Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the First Session Thirty-ninth Congress
Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that at last I have completed the preparation of the note to Lord Russell, rendered necessary by the instructions contained in your despatch No. 1136, together with copies of the accompanying papers. I dated it on the 23d instant, and sent the messenger with instructions to note on the corner the hour and minute of the delivery at the Foreign Office. It was so noted by him at five minutes past six o’clock that evening.
I transmit herewith a copy of the note.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward Secretary of State,Washington, D. C.
Mr. Adams to Earl Russell
(Delivered at the Foreign Office at 5 minutes past 6 p. m., November 23, 1864.)
My Lord: I have the honor to submit to your consideration copies of a number of papers which have been transmitted to me with instructions to lay them before her Majesty’s government.
It has become once more my painful duty to make representations respecting the manner in which the territories in America under the authority of Great Britain, both continental and insular, are systematically used by the insurgents against the United States as bases for hostile proceedings of every description.
The motives for such proceedings seem to have been two-fold. The first and the most obvious is, to do as much injury to the people of the United States as possible. But the second, and far more inciting one, has been to stimulate the government and people of the United States to so great a degree of irritation as to prompt hasty acts of retaliation, which might ultimately effect a permanent breach of the friendly relations between the two countries. By this means it is hoped that the natural result of a struggle, perceived from the first to be unequal, might be changed by the intervention of a powerful ally to the failing side.
On a review of the correspondence which I have heretofore had the honor to conduct with your lordship, I think it will most clearly appear that the attention of my government has been most constantly fixed upon the necessity of averting the dangers springing out of this nefarious policy. In that view the insufficiency of the law of Great Britain to enforce a rigid neutrality, as well as of her Majesty’s proclamation to avert causes of complaint, was very early foreseen. It was for that reason that a proposal was early made by me to your lordship to secure such changes and amendments of that law as might be expected more fully to answer the purpose, and such as the experience in a former instance in the United States had actually dictated to them to adopt in order to maintain peace.
It is with great regret that I am obliged to remind your lordship that nothing whatever has been done in this direction, and that in spite of the fact that every day’s subsequent experience has proved the reasonableness of the anxiety that prompted the request.
The seizure of the steamer Chesapeake on the high seas by insurgents who made her Majesty’s provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick the base of the operation is well known to your lordship. Although it be true that that vessel was ultimately released, it is equally certain that the perpetrators of the act escaped all penal consequences in the colonies. Braine, the very same man who was engaged in that high-handed act, has since perpetrated another of the same kind upon the steam-packet Roanoke, in the course of which he made the island of Bermuda the point from which, failing to gain a reception for his prize, he completed his operations for her destruction at the mouth of the harbor.
I am now compelled to call your lordship’s attention to other proceedings of a character infinitely more dangerous to the peace of the two countries.
On Sunday evening, the 18th of September, a man came on board the Philo Parsons while she was lying at the dock at Detroit and requested the clerk, Mr. Walker T. Ashley, who is part owner of the Parsons, to call at Sandwich, on the Canada shore, three miles below Detroit, to receive him and a party of friends who wished to go to Kelly’s island, about eleven miles from Sandusky, alleging that one of them was lame and could not well cross the ferry. The Philo Parsons sailed the next morning, (Monday, the 19th of September,) at 8 o’clock, with about forty passengers. The person referred to above as having engaged a passage for himself and party appeared immediately afterwards, and, at his request, [Page 6] the steamer called at Sandwich, where his friends, four in number, came on board. At Maiden, on the Canada side, where the steamer always stopped, about twenty miles below Detroit, and near the point where the Detroit river empties into the lake, about twenty more men came on board. The number not being unusual excited no suspicion. The only baggage of the party was an old-fashioned trunk, tied with rope, and which was afterwards ascertained to contain revolvers and large hatchets or hand-axes. The steamer continued on her course, and made her usual landings at North Bass, Middle Bass, and South Bass islands, the latter being better known as Put-in-Bay island. These islands are nearly north of Sandusky, and about twenty miles distant. They all belong to the United States, and are part of the State of Ohio. Captain Atwood, the captain of the steamer, left her at Middle Bass island, where his family reside. Having made these landings, the steamer went on her course to Kelly’s island, about seven miles further on, and made her usual landing there. Here four men got on board, all apparently belonging to the same party, and it has been ascertained that one who was seen among them after the capture of the steamer had been several days on the island, visiting the inhabitants, and pretending to be an agent for the sale of sewing machines.
