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(Laughter.) It is all very well for honorable gentlemen to laugh, but I foresee that these are questions which will involve us in difficulty before long. (Hear, hear.) "Is it nothing," this gentleman asks, "that a British subject has been tarred and feathered; nothing that

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oned; nothing that men of colonial birth are forced to sea in an open boat; others held as prisoners, and that Englishmen should be compelled to fight in Pro-Slavery ranks? At this

Lord Lyons has been able to ascertain them, | chant vessel, "has been tarred and feathered?" and of which he has given an account to Admiral Milne, commanding the squadron in those waters, are, first, that the notification is in each place to be made by the naval officer commanding the squadron or the ships which institute the blockade; and, in the next place, that fifteen days are to be allowed, after the estab-free men of color, British subjects, are imprislishment of the blockade, for vessels to come out of the ports. It appears that whether they were loaded or not at the time the blockade was established, provided they come out within fifteen days, their passage is to be allow-moment there is an advertisement in the newsed. On the other hand, it is not permitted by papers of the Slave States, offering, on the part the United States Government that vessels of the Confederate States, $20 for every person should be sent to ports which are blockaded killed aboard an American vessel. What a for the purpose of bringing away the property set of savages they must be! Who would of British subjects, or the vessels or property care for going to war with such a peoof other nations. An application for such per- ple? Do you suppose the people of Canada mission was made, to which the Secretary of will submit to have their fellow-subjects dragState replied that if such a facility were grant-ged away, and compelled to fight for Slavery? ed it would be used by American citizens wish- They will stand no nonsense, and after a time ing to bring away property. Lord Lyons ends your very neutrality will lead you into war. his communication to Admiral Milne very prop- The question which I have been requested to erly. He says that if the blockade is carried ask is, whether it is not intended immediately into effect according to the rules established by to increase the British squadron on the Souththe law of nations, we must of course conform ern coast, and to have every vessel examined, to it; and that we can only see that the block- so that Englishmen, Irishmen, and subjects of ade is sufficient and regular. (Hear, hear.) our colonial empire, who may be serving compulsorily on board American vessels, shall have an opportunity of getting away in case they wish to do so. I have received letters from men on whom I can depend, and they all state that occurrences such as I have adverted to have already taken place, and more will undoubtedly follow, unless England adopts a more decided tone. We have no right to sit down and occupy ourselves exclusively in quarrelling about the paper duties, (laughter,) while our fellow-subjects are suffering by hundreds and thousands in the hands of these savages.

Mr. T. DUNCOMBE.-I think that the noble lord ought to inform the House what means he has taken to give protection to British subjects and British property in the Slave States of America. I understand that the greatest outrages are being committed upon British subjects in these States. The noble lord may have no information upon the subject, but I have this morning received letters from persons upon whom I can depend, and who have requested me to ask what the Government are doing or intend to do in this matter. There is not the least complaint made against the Government Mr. B. OSBORNE.-I must, at this early stage, of the free States. But in the Confederate protest against the language made use of and States neither life nor property is safe, and the sentiments expressed by my honorable friend British subjects who went there with wholly the member for Finsbury, (hear, hear,) who has different objects, and under very different cir- altogether prejudged this question. He talks cumstances, are compelled to take up arms and of reliable information which he has received fight in the Pro-Slavery ranks. The noble lord from certain friends of his; but I am also in took great credit to himself for having issued a possession of reliable information which gives proclamation, and for declaring that the For- the direct lie to the statements made by the eign Enlistment act will be put in force. But hon. gentleman. (Laughter.) I am not only if that be so, all persons engaged in this war in a position to deny that any of those outunder such circumstances will be treated as rages have been committed in the Southpirates. The mercantile marine of America, ern States; but, if this were the proper time, particularly of the Southern States, is chiefly I could point to outrages committed by the manned by Irishmen and Englishmen, and militia of New York in one of the Southern others from our own colonies, who will now States occupied by them, where the general be compelled to remain and to enter the ranks commanding, on the pretext that one of his of the belligerents, and if taken, though they men had been poisoned by strychnine, issued may be loyal subjects of the Queen who wanted an order of the day threatening to put a slave to get away, but had not the means of doing into every man's house to incite the slaves to so, under the noble lord's proclamation they will murder their masters. Such was the general be treated as pirates. We talk of our neutral-order issued by Gen. Butler. Therefore, don't ity; we boast of it. A letter which I have re- let us be led away by old wives' tales into apceived from a gentleman asks: "Is it nothing peals to that very powerful and very dangerous that a British officer," the captain of a mer-element in this House-I mean the Exeter Hall

feeling. (Hear, hear.) I do hope the feeling | every man put to death on board an American of the House will be strongly expressed against any thing like a debate upon this subject at the present moment, (general cries of "Hear, hear; ") and the hon. gentleman will not be tempted to follow my hon. friend, but will rather imitate the judicious silence which the noble lord has always maintained on this point. ("Hear," and a laugh.)

