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BUTLER'S "CONTRABAND" DECISION.

dangers surrounding the country, were simply in response to the popular will.

The Question of the
Slaves.

191

It was the enigma of the Sphynx which no Edipus could be found to solve, and therefore the Sphynx lived on.

It fell to the lot of General Butler first to deal with "the inevitable negro" dilemma. He was, of all men, the proper person to administer upon the case, being, not only a sound lawyer, but also a Democrat of the distinctively pro-Slavery school. He was the Breckenridge candidate in 1860, for the Exe

Regarding the condition which the Slave population was to sustain in the contest much and very diverse counsels prevailed. That the "peculiar institution" was vitally involved was admitted, even by the most conservative of loyal men, from the first stages of the conflict; that it was fatally involved was conceded by that class not until it be-cutive chair of Massachusetts. He had, for came apparent that all efforts to sustain it impaired the Federal cause by strengthening the hands of those hostile to it. The desire to propitiate the Border States, by taking no action which would injúre their interests and investments in Slave property, induced the Executive and the several military chiefs, to pursue a course lacking in consistency and uniformity. Future writers may be able to sit in judgment on the early policy—or, rather, the want of it—in regard to the Slaves; but, at this moment, when the conflict of opinion and feeling is still being waged upon the rights and wrongs of the several schemes acted upon, it will be impossible to draw the lines of judgment with certainty.

years, been noted as the enemy of runaway
negroes and the friend of their masters.
Hence, it was well to thrust upon him the re-
sponsibility of setting a precedent which
might serve as such to other commanders
whose camps must become infested with ne-
groes escaping from anxious masters.
Colonel Mallory, living

on

Butler's "Contraband" Decision.

the York Peninsula, under a flag of truce, claimed three fugitive slaves (May 25th) who had sought refuge within the Federal lines to escape being sold "to go South." The Colonel had met the General in several Conventions, had supped and drank with him; and, doubtless, presumed that he had but to ask and receive the "black rascals." Butler heard the rebel demand with the formality of a com"You hold," said the General,

Mallory. "You also hold that Virginia is no longer a part of the United States ?" "I do." "Now," said Butler, "you are a lawyer, Colonel Mallory, and I want to know if you claim that the Fugitive Slave act of the United States is binding in a foreign nation; and if a foreign nation uses this kind of property to destroy the lives and property of citizens of the United States, if that species of property ought not to be regarded as contraband ?” The Colonel retired without the negroes; and the country rejoiced over the construction that a negro was “contraband of war" when the slave of a rebel master.

The question presented itself in this shape: as the Federal Government did not admit the right of secession, it therefore consider-mander. ed the Union unbroken. The Federal laws" that negroes are property." "I do,” said were to be enforced, by force if necessary, in all sections of the Union. One of these laws was the Fugitive Slave Act, by which every ruuaway Slave must be returned, upon demand, to his owner. Thus rebels, still being considered citizens of the Union, could demand back their Slaves should they escape to the Federal camps, or to the loyal States. And again: the non-recognition of the right of secession implied the recognition of the status of the States. Their laws (local) were, | hence, to be respected, so long as they were not in contravention of the Constitution, By these laws Slaves were restricted in rights and privileges--were liable to arrest for running away-were subject to flogging and sale; and, being a local institution, Congress, under the Constitution, had no right to interfere or to nullify.

What baseness as well as impudence must be charged upon those who, trampling the laws of the country under foot, still claimed the immunities and benefits of those laws!

CHAPTER XVII.

THE ATTITUDE OF

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UNITED

FOREIGN POWERS TOWARD THE STATES. BRITISH NEUTRALITY" AND ENGLAND'S BASENESS. THE CANDID AVOWALS

Solicitude of the
North.

OF FRANCE.

