Major General Doyle to the Duke of Newcastle.
My Lord Duke: I have the honor to report, for the information of your grace, the circumstances connected with the steamship Chesapeake, recently brought into this harbor by United States men-of-war.
2. On the 10th December a letter, a copy of which is annexed, was addressed to the honorable provincial secretary of my government by Mr. Gunnison, ex-vice-consul of the United States of America, stating that information had been received at the United States consulate that the American steamer Chesapeake had been seized by a band of pirates and murder committed, and requesting that should the Chesapeake or any one connected with her enter our ports, she should be detained, and the parties implicated arrested, and held to answer any charge that might be preferred against them.
3. At the same time, and subsequently between the 10th and 15th December, Mr. Gunnison handed the provincial secretary copies of the annexed telegrams, and an affidavit made by the vice-consul on the 14th instant, all of which were by my direction placed in the hands of the law officers of this government.
4. On the 11th instant I received a telegram from Lord Lyons, saying he was informed that the American government had heard that the steamer Chesapeake had put into a Nova Scotian port, and that the Secretary of State had begged him to take all measures compatible with international and municipal law, in order that justice might be done, to which I replied that the Chesapeake had not been heard of in any of our ports, and inquired whether I should detain her if she should come.
5. On the 14th instant the provincial secretary replied to the vice-consul that the question raised by his communication had been submitted to the crown officers, and that they did not see, as at present informed, that they could legally interfere. A copy of that letter is annexed.
6. During the 15th and 16th instant telegrams were received by the government here from the custom-house officers at Lunenburg and Bridgewater, saying that the Chesapeake had reported herself as the confederate war steamer Retribution, had exhibited commission from confederate authorities, and had thus obtained permission to land certain articles, and to purchase necessaries; that on discovering that it was the Chesapeake, she had been forbidden to land anything more, and had sailed on the moning of the 16th instant; all of which is more fully detailed in the letters of the 14th and 18th instant, written by John Harley, collector of customs at Bridgewater, to the honorable receiver general, copies of which are annexed.
7. On the 15th instant I received a telegram from Lord Lyons, requesting me to obtain the best legal advice and act upon it, as it was impossible for him to foresee the circumstances under which the acts alleged to have taken place had occurred.
8. About 9 o’clock on the evening of the 16th instant, a formal requisition for the apprehension of Braine and others, of which a copy is annexed, was sent by Mr. Gunnison to the provincial secretary, and placed at once by that officer in the hands of the honorable J. W. Johnston, the attorney general; and at 1 o’clock a. m. next morning, upon the application of Mr. Gunnison through his attorney, stating that if he could obtain the necessary warrant Braine could then be arrested, the provincial secretary obtained a preliminary warrant from the attorney general, a copy of which is also annexed, and brought it for my signature at 2 o’clock a. m. It was signed by me, and having been taken at once to the chief justice, that officer, after receiving a deposition in the case, issued a [Page 467] warrant for the apprehension of Braine, but the police, in whose hands it was placed, did not succeed in finding him. These proceedings were duly detailed by telegram to Lord Lyons.
9. About noon on the 17th instant I received a communication from the director of signals, stating that two steamers (apparently federal gunboats) were bringing in a steamer which had put into Sambro harbor the night before, and which was supposed to be the Chesapeake, all bearing the flag of the Federal States.
These American men-of-war having anchored opposite this city about half-past two o’clock p. m., and no report having been received from them, about half-past five o’clock p. m. I addressed the officer in command through the provincial secretary in a letter inquiring the names of the ships under his command, the object of their visit, and the circumstances under which the Chesapeake had been taken out of the harbor of Sambro, a Nova Scotian port, and brought into this harbor. Commander A. G. Clarey, of the United States gunboat Dacotah, immediately accompanied Mr. Johnston (a clerk in the provincial secretary’s office, by whom the letter to him had been delivered) to my house. An officer of the Dacotah having arrived a few minutes previously, together with Mr. Gunnison, the United States vice-consul, Commander Clarey explained that he had sent an officer on shore to report their arrival to the head of the government, but that he had been detained at the consulate by urgent business. He also apologized for the omission on the part of the gunboat Ella and Annie to report herself when coaling a few days previously, and made further explanations to which it is not necessary to refer, as they were substantially embodied in his official answer to the letter which had been addressed to him.
