Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Second Session Thirty-eighth Congress, Part III

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward

No. 512.]

Paris, July 15, 1864.

Sir: I send you two slips, one cut from Galignani of this morning, and the other from La France, merely to illustrate the mode in which the secessionists and their sympathizing friends try to keep up the idea in the European mind that they yet have the means and are ready to meet the United States even on the sea. The result of the fight between the Kearsarge and the Alabama was a hard blow, not to secession alone, but to the pride and vanity of Englishmen, and especially to English ship-builders. In every mode possible they seek to break their fall. It is scarcely necessary to say that the Florida and Kearsarge have not met, and that the above slip which makes the statement is entirely false. My son has received a letter from one of the officers of the Kearsarge, dated the 14th instant, the day after the pretended fight. The ship was then, and I presume is now, at Dover.

I have no knowledge, as I have heretofore written you, of the Robert Lee, referred to in the other slip, and am equally ignorant of any confederate corvette passing through the straits of Gibraltar. If I had known such vessels to exist I should have written to you otherwise than I did in despatch No. 508.

In that event additional force might be needed in European waters. The old sailing ship St. Louis, which, with a large crew, has been drifting so long about the Mediterranean, would be in an unsafe condition if a modern built confederate steamship, heavily armed, should get into those waters. By the way, it would seem to me that a steamship might be advantageously substituted for that vessel. A steamer with an armament of modern description, and half the crew of the St. Louis, would be much more serviceable, and if a good sailer, I suppose less expensive. The other half of the crew could be, I should think, much more useful on vessels at home; at least, such is the opinion of some officers with whom I have consulted.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

WM. L. DAYTON.

Hon. William H. Seward Secretary of State, &c., &c., &c.

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“Southampton, 14th.—Intelligence has arrived here that an engagement took place yesterday near Jersey between the federal corvette Kearsarge and the confederate steamer Florida. The Kearsarge, being much injured, was obliged to take refuge in a neighboring port. The Florida remains outside, ready to renew the engagement.”

“Suez, 14th.—According to accounts from Bombay to the 24th ultimo, the Emir of Caboul has defeated Afza-Khan in a grand battle fought near Bavncea.”

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The France says: “The federal corvette Sacramento left Cherbourg yesterday morning, and steered to the westward. She has, it is said, arranged to meet the Niagara, a frigate of the game nation. On the other hand, the General Lee, a confederate frigate, left the Azores a few days since, after having taken in water and provisions. A confederate corvette has also passed through the straits of Gibraltar. A report is current that a challenge has been exchanged between the officers of the northern and southern vessels to regulate the conditions of afresh combat to take place in about ten days, and in which a frigate and a corvette of each nation is to be engaged. The fight is proposed to come off nine or ten miles from Cherbourg.”

The Lafayette, the second steamer of the Transatlantic Company, has just arrived at Havre from Greenock, where she had been constructed. She is in every point similar to the Washington, the other vessel of the same company, and will start on her first passage to New York on the 24th August.