Mr. Burnley to Mr. Seward
Sir: Her Majesty’s government have attentively considered the note which you did me the honor to forward to me on the 24th August, relative to the coal seized at Angra Pequeña, by the commander of the United States steamer Vanderbilt, and it becomes my duty to lay before you the views of my government on this subject.
It appears to her Majesty’s government in the first place that there in no justification at present shown for the assumption, as stated in your above-mentioned note, that the coals in question were in fact deposited at the place from whence they were taken for the use of the navigators of the Alabama.
Her Majesty’s government have (with very good reason) denied that any intention on the part of the British owners of those goods to sell them to the navigators of the Alabama would, if it were established, constitute a legal ground or the seizure of those goods, while remaining British property, by a United States [Page 5] vessel at Angra Pequeña. You observe that by this denial the United States government is left to infer “that the claimants placed their coal on the island of Angra Pequeña for the use of the navigators of the Alabama.”
Her Majesty’s government consider that such an inference is in every sense gratuitous and unwarranted, and that if the thing inferred is that the deposit of this coal was in effect a delivery in pursuance of a contract with the navigators of the Alabama, this is not only net implied in, but is distinctly opposed to, the very hypothesis of fact on which her Majesty’s government have expressed their views of the law, while neither knowing nor admitting for what purpose the coals in question were actually deposited.
It appears also to her Majesty’s government a proposition directly at variance with the principles and practice of international law to maintain that the Alabama (however those who originally fitted her out may have been guilty of violating the municipal law of Great Britain) could, on that or on any other account, be treated or considered as a pirate, and they consider it necessary to remind the government of the United States that they cannot claim the rights of a belligerent from neutral states, and at the same time disregard their own obligations towards those states; that the United States government are not justified in seizing the merchant vessels of neutral states upon the high seas, on the ground of their intention to violate a blockade, without at the same time religiously respecting the property of neutrals in territories or in dominions over which they and the belligerents have no legitimate authority.
Her Majesty’s government maintain, therefore—
1st. That there is no ground at present shown for asserting that the coal placed on Angra Pequeña was placed there by the neutral owners in pursuance of a contract with the enemies of the United States, so as to make it, when there, enemy’s property.
2d. That if it was, when at Angra Pequeña, British property, it was not in that place subject to any belligerent right of the United States.
3d. That there is no ground for asserting that the Alabama making war on the ships and sailors of the United States was in any other position than General Lee and his army, as a belligerent engaged in war on the forts and armies of the United States.
I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient. humble servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.