Mr. Seward to Mr. Perry

No. 76.]

Sir: It has been acertained that the number of American merchant ships which were built and owned in the United States, and which, in the year 1858, were transferred to a British registry, was 33, and their tonnage was 12,684; that the number of that class which were so transferred in 1859 was 49, and their tonnage 21,308; that the number, in 1860 was 41, and their tonnage 13,683; that in 1861 the number rose to 126, and the tonnage to 71,673; that in 1862 the number reached 135, and their tonnage was 64,578; that in 1863 the number was no less than 348, and the tonnage 252,379; and that in 1864 the number fell to 106, and their tonnage to 92,052. It thus appears that from the beginning of our civil war until the first of January last the number of our merchant ships which assumed a British registry was 715 or thereabout. We do not know what number of our merchant ships have sought safety by acquiring other registry than that of Great Britain, and, therefore, we do not assume that any have done so. Mr. Adams is instructed to submit the foregoing statement to Earl Russell, and to say to him that they are regarded as illustrating the great disturbance and derangement of our national commerce; that it is our opinion that this derangement is a necessary and legitimate result, not of our domestic civil war, but of the intervention in it of piratical cruisers built in British ports, and issuing from them to devastate our trade on the high seas in violation of municipal laws, treaties, and the law of nations; and that the ability of these cruisers, when once afloat to commit such devastations, is vastly increased by the recognition accorded to them as belligerent vessels, which recognition has, with greater or less reservation, been extended to them in courts and ports of the British realm and its dependencies.

The government of Spain has concurred with that of Great Britain in attributing a belligerent character to the piratical vessels of which mention has been made. I need not repeat here that the President has always protested equally against the departure of such piratical vessels from Spanish ports, and the recognition of them before mentioned. Still insisting on that protest, you will inform her Catholic Majesty’s minister for foreign affairs that, in the opinion of this government, all previous justification of a continuance of that recognition has now failed by a practical reduction of all the ports heretofore temporarily held by the insurgents. The President, therefore, now looks to her Catholic Majesty’s government for an effectual removal of the evils complained of, so far as depends upon Spain, in order that the foreign commerce of the United States may hereafter be carried on in peace and safety.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

Horatio J. Perry, Esq., &c., &c., Madrid.