Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams
Sir: I have before me several despatches from Mr. Bigelow, our minister at Paris, relating to the affair of the pirate Stonewall, alias Olinde, alias Stoerkodder, namely:
No. 13, of the 30th of January, 1865; No. 14, of the 31st of January, 1865; No. 16, of the 3d of February, 1865; No. 17, of the 3d of February, 1865; No. 19, of the 6th of February, 1865; No. 23, of the 9th of February, 1865; No. 26 of the 10th of February, 1865; No. 28, of the 10th of February, 1865; No. 31, of the 14th of February, 1865; No. 34, of the 16th of February, 1865; No. 37, of the 21st of February, 1865.
I have also before me despatches concerning the same subject from Horatio J. Perry, esq., our chargé d’affaires at Madrid, namely:
No. 162, of the 4th of February, 1865; confidential, of the 4th of February, 1865; No. 163, of the 7th of February, 1865; No. 164, of the 8th of February, 1865; No. 165, of the 9th of February, 1865; No. 166, of the 14th of February, 1865; No. 167, of the 15th of February, 1865; and one concerning the same subject from Bradford R. Wood, esq., our minister resident at Copenhagen, namely, No. 182, of the 6th of February, 1865.
For the sake of convenience as well as with a view to the advantage of having all the representatives of the United States concerned in the question equally well informed of the opinions of this government thereupon, I cast my reply to the several despatches before mentioned in the form a circular, which is addressed not only to the representatives before named, but also to the minister plenipotentiary of the United States at London, who will find that in this, as in all like cases, he also has a responsibility to discharge in the matter.
The before-named vessel is a steam ram. She is one of two ships of that class which were built by Arman, a shipwright at Bordeaux, and member of the Chamber of Deputies, at Paris, under a contract with and for the use of insurgents in the civil war now existing in the United States. She was for that reason denounced by us to the imperial government of France, when, upon full investigation, it was ordered that she should not leave France in the character or for the purposes for which she was built, and should leave that country only in the case of her being actually sold to a party which shall be neutral in regard to our civil war. The vessel was reported to the imperial government as having been sold to the government of Denmark, which then was and yet is a neutral power, and upon that report she was sent under a French flag, to be delivered at Copenhagen. The government of France informed this government of that proceeding, and I had the honor to express the satisfaction of the United States with that disposition of the subject.
The vessel received a partial armament while at Copenhagen. After remaining there several months, she departed from that port, as is said, with a Danish crew, and under a Danish flag, and after some delay, in which she made Swedish and Dutch ports, she came up to the island of Houat within the marine jurisdiction of France, where she received seamen, coals, and supplies from a steamer which had been sent out for that purpose from some British port, understood to be Liverpool, and thus furnished she gave up the Danish flag and crew, and exhibited herself under an insurgent flag, as a rebel ship-of-war. Houat is an obscure place, not subjected to any actual government surveillance. The attention of the imperial government to the appearance of the vessel there was invoked by Mr. Bigelow, and was promptly given. But in the mean time the Stonewall went to sea, and very soon afterwards she put in at Ferrol, in Spain, in real or pretended distress, and asked for leave to repair.
[Page 210]Mr. Perry remonstrated, and asked that the vessel should be detained.
While the application was pending a steamer, with an intended re-enforcement taken from the crew of the pirate Florida, recently captured at Bahia, proceeded from Liverpool to Ferrol or Connina. The government of Spain declined to detain the vessel, and decided to allow her repairs, limited practically to the extent of rendering her capable of living at sea. That government is understood also to have refused to allow her crew to be re-enforced, or her munitions of war increased. Mr. Perry protested against the decision of the Spanish government against allowing any repairs whatever, and generally against the attribution of a lawful belligerent character to the Stonewall. In the mean time the United States steamship Niagara arrived at Corunna, and the Sacramento is reported as being on her way to that port.
The despatches before me report the communications which our representatives at Paris, Madrid, and Copenhagen respectively have made, and the rights they have attempted to establish against the several governments for interposition and activity to prevent the pirate ship from entering upon her appointed career. I have delayed to answer these despatches, in the hope that, by reason of obstacles and perils sufficiently manifest, her unlawful enterprises might possibly be abandoned, or at least might be defeated. This government has already causes of complaint against he maritime states concerned in this case, sufficiently numerous and sufficiently grave. It prefers rather to cultivate peace, harmony, and friendship with these powers than to seek new occasion for contention, and it will, therefore, esteem it a subject of felicitation if the apprehensions which the present case have excited shall not be realized; circumstances seem to favor the wishes of the government in this respect. Our latest telegraphic advices assure us that the Stonewall is absolutely unseaworthy that for that and other reasons the criminals who have her in their possession are seeking to rid themselves of her.
I confine myself in these circumstances to a few positions without argument:
First. I approve of all the representations and proceedings reported in the several despatches before me, and especially those of Mr. Perry, including his protest of the date of February 9.
Secondly. I desire that each of the several ministers to whom this despatch shall come, while making the above approval known, shall at the same time assure the government to which he is accredited that the United States are satisfied that the government with which he is thus in communication has acted in regard to the Stonewall in good faith, and in a spirit of friendship towards the United States; and that whatever has occurred in connexion with the Stonewall to compromise any foreign state has been effected through overreaching intrigues of bad and desperate men, who have employed treachery and fraud to defeat the vigilance and evade the laws of the governments concerned.
Thirdly. I am directed by the President on this occasion not to pursue further the question of ultimate accountability on the part of any foreign state for what has been done or has happened, or whatever may yet happen in connexion with the Stonewall, alias the Olinde, alias the Stoerkodder. But I beg leave earnestly to appeal to the several governments to avail themselves of the present incident to reflect that the trouble now experienced has grown out of their attribution of belligerent naval rights to the rebels of the United States, in departure from all safe precedents. 1 appeal to them also to consider whether it is right, just, or expedient to pursue any further their past policy in regard to the insurgents, in disregard of the protest of the United States, now once more firmly and earnestly renewed.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams,&c., &c., &c.
[Same, mutatis mutandis, to Messrs; Bigelow, Perry, and Wood.]