10. On the same evening the provincial secretary received a reply explaining that Commander Clarey had intended to comply with all the proprieties required in British ports; that the men-of-war under his control were the United States steamers Dacotah and Ella and Annie; and that he had entered this harbor for the purpose of delivering the Chesapeake to the British authorities, or to take her to the United States to deliver her to the United States government or to the owners, upon the faith, if any difficulty should arise, to make restitution to the British authorities. It was further stated that the crew of the Ella and Annie, under the command of Acting Lieutenant J. F. Nichols, had seen a flag of distress of the United States flying from a steamer in the harbor of Sambro, had borne, down to afford relief, and found she was the Chesapeake, in the possession and control of five of her original crew, by whom they were informed that the pirates had abandoned her, and the steamer was without coals; and Commander Clarey further stated that under the circumstances he considered it prudent to put into Halifax to place himself in communication with the British authorities and the United States government.
11. On the morning of the 18th instant the provincial secretary, by my direction, replied to Commander Clarey that I was prepared to take legal charge of the Chesapeake, but could not consent to her removal from the port without further investigation by the properly constituted authorities.
12. Immediately after the transmission of that letter information under oath was submitted to my government that an armed crew from the United States gunboat Ella and Annie had forcibly taken possession of a schooner belonging to this port, and made prisoner a man found therein, placed him in irons, and removed him to their own ship, and that two other men, citizens of Halifax, who had joined the Chesapeake the day previously in the harbor of Sambro, were now detained prisoners on board a United States man-of-war.
13. Without a moment’s loss of time a second letter was despatched to Commander Clarey by the provincial secretary, stating that information having been received that prisoners had been made of individuals in the harbor of Sambro, a Nova Scotian port, by men-of-war under his command, I could not permit any [Page 468] United States vessel to leave this port without due investigation of these allegations of the violation of international law.
14. About an hour after that letter was despatched a letter was received from Commander Clarey, agreeing to immediately hand over the Chesapeake to the authorities directed to receive her, so soon as he was notified of the time and place, and also to deliver up one of the pirates named George Wade, who he stated was concerned in the illegal seizure of the Chesapeake, and was taken out of a schooner attempting to coal the Chesapeake, and had been identified by the witnesses who had arrived in the United States gunboat Acacia that morn ing, also two men found on board the steamer Chesapeake when she was delivered to the officer in command of the Ella and Annie, and who had been identified by the party who delivered up the steamer to the said officer, as in the employ of the pirates.
15. In about an hour after the receipt of this letter from Commander Clarey, another letter was addressed by him to the provincial secretary, saying he would be glad to learn whether, after the explanation given, and the offered rendition of persons termed prisoners in the note he had received, it was consistent with the friendly relations existing between the British government and the United States government that United States ships having come into the port of a neutral power for a purpose previously explained, and offering to render up to the proper authorities persons termed prisoners, should be detained if the officers thereof should wish to report themselves to their own government.
16. To these two communications from Commander Clarey the provincial secretary, in a letter, replied that I. J. Sawyer, high sheriff of the county of Halifax, had been commissioned to receive George Wade and the two other men referred to in Commander Clarey’s first letter of that date, at the Queen’s wharf, at one o’clock on the next day, where they would be amenable to the action of any person desiring to proceed legally against them. That Captain O’Brien, of the revenue schooner Daring, had also been duly authorized to receive possession of the Chesapeake at two o’clock p. m. of the same day, where she lay at anchor, to be adjudicated upon by proper authority. That I was most anxious to preserve to the utmost of my power the friendly relations existing between the American and British governments, but could not but feel that a grave infraction of international law had been committed by the men-of-war then in the harbor bearing the flag of the United States; that irrespective altogether of the taking of the Chesapeake in the harbor of Sambro, a forcible entry had been made of a British schooner in that port, a man therein being made prisoner and retained in Commander Clarey’s custody, together with two citizens of the place found on board the Chesapeake, and that without any report having been made of such grave transactions either in his personal interview with me, or in his first official report in writing, in which he had professed to explain for my information the object of his visit, and the circumstances connected with taking the Chesapeake, nor until after a notification had been forwarded to him that applications respecting these prisoners had been made to this government. Commander Clarey was also reminded that the second letter from the provincial secretary on the 18th instant had been sent to him before the first letter of that day had been received. I then sent a telegram to Lord Lyons informing him how matters stood.
