that when the United States government assumes to hold the government of Great Britain responsible for the captures made by vessels which may be fitted out as vessels-of-war in a foreign port, because such vessels were originally built in a British port, he, Earl Russell, has to observe that such pretensions are entirely at variance with the principles of international law, and with the decisions of American courts of the highest authority, and he has only, in conclusion, to express his hope that you may not be instructed again to put forward claims which her Majesty’s government cannot admit to be founded on any grounds of law or justice.
You refer me to these statements of Earl Russell, and ask for instructions upon the question thus raised.
The United States understand that they are at peace with Great Britain, and that that power is obliged by treaties and international law to refrain, and to restrain its subjects, from making war against the United States. Her Majesty’s government probably concur in the legal principle thus asserted. The United States understand the facts in the case of the Alabama in a different sense from that which is accepted by Earl Russell. They understand that the Alabama is a pirate ship-of-war, roving over the seas capturing, burning, sinking and destroying American vessels, without any lawful authority from the British government or from any other sovereign power, in violation of the law of nations, and contemptuously defying all judicial tribunals equally of Great Britain and all other states. The United States understand that she was purposely built for war against the United States by British subjects in a British port, and prepared there to be armed and equipped with a specified armament adapted to her construction for the very piratical career which she is now pursuing; that her armament and equipment, duly adapted to this ship-of-war and no other, were simultaneously prepared by the same British subjects in a British port, to be placed on board to complete her preparation for that career; that when she was ready and her armament and equipment were equally ready, she was clandestinely [Page 448] and by connivance sent by her British holders, and the armament and equipment were at the same time clandestinely sent through the same connivance by the British subjects who had prepared them, to a common port outside of British waters, and there the armament and equipment of the Alabama as a ship-of-war were completed, and she was sent forth on her work of destruction with a crew chiefly of British subjects, enlisted in and proceeding from a British port, in fraud of the laws of Great Britain and in violation of the peace and sovereignty of the United States. The United States understand that the purpose of the building, armament and equipment, and expedition of the vessel, was one single criminal intent, running equally through the building and the equipment and the expedition, and fully completed and executed when the Alabama was finally despatched, and that this intent brought the whole transaction of building, armament and equipment within the lawful jurisdiction of Great Britain, where the main features of the crime were executed. The United States understand that they gave sufficient and adequate notice to the British government, that this wrongful enterprise was begun and was being carried out to its completion; and that upon receiving this notice, her Majesty’s government were bound by treaty obligations and by the law of nations to prevent its execution, and that if the diligence which was due had been exercised by the British government, the expedition of the Alabama would have been prevented, and the wrongful enterprise of British subjects would have been defeated. The United States confess that some effort was made by her Majesty’s government, but it was put forth too late and was too soon abandoned. Upon these principles of law and these assumptions of fact, the United States do insist, and must continue to insist, that the British government is justly responsible for the damages which the peaceful, law-abiding citizens of the United States sustain by the depredations of the Alabama. I cannot, therefore, instruct you to refrain from presenting the claims which you have now in your hands of the character indicated.
In saying this, however, it is not to be understood that the United States intend to act dogmatically or in a litigious spirit. They are seriously and earnestly desirous, to maintain not only peace, but even amity, with Great Britain. They understand how unavoidably grievances have reciprocally arisen out of the divergence of policies which the two countries have adopted in regard to the present insurrection. This government thinks it understands, and in some measure appreciates, the difficulties and embarrassments under which her Majesty’s government are laboring, resulting from the pressure of interests and combinations of British subjects calculated to compromise the neutrality which her. Majesty has proclaimed, and tending even to involve the two nations in a destructive maritime war. This government confesses very freely, that it does not regard the present hour as one that is entirely favorable to a calm and candid examination of either the facts or the principles involved in such cases as the Alabama. It looks forward to a period when our intestine war shall have ceased, and the interests and passions which it has awakened abroad as well as at home shall have subsided and disappeared. Though indulging a confident belief in the correctness of our positions in regard to the claims in question, and others, we shall be willing at all times hereafter, as well as now, to consider the evidence and the arguments which her Majesty’s government may offer, to show that they are invalid, and if we shall not be convinced, there is no fair and just form of conventional arbitrament or reference to which we shall not be willing to submit them. Entertaining these views, the President thinks it proper for you to inform Earl Russell that you must continue to give him notice of claims of the character referred to when they arise, and that you shall propose to furnish him the evidence upon which they rest, as is customary in such cases, in order to guard against ultimate failure of justice. If he shall [Page 449] decline to receive the evidence, you will cause it to be duly registered and preserved, to be presented when a suitable occasion shall hereafter occur for renewing and urging prosecution of the claims, I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.