Office of the Historian

Sir F. Bruce to Mr. Hunter

Washington, May 20, 1865.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch, containing information from unofficial sources on the proceedings of the ram Stonewall, and on the course said to have been adopted with respect to a schooner captured by the insurgents and carried to one of the British islands, of which the name is not given. The despatch further repeats the substance of the proclamation issued by the President on the 10th of May, and expresses a hope that I may feel myself authorized to instruct or request the officers of her Majesty’s colonies adjacent to the United States to refuse to receive vessels flying the flag of the insurgents.

I submitted the above despatch, as previously the President’s proclamation, by the first opportunity, to the consideration of her Majesty’s government.

With reference to the power lodged in the governors of her Majesty’s colonies to close a port against a vessel bearing a particular flag, I wish to observe that though a certain discretion may be vested in a governor in dealing with a purely colonial question, the case assumes a very different aspect where the question is one of international rights, the solution of which rests within the power of the imperial government alone, and in which he acts under positive instructions.

In the position I occupy I can only submit to him the view of the government of the United States, with such information as may enable the governor to form an accurate opinion of the condition of affairs in this country.

This I have done to the governor of the Bahamas, and without presuming to express what course, under his instructions, the governor may consider himself at liberty to pursue, I feel convinced that within the limits of his power Governor Rawson will act in the spirit which is prescribed by the duties of good neighborhood, and by an earnest desire to afford no just cause of complaint to the government of a friendly nation.

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,

FREDERICK W. A. BRUCE.

Hon. W. Hunter, &c., &c., &c.