hear.)

ship, the House knows perfectly well that neither letters, newspapers, nor accredited information of any kind can at present be received from the South, but is stopped on the borders. Any thing which does see the light is cut into slips and published in the New York papers. Very few communications of the kind have reached this country, and they are princiMr. BRIGHT.-I think nothing could be more pally the State documents which have been put injudicious or more unfortunate than to read forward by the South. I cannot better evifrom private letters accounts of particular out-dence the spirit by which they are animated, rages said to be committed in America. We than by referring to the late address of President know, before war is terminated, there or any- Davis; and I will ask the House whether it where else, there will be outrages enough; but breathes a single one of those bloodthirsty, of this I think we may be quite assured, that wicked, terrible opinions, (hear, hear,) which in the North as well as in the South, and in my hon. friend is anxious to impress on the the South quite as much as in the North, there House as being the doctrine of the Southern will be the greatest possible disposition to States. I beg to take this opportunity of sayavoid any thing which can bring about a quar- ing that I shall certainly bring forward my rel with this country. (Hear, hear.) Nothing motion on the subject of the recognition of the could be more unfortunate for the South, Southern Confederacy on the 7th of June, nothing could be more unfortunate for the when I trust the matter will be fairly discussed, North, whatever quarrels there may be be- and in the mean time that we shall not throw tween the two sections of the American Re-imputations on one party or the other. (Hear, public, than that the quarrel should extend to this country. I feel confident that we are not more anxious to remain at peace with both the sections than they are to continue on good terms with us. In the policy which the noble lord has announced-that of strict neutralityI agree as cordially as any other member of this House; and I think it would be well if that policy were not confined merely to the Government, but if individual members of the House were as far as possible to adopt the same line of action. (Hear, hear.) It is an unhappy thing that these dissensions should have arisen; but let us hope, and I hope still, that among a population more extensively educated, probably, than the population of any other country in the world, it may yet be possible to surmount the vast difficulties which have arisen in that country without those extensive cruelties which always accompany a civil war. With that expression of opinion I wish to make a request-and the House, I am sure, will feel that I am only asking what is reasonable and prudent-that we should avoid, as much as possible, discussions on matters which I believe we cannot influence for good, (hear, hear,) but with regard to which we may create a state of feeling, either in the North or South, that will add to the difficulties of the Government in preserving the line of action which they have laid down. (Hear, hear.)

Mr. BOUVERIE. In the question of notification of blockade, to which reference has been made, a matter which is very important for the commercial interests of the country is involved. The rule, I believe, is this: Public notification must be given to the State of which a neutral who seeks to violate a blockade is a member, before he can be held to have subjected himself to forfeiture of his vessel and goods; or actual notice must have been given to the neutral himself. The House will see that this is a most important question, because the intent to sail to a blockaded port, as to which a neutral merchant has received a notice of blockade, is considered as a violation of neutrality, and the ship will be accordingly condemned in the prize court of the capturing Power. He wished the noble lord would state distinctly whether or not the mercantile interests of this country were to understand that a public notification of blockade of the ports to which he had referred would be given; or that merely an intimation of the blockade to neutral ships arriving off those ports would be given to them when they got there.

Lord JOHN RUSSELL, who was very indistinctly heard, was understood to say: I cannot give any further information to my right honorable friend with regard to the blockade; but the papers on the subject will shortly be laid on the Mr. GREGORY said-I really must warn the table, and when they are submitted, the House House not to be led away by stories and by will be in possession of the exact state of the letters which one gentleman has received from case. But my right honorable friend will unanother gentleman, on whom he places the derstand that, whatever the form of notification most implicit reliance, but who very probably of the blockade may be, there is no former preknows nothing more of the matter than the cedent that applies fully to the present progentleman who reads the cominunication with ceedings. Mr. Seward has not given a general such perfect faith in the accuracy of its con-notification of a blockade, but has left it to the tents. As to the nonsensical trash of $20 being offered by the Confederate States for

naval officers commanding on each station to declare the several ports blockaded, and when

escape for themselves from the least of the dangers which they have so wickedly incurred.