Shortly after leaving Kelly’s island, about four o’clock in the afternoon, and while she was directly on her course for Sandusky, the Philo Parsons was seized by the party who had got on board at Sandwich and Maiden, and was headed to the eastward for nearly an hour, when she was turned back to Middle Bass island for fuel, the leader of the party having ascertained from the mate and engineer that there was not enough to run many hours. Soon after the Philo Parsons reached Middle Bass island, and while she was taking in wood, the steamer Island Queen, which performs daily trips from the Bass islands to Sandusky and back, came alongside, and was immediately seized. The engineer of the Island Queen, without giving any provocation, was shot in the face. The ball entered his cheek and passed out near the ear. One person was cut in the head with a hatchet and bled profusely. Several other persons were knocked down, and a large number were struck with the but ends of pistols, and with hatchets, and some ten or a dozen shots were fired.
The passengers on both boats were landed at Middle Bass, with a part of their baggage. After getting a supply of fuel the Philo Parsons ran out into the lake, towing the Island Queen. At the distance of about five miles, according to one statement, and at a smaller distance according to others, the Island Queen was scuttled by cutting her supply-pipe, and was sent adrift. Before filling she drifted on a shoal, and was gotten off a few days afterwards, having been plundered by the party who had seized her.
After the Island Queen had been scuttled, the Philo Parsons stood for Sandusky harbor, and was then turned about and steered for Maiden, where she arrived between four and five o’clock on Tuesday morning, the 20th of September. A few miles above Maiden a yawl-boat load of plunder was sent ashore on the Canadian side of the Detroit river. At Fighting island, some six miles above, the crews of both steamers were landed. The Philo Parsons arrived at Sandwich at about eight o’clock the same morning, and a pianoforte belonging to her, a number of trunks, and the cabin furniture, were put ashore at the dock, where a custom-house officer almost immediately appeared. She was then scuttled by cutting her injection pipes, and cast off. She partially filled, but was taken possession of a few hours afterwards by the mate, who had come up in a small steamer (the Pearl) from Ecorse, who had her towed to Detroit.
The facts thus set forth have been substantiated by the depositions of eye-witnesses of these occurrences. Upon learning these extraordinary proceedings, initiated and executed from her Majesty’s possessions in Canada as a base, a note was immediately addressed by the Secretary of State to J. Hume Burnley, esq., her Majesty’s charge d’affaires at Washington, requesting, through him, that her Majesty’s government would, upon the arrest and commitment of the parties perpetrating these outrages, issue the necessary warrant for their delivery to the agents of the United States, in order that they might be brought there for trial. This request was made on the ground that the persons were guilty of crimes embraced within the extradition treaty. Mr. Burnley replied that he had referred the matter to her Majesty’s provincial authorities, as is usual in such cases. Thus has it rested down to this time.
The primary object in capturing these steamers was confessedly to release the insurgent officers confined on Johnson’s island. There is reason to believe that the conspiracy was organized and set in motion by prominent insurgents who have for some time past been residing in Canada for such purposes. Indeed, my government has proof that Mr. Jacob Thompson has acknowledged that he was commissioned and provided with funds to carry them iato effect, and had interviews with conspicuous members of the gang just before the steamers were captured. Scarcely had the alarm occasioned by this sally from the Canadian territory subsided, when information of a new and even more, extraordinary and desperate outrage was received by my government. This time it was not committed upon the water, but against the peaceable and unoffending inhabitants of a border town. A band, said to consist of twenty-five desperate men, clandestinely armed, crossed the frontier, and proceeded in several small parties by stage-coach to St. Albans, Vermont, in the customary way of travellers. At a concerted time’ they raised a scene of terror in that peaceful town, broke into banking-houses and other buildings, and carried off large amounts of treasure, said to [Page 7] be two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, together with other valuable property. As soon as the people recovered from their surprise, they arose and hotly pursued the felons who sought safety by returning on stolen horses across the frontier into Canada. The Canadian municipal agents seem to have co-operated with the pursuers from Vermont with alacrity and diligence. Twelve of the robbers were arrested, stripped of their plunder, and taken into custody by the Canadian authorities. It is also understood that a considerable part of the recovered property was promptly restored to its owners.
