Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: I transmit a communication made by the Secretary of the Navy to this department, which shows that the insurgents in this country have instructed James Spence, a confederate of their own, who is a British subject residing at Liverpool, to effect, if he can, an arrangement by which gold which they have collected and are preparing to use in Great Britain to buy and fit out three ships-of-war to be used against the government of the United States, shall be conveyed from ports which are in the possession of the insurgents, but are blockaded by the United States naval forces, to their agents and confederates in Europe, in the British vessels which are permitted to enter those ports in virtue of the treaties existing between the United States and Great Britain.
So much care has hitherto been practiced by the British authorities in regard to the proceedings of such vessels that the discovery of the designs of the insurgents, to which I have alluded, would have excited no apprehension on the part of this government, had there not appeared some ground to believe that one British ship-of-war, as well as one Spanish vessel of the same kind, has already been engaged in carrying gold of the insurgents from such ports to such insurgents. This ground, so far as the British man-of-war is concerned, is found in a statement of a newspaper published at the Bahamas, a copy of which is appended to the communication of the Secretary of the Navy. It is sincerely believed by this government that the statement of the Bahama paper is erroneous and untrue. The gravity of the matter, however, requires that you shall bring the subject as early as possible to the attention of Earl Russell, and ask for such investigation and such instructions to the naval officers of Great Britain as the occasion seems to require. It is hardly necessary to say that, in the opinion of this government, the plan of the insurgents could not be carried out except by practices which would be a fraud against the treaties which secure admission of British vessels into the ports of the United States, such as the British government would be the last to lend its sanction to, or even its toleration.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.