1. Your note to Colonel Russell (which he showed ine) imports that you are safe and comfortable at Richmond, while we have melancholy testimony that such men as you are neither safe nor comfortable there.

that blockade has been instituted it is to be | considered regular. I will not now go into questions that may have to be argued and de- Here at Washington, perhaps, we know a cided hereafter in the Prize Courts with regard little more about the machinations of the conto the regularity of the blockade. No doubt spirators at Richmond than they are aware of. the Government of the United States has fully But besides that, the documents (your note to considered existing precedents before it took Colonel Russell, your note to me, and the the course it has done. With respect to the printed slip) bear internal evidence of a conquestion of the honorable member for Finsbury, certed plan, a scheme invented (not by the I must say it is founded on rather a vague state- bold and patriotic Botts, but) by those same ment. The particular case to which he referred conspirators, who, failing to intimidate the is one on which no proceedings can be taken. Government by bullying violence, have changed He alluded to the case of the master of a mer- their tactics, and still hope to win the victory chant ship who was tarred and feathered. It and destroy the nation by a less hazardous but occurred some months ago, and some weeks more cunning process. before any state of civil war existed, when the whole country was at peace. I am not sure there was not then some intention of seceding; but no secession had then taken place, though there were rumors of it. The master of the merchant ship was, in fact, ill-treated by a mob; but the authorities endeavored to arrest the rioters, and our consul stated that the authorities had done every thing it was possible to effect. As to the steps Her Majesty's Government have taken in consequence of the blockade, orders have been given by the Admiralty to send out some ships of war to strengthen the squadron under the command of Admiral Milne, With regard to the law of the United States and of the Southern Confederacy as to persons serving in the militia, such laws vary in the different States of Europe, and they vary also in the different States of America. No doubt the powers of these laws will be exercised at the discretion of the several Governments, according to the law of nations. I still hope that this conflict will be of short duration, and while a great and free State like America is exposed to all the evils of a civil war, I hope no language will be used with regard to it, that will tend to create exasperation either on one side or the other.

-New York Tribune, June 11.

Doc. 208.

LETTERS OF EDWARD BATES

TO JOHN MINOR BOTTS.

WASHINGTON CITY, April 29, 1861. Hon. John Minor Botts, Richmond, Va. :DEAR SIR: *** You and I, Mr. Botts, know each other's characters very well. Heretofore yours has been marked by bold, frank, and manly traits, which won for you many friends and admirers all over the country, and hence my astonishment on receiving from you such a note with such an enclosure. I do not impute the blame to you, for I cannot avoid the conclusion that you are acting under duress-that you have become the victim of a set of desperadoes, who, having wantonly plunged into the guilt of treason and the danger of ruin, would gladly sacrifice you and me, and ten thousand such men, if thereby they can make a way of

2. Your note to me of April 23d (covering the printed letter, but not mentioning it) contains several phrases which I am persuaded you would not have used if left to your own free action. The note begins by stating its main object thus "I write hurriedly to say that I have consented to the publication of my letter to you, with the hope, &c." Which letter to me? I have received several letters from you, but none of the 19th of April. "Consented to the publication "-at whose instance? The phrase and the context invite the inference that the publication was made at my instance and that inference was, I believe, generally drawn in this city, and will probably be drawn all over the country; whereas, you do know that I had nothing to do with the publication.

The note concludes with this very suggestive line:-"I am not at liberty to speak of what is going on here." I can easily comprehend that humiliating fact; and I do painfully sympathize with you and with all good and faithful men in my native State, when I behold the capital of the once free and proud Virginia subjected to the tyranny of a lawless mob.

