Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: The investigation which has been made in the case of the Chesapeake has yielded indisputably these results, viz: that the crimes committed in her capture were contrived and prepared by the actors within the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, by persons some of whom were British subjects, and all of whom had asylum there; that, in pursuance of the original plan, the vessel, with its freight, was found within British jurisdiction, having been taken by pirates into British waters, to save them from just and lawful pursuit by the authorities of the United States; that the merchandise, chiefly of flour, sugar, and iron, which constituted that freight, was openly and boldly sold at wasteful prices by the pirates to British subjects, resident in the aforesaid provinces, who had full knowledge that the same had been obtained by piracy, and who, by such purchase, became parties in that crime; that, although all the pirates took refuge within British jurisdiction, no process has been issued for their arrest or that of their accomplices, nor any pursuit of them instituted, except on the application of this government, and that when three of them were arrested within British jurisdiction and secured, by agents of the United States, their arrest by the British authorities was prevented and defeated by a mob of the citizens of Halifax. I have already, by the President’s direction, instructed you to represent to her Majesty’s government that the United States are aggrieved by the refusal of the authorities of Nova Scotia to surrender the steamer Chesapeake to her owners. I have now to add to that instruction a further one, under which you will represent to Earl Russell the grievances especially set forth in this despatch. The President does not allow himself to doubt that her Majesty’s government will disapprove of these illegal proceedings, and order restitution in the premises. He thinks that the occasion is a fitting one for directing the notice of that government to the painful fact that while it has proclaimed neu-notice of that government to the painful facts that while it has proclaimed neutrality in regard to the civil war in the United States, the insurgents are continually receiving direct and and co-operation from British subjects in several seaports of the realm, and hostilities are also carried on against the United States by British subjects, under the cover of that neutrality, from British provincial ports, throughout a line extending from the Bahamas through the Atlantic ports of British North America, and reaching to the Cape of Good Hope. I forbear from adding to what I have recently had occasion to say concerning the cause of these proceedings, their tendency, and the necessary remedy.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles F. Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.