A request, similar in its character to the former one, has been addressed by the Secretary of State to Mr. Burnley, as will appear in the papers which accompany this note.
It must be obvious to your lordship that at the time of the adoption of the arrangement between the two governments in April, 1817, which limited their naval forces on the lakes, a condition of things like the present could scarcely have been anticipated. The purpose clearly was to prevent either party from keeping up a force which might endanger the other; thus entailing upon both the necessity of maintaining a more or less burdensome armament. It certainly did not contemplate the possible intervention of a third party, ill-disposed to both, which should malignantly avail itself of the known provisions of the compact for the purpose of working certain mischief to that which it hated the most, and possible injury even to the other, by provoking strife between the two. Neither could it have foreseen the precise position in which her Majesty’s government has been placed by recognizing as belligerents persons capable of abusing the privileges conceded by that measure to the most malicious purposes. In view of these most extraordinary events, against the recurrence of which on the Canadian side no provision adequate to meet the immediate exigency seems to have been made on the part of her Majesty’s government, it would seem to be the imperative duty of the United States to provide at once some stringent measures. Inroads by marauding ruffians upon the population of the United States on that border cannot be tolerated. Among the papers which I have the honor to lay before you, I beg, in this connexion, to call to your notice a letter of the Secretary of the Treasury, directing the outfit of two steam propellers— one upon Lake Erie, and the other on Lake Ontario—with the object of checking, and if possible suppressing, depredations on the trade or attacks upon the population connected with those waters.
In consequence, however, of the later outrage perpetrated at St. Albans, I am directed to say that the preceding measures are not deemed by any means adequate to answer the desired purpose. The proceedings taken together are regarded as deserving of further and prompt action on the part of her Majesty’s government, in order to avert the danger of ultimate conflict upon the Canadian, borders. It gives me great satisfaction to be able to acknowledge to your lordship that the Canadian executive authority has thus far co-operated with my government in faithful and diligent efforts to bring these disturbers of the public peace to due account. It is a matter of certainty, though not perhaps susceptible of judicial proof, that all movements of this character are set on foot by a notorious person named Jacob Thompson, who, with other disloyal citizens of the United States, is temporarily domiciled in Canada, and furnished with funds by his coadjutors at home for these iniquitous operations, through the banking institutions of that province. It is impossible not to feel their presence and their activity in that region to be a constant threat against the safety of the people occupying the entire long line of the border. I am, therefore, with great regret, instructed to give this formal notice to your lordship, that, in conformity with the treaty reservation of the right at the expiration of six months from the date of this note, the United States will deem themselves at liberty to increase the naval armament upon the lakes, if in their judgment the condition of affairs in that quarter shall then require it.
In taking this step, I am desired to assure your lordship that it is resorted to only as an indispensable measure to the national defence; and, so far from being in a spirit of hostility, that it springs from a wish no less earnest than heretofore to preserve the most friendly relations with Great Britain. I take pleasure in adding, that it is the fixed purpose of my government, in every case, to direct its energies to the prevention of all attempts to invade the British territory, whether by way of retaliation or otherwise. The questions that grow out of the present anomalous state of things are deemed of not less importance to the interests of her Majesty’s possessions than they are to the people of the United States. The failure to maintain a rigid neutrality on the Canadian border at this day may become a fruitful source of excuse for similar delinquency at some period or other on our side of the line whenever the temptation may. arise. It is not for my government to indicate the precise means to be adopted by her Majesty’s government to insure a more perfect observance of that neutrality on her side. I may, however, be permitted to suggest on its behalf an opinion, that a policy similar to that which was inaugurated under circumstances not altogether unlike, by the enactment of the law of the 10th March, 1838, already alluded to in the early part of this note, might be followed with advantage to Great Britain in the American provinces during the continuance of the present struggle.