3. The printed letter. Alas! that I should live to see such a letter under the hand of the gallant and gifted John M. Botts! I shall not go into any minute criticism of the letter-to show how it contradicts all the main facts in your high and honorable political history, and countermarched the whole line of your active and useful career, onward and upward for the last thirty years. My personal regard and my great respect for your character forbid me to do that. But I cannot forbear to say that the whole scope and tendency of the letter, if not its design, is an argument in favor of dissolving the Union, and blotting from the map of the world the nation of the United States. It is a silent approval, by failing to condemn, of the violent and revolutionary proceedings of the people of the Southern States, in several of them before the idle form of secession was gone through with, in plundering the money and

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capital by open threats of military force, by obstructing the roads leading to it, and by active endeavors to command the navigation of the Potomac. And all this was done while the State, according to the letter of its own law, remained a member of the Union. Think you, my dear sir, that men who do these things in open day, and in contempt of the rights and powers of the people of Virginia, have such a reverence for "reason, order, law, liberty, morality, and religion," as to give much heed to the President's " proclamation proposing a truce?" I lack the faith to believe it.

In conclusion, I assure you in all sincerity that I do deeply sympathize in your present distress. I love the people of my native State, and mourn over the guilt and wretchedness into which they thoughtlessly allow themselves to be plunged by their reckless misleaders. With long cherished respect and regard, I remain your obedient servant, EDWARD BATES.

arins, and other property of the United States; in seizing upon our ungarrisoned forts; in making open war upon such as refused to surrender; in firing upon, and in some instances actually degrading, the flag of our country; and in schemes and projects boastfully announced in the public press, and partially acted out in military preparations, to seize this capital by violence, and break up the Government. Your letter does not in terms assert, but by necessary implication assumes, that this Administration can, if it will, restore the peace of the country, by the cheap and easy experiment of issuing a proclamation "proposing a truce of hostilities and the immediate assembling of a national convention!" It seems to me, my dear sir, that there are some serious objections to this cheap plan of peace; and first, the President has no power to call a national convention. Second, if he did call it, there is not the remotest probability that the insurgent States would obey the call. Third, if they did obey it, there is little hope that they would agree to come in equal terms with the other States, by recanting their recent assumptions of separate and absolute sovereignty, and by restoring all that they have taken by violence from the United States. In short, after all that is past, it seems to me that there are but two alternatives left to this Administration: first, to submit implicitly to all the claims of the insurgent States, and quietly consent to a dismemberment of the nation; or second, to do its best to restore peace, law, and order, by supporting "the Constitution and the Union, and the enforcement of the laws." Let the nation judge which horn of the dilemma the Ad-pelled by circumstances to write you such a ministration ought to take, in view of all its obligations in regard to the permanent interests of the country, and to its own patriotism and constitutional duty.

SECOND LETTER.

WASHINGTON, May 5, 1861.

Hon. John M. Botts, Richmond, Va.:
MY DEAR SIR:-In answer to your letter of
May 2d I have not and ought not to have much
to say. This much, however, both my inclina-
tion and my duty require me to say, my person-
al respect for you remains undiminished. My
friendly feelings toward you are not only not
diminished, but are made more deep and ten-
der by the distressing circumstances which
surround you. And these facts make me re-
gret very much that I should have been com-

letter as to inflict any pain or mortification,
and especially to the degree indicated by your
answer, and explained more at large by the
friend who bore it. I disclaim all intention to
wound your feelings, or to offer you the slight-
est indignity, and if there be any thing in my
letter from which an intention to insult you

This much I say with the intention and hope of preventing any breach, or even weakening, of the personal relations between us. Let us be friends still.

I am amazed at the course of things in Virginia. Your convention was not called to dissolve the Union, nor trusted with the power of secession. By the act of its creation that sovereign pow-can possibly be inferred, I retract it. er was reserved to the people of Virginia. Yet as soon as the convention had secretly acted upon the subject, without any promulgation of the ordinance, and while the people were yet ignorant of its existence, the executive officers But it seems now that we differ so widely in of Virginia rushed, incontinently, into open opinion upon matters of fact that it is impossiwar against the United States. They endeav-ble for us to reason upon the same line of arguored to obstruct the harbor of Norfolk, in order to secure the plunder of the Navy Yard at Gosport, and sent a military power to complete the work of its spoliation. The enterprise failed indeed to clutch the spoil, but it caused the destruction of millions of dollars' worth of public property. The same thing was, substantially, done at Harper's Ferry. Virginia troops were marched upon the place to seize the arsenal. They did not get possession, as John Brown did, only because the vigilant little garrison, knowing its inability to resist such superior numbers, destroyed the property and made good its retreat. They menaced this

ment. You think that the Union is already dissolved-the nation already destroyed. On the contrary, I believe no such thing. Yon believe that a peaceful dissolution of the Union, in the manner and by the means already employed, is possible. I believe it impossible. I believe that the insane effort at national destruction persisted in, will involve a war more terrible than any the world has witnessed since the thirty years' war in Germany. You think that a great nation like this can consent to die, and may hope to die an easy death. I think that nations, like individuals, are under God's great law of self-defence, and when pressed

The Banks of this City have paid, and continue to pay, in every case, all drafts against funds deposited, whether by Southern, Western, or Northern banks, bankers, or other dealers, and any statement or allegation to the contrary is wholly unfounded.