17. About noon on Saturday the letter was received from Commander Clarey, in which he stated that his first communication of the 18th instant was written and enclosed before the second letter from the provincial secretary of that day had been received by him. Commander Clarey’s letter also covered a copy of the correspondence between Lord Lyons and the Secretary of State at Wash ington, and intimated that it might alter my determination as previously com municated.
A reply was sent without delay, after consultation with the government, in [Page 469] which Commander Clarey was informed that my determination respecting the delivery of the Chesapeake and rendition of the prisoners was still adhered to.
19. During the morning of the 19th instant, Mr. Gunnison, the vice-consul, made a requisition on the part of the United States government for the apprehension and extradition of George Wade and others charged with piracy, and causing illegally the death of Orin Shaffer, upon which I issued immediately another preliminary warrant, and the mayor of the city, upon the depositions of some of the original crew of the Chesapeake, issued his warrant for the apprehension of Wade and the other parties named, which warrant was placed in the hands of the police constables to be served upon Wade after he had been released by the government commissioner who was to receive him.
20. About half-past one o’clock, the prisoners Wade and the other two men, named Henry, belonging to this city, were brought on shore handcuffed, and delivered to the government commissioner, at whose request the United States officer in charge removed the handcuffs, when Mr. Sawyer, the commissioner, in conformity with the instructions received, declared the prisoners free.
21. The officer of the main guard had by my direction prevented any but peace officers and respectably dressed citizens from entering to the Queen’s wharf, which is a very large one, and, from the best information I can obtain, I do not think that a hundred persons were present, and those respectable citizens, men of the commissariat stationed there, and the American boat’s crew.
22. Very soon after the prisoners had been declared free, a gentleman present beckoned to two fishermen in a boat near the ship to come in, which they did, and Wade was directly after taken on board and the boat moved off. The police constable charged with the arrest immediately rushed to the water’s edge, and presenting a pistol, threatened to fire unless they came back, when he was prevented by parties present, who seized upon him, and told the boat to row off, which it did, and was soon out of sight.
23. The provincial secretary having very shortly after brought to my notice the letter from Mr. Gunnison complaining that the service of the warrant against George Wade had been prevented, by the citizens of Halifax interfering with the police, a letter was instantly despatched by my direction to his worship the mayor, desiring him to use every exertion to execute the warrant, and offering to place any force he might require at his service for that purpose.
24. The mayor replied, expressing his deep regret that his officers had been unable to execute the warrant, and that although the vice-consul had, in a letter, notified to him that the United States government did not wish any further services from the police of this city, he should still use every exertion in his power for the service of the warrant.
25. On Saturday, the 19th instant, after the Chesapeake and prisoners had been delivered up by Commander Clarey, I received from Lord Lyons a telegram informing me that when he advised me of the correspondence of the Secretary of State and himself, he was ignorant of the circumstances mentioned in my telegram to him of the 18th instant.
26. In response to my application into the cause of this failure to serve the warrant, his worship forwarded the reports of the city marshal and a policeman who was specially charged with the execution of this duty.
27. From the foregoing detail of the principal circumstances connected with this transaction, and the correspondence which has taken place in relation to it, I trust it will appear that while the honor and dignity of the British crown have been jealously maintained, I have been sedulously careful to avoid any just cause of offence to the government of the United States. Although the information furnished by the telegrams to the United States vice-consul, as has been seen, showed that Braine had exhibited a commission from the confederate authorities, a preliminary warrant was granted for his apprehension as soon as the application was formally made for it under the treaty, and it having been [Page 470] vaguely stated that Braine had been rescued after arrest in the country, I commissioned an inquiry into the facts, the report of which has not yet arrived.
The flagrant violation of neutral rights committed by the United States men-of-war in thus taking the Chesapeake and making prisoners, not only in our harbor, but on board a British vessel, rendered it imperative that I should demand the unconditional surrender by them both of the Chesapeake and the prisoners they had taken, and so long retained without making any communication upon the subject to the government.
The outrage upon British authority in the capture made on board one of our schooners rendered it equally necessary that I should discharge him from custody before any warrant even under the extradition treaty could be served upon him, and his escape from subsequent apprehension could not have been anticipated by me, as the place where the rendition occurred was most unfavorable for such escape.
I have, &c.,