I should fail, however, in executing the whole duty imposed upon me, if I were not to repeat the expression of the sincere conviction of my government, that practically the policy of neutrality which her Majesty has proclaimed has failed, as well in the British home ports as in the colonies, but most especially in the latter; and, moreover, that it must continue to fail more conspicuously every day so long as an asylum is opened there to active emissaries of [Page 8] the enemies of the United States, who have it in their power to use, by means fair or foul, the British ports and British borders as a base for felonious depredations of every description against the people of the United States. Neither is it deemed possible to arrive at any remedy adequate to meet the present exigency, other than a recognition by her Majesty’s government of the just and exclusive sovereignty of the United States in all the waters and all the territory heretofore legally under the jurisdiction of the government. In the use of the word exigency, the full sense of its effect is perfectly understood. The welfare and prosperity of the neighboring British provinces are as sincerely desired on its part as they can be by Great Britain. In a practical sense they are sources of wealth and influence for the one country only in a less degree than for the other, though the jurisdiction appertains only to the latter. That this is the sincere conviction of my government has been proved by its consent to enter into relations of reciprocal free commerce with them almost as intimate as those which prevail between the several States of the Union themselves. Thus far the disposition has been, to remain content with those relations under any and all circumstances, and that disposition will doubtless continue; provided, always, that the amity be reciprocated, and that the peace and harmony on the border indispensable to its existence be firmly secured. The fulfilment of that obligation must be, however, as your lordship cannot fail to perceive, at a glance, the essential and paramount condition of the preservation of the compact. Even were my government to profess it’s satisfaction with less, it must be apparent that by the very force of circumstances, peace could scarcely be expected to continue long, in a region where no adequate security should be afforded to the inhabitants against mutual aggression and reprisal.
Political agitation, terminating at times in civil strife, is shown by experience to be incident to the lot of mankind, however combined in society. Neither is it an evil confined to any particular region or race. It has happened heretofore in Canada, and what is now a scourge, afflicting the United States, may be likely at some time or other to revisit her. In view of these very obvious possibilities, I am instructed respectfully to submit to her Majesty’s government the question whether it would not be the part of wisdom to establish such a system of repression now as might prove a rock of safety for the rapidly multiplying population of both countries for all future time.
I pray your lordship to accept the assurance of the highest consideration with which I have the honor to be, my lord, your lordship’s most obedient servant,
The Right Hon. Earl Russell, &c., &c., &c.
[Enclosures.]
1. Mr. Fessenden to Mr. Seward, September 23, 1864
2. Mr. Seward to Mr. Fessenden, September 30, 1864.
3. General Hitchcock to Mr. Stanton, (telegram, ) September 23, 1864.
4. Mr. Fessenden to Mr. Seward, September 30, 1864.
5. Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley, October 1, 1864.
6. Mr. Burnley to Mr. Seward, October 4, 1864.
7. Mr. Thurston to Mr. Seward, (three enclosures,) October 20, 1864.
8. Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley, October 21, 1864.
9. Mr. Burnley to Mr. Seward, October 23, 1864.
10. Same to same, October 23, 1864.
11. Colonel Van Buren to Mr. Seward, October 26, 1864.
12. Major Austin to General Dix, October 23, 1864.
13. Governor of Vermont to Major Austin, (telegram,) October 19, 1864.
[For enclosures numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7, see Mr. Seward’s No. 1136, Part 2, Diplomatic Correspondence for 1864; and for numbers 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10, see Correspondence with British legation, same series.]