JNO. A. STEVENS,

President of Bank of Commerce, New York,
GEO. S. COE,

President of the American Exchange Bank.
JAS. GALLATIN,

President of National Bank.
JNO. J. CRANE,

down by superior force will die in convulsive | United States, deem it proper to apprise your agonies. You seem to think that Virginia can Excellency that we do distinctly deny the truth go out of the Union, and still preserve her in- of the statements so made by the said Govtegral Statehood. I think that when she dis- ernor of the State of Georgia. members the nation she will herself be dismembered. But I will not continue the contrast. My heart is sorrowful when I contemplate the present degradation of Virginia. How are the mighty fallen?" With the loss of her power she has lost all prestige also, and can no longer lead the people and direct the counsels of other States. She remembers her patriots and sages of former times only to boast of them-not to imitate their talents and vir tues-but (by implicit faith) to impute to the present generation the posthumous reputation of the glorious dead. Formerly she proudly marched in the van of all the States; now she creeps in the rear of South Carolina, and consents to be detailed as a picket guard, to man an outpost of the "Cotton States." Poor old Virginia! In my heart I pity her. Already they boast in the South that they have transferred the seat of war from their homes to yours. And soon their devouring legions will be upon you to eat up your substance and do your voting at the disunion election. Now mark my prophecy. Unless Virginia by a rapid revolution redeems herself from the gulf that lies open just before her, she will be degraded, impoverished, and dismembered. For her I hope almost against hope. And for you, I remain, as heretofore,

Your friend,

EDWARD BATES.

-Wheeling (Va.) Intelligencer, May 28.

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from its owners.

And Gov. Brown further forbids and refuses to allow the citizens of Georgia to pay their indebtedness of whatever kinds or nature, to any citizens of this State, but invites them to pay the same into the Treasury of the State of Georgia, in any funds bankable in Augusta or Savannah, and to receive therefor a certificate of sums so deposited.

We now, as officers of banks in the City of New York, doing business with banks, bankers, and merchants of Georgia and other States, known as the Confederate States of America, now in revolt against the Government of the

President of Bank of Republic.
G. D. ANGELIS,

Cashier of Mechanics' Bank, New York,
JAS. M. MORRISON,

President of Manhattan Bank.
J. E. WILLIAMS,

President of Metropolitan Bank.

REPLY OF GOVERNOR MORGAN.
STATE OF NEW YORK, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
ALBANY, May 18, 1861.

GENTLEMEN: I have received your communication of the 13th inst., formally denying the truth of the statements made by Gov. Brown, of Georgia, in his proclamation of the 26th ult.

You affirm that "the banks of the City of New York have paid, and continue to pay, in every case, all drafts against funds deposited, whether by Southern, Western, or Northern banks, bankers, and dealers, and that any statement or allegation to the contrary is wholly unfounded." This course I believe to be emphatically in consonance with the sentiment of the commercial and business classes throughout this State.

The sterling uprightness of the bankers of the City of New York is widely known. Their sensitiveness is, therefore, natural under the should meet, with a prompt and broad denial, circumstances, and it is but proper that they the loose and ill-founded assertions of his Excellency, the Governor of Georgia, so far as they

affect them.

The position taken by you, that business obligations must be respected as well now as in ordinary times, should command the respect of rebel as well as of loyal States. Rebellion

affords neither at the North nor South an excuse

for repudiation by individuals or corporations;
and when the excitements which now disturb
the country shall have been allayed, no one
will have the courage to plead it as a reason for
disregarding his obligations.
I have the honor to be,

Very respectfully yours,
E. D. MORGAN.
To John A. Stevens, Esq., President Bank of
Commerce, George S. Coe, President of the
American Exchange Bank, and others.

-N. Y. Times, May 28,

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