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Solicitude of the
North.

pealed to their selfishness as to render them, at first, secretly, but at a later day, openly, solicitous for the cause of the South. This solicitude was enhanced by the presence in Europe-and particularly in Great Britain and France-of "agents" of the Southern Confederacy, whose mission was to secure the desired recognition. Comprised of some of the ablest, as well as least scrupulous, men of the South, these agents were empowered to use extraordinary means to secure their ends-even to granting

No slight solicitude was | conspired to render them felt, in the North, for the intensely interested observcause of the Union abroad.ers, and so powerfully apThe whole tenor of Mr. Seward's instructions to the newly appointed foreign Ministers to the leading courts of Europe, shows how keenly the Department of State appreciated the importance of our foreign relations; and the correspondence already quoted, [on pages 186-87,] betrays with what decision the Secretary met the apprehended danger of a recognition of the Southern Confederacy by European powers. He clearly enunciated the proposition, that, to be thus friendly to the insurgents, was to incur the responsibili-exclusive trade with, and free entry to their ty of resentment on our part; still, his advice to our agents abroad all tended to avert the calamity of any unfriendly issue with other powers. It will be seen by reference to the files of foreign affairs documents, for 1861, that the Secretary fully tasked his great ability as a lawyer, in order to lay before each Government arguments against its recognition of the Seceded States. For England, for Spain, for France, for the Netherlands, for Russia, he had special pleas, which reflect honorably on the Secretary's sagacity, and his patriotism.

To France and England, the attention of the loyal States was chiefly directed, for of them alone was danger apprehended. Their jealousy of the greatness and rapidly enhancing power of this country-their hopes of seeing that power broken by a divided Union-their dependence on the slave product-the inimical spirit betrayed against the tariff upon their goods and stuffs to sustain the Federal Government, which tended to strengthen the hands of their greatest competitors, the Northern manufacturers-all

ports-thus using a powerful motor to move the moneyed classes of the two Governments to influence the cupidity of the English and the pride of the French.

To counteract the machinations of these men was, as Mr. Seward wrote, the first and chief object of the ministers-so much importance did he attach to the non-recognition of the Southern Confederacy. His agents did not labor in vain, strengthened as they were by the co-operation of eminent American citizens abroad, and, eventually, by persons especially dispatched as diplomatic visitors to the several Courts.*

The attitude of the British Government became anomalous and perplexing. The Proclamation of the Queen "to enforce a strict neutrality," [see Appendix pages 474-76, for this document at length,] at once gave the Southern States in rebellion the position of

Archbishop Hughes was understood to have been endowed with a semi-official mission; as also were Mr. August Belmont and Mr. Thurlow Weed. General Scott's brief visit to France was not, as has been stated, of a diplomatic nature.

Attitude of Great
Britain.

ATTITUDE OF GREAT BRITAIN.

193

Attitude of Great
Britain.

belligerents, and recognized | blessing for whose consum-
mation England should de-
voutly pray. In all this the
old dislike of Slavery found little utterance.
The principle of anti-Slavery was not so
active as the cupidity of capital, nor so sub-

who hoped for the humiliation of the Great Republic. The Exeter Hall philanthropists became a shadow, while the Leeds, Manchester and Tory coalition became a real presence.* The few brave and honest souls who, like John Bright, stood forth to vindicate the cause of the North from principle, were powerless before the men of policy and the secret enemies of republican institutions.

them as co-equals, in this respect, with the Federal Government-thus at once lifting them from the position of insurgents to that of a recognized power. The document, it will be perceived upon consultation, did this in a man-tly potent as the spirit which animated those ner calculated to inspire distrust of British good faith, since it made it a misdemeanor for British subjects to enlist in, or in any way to aid and abet, the cause of either party. As the Government of Great Britain, by treaty stipulation with the United States, forbade its subjects to engage in any conspiracy against this Government, the Southern Confederates | were, of course, debarred, by that treaty, the prospect of open sympathy. The haste also to debar the United States that aid, though it was not wanted nor solicited, argued the abrogation of the spirit of that treaty stipulation by giving to conspirators against the Union the same status grant-ous and most interesting chapter. A peoed to those struggling for the nation's life. Nor was this the worst feature of the document whose "neutrality” admitted Davis' letters of marque to a belligerent's rights: in declaring the privateers to be pirates, President Lincoln by its construction, violated the laws of nations and would be held responsible at the bar of Nations.

The history of English Governmental polity and of the English press, after March, 1861, and during 1862, if written by one familiar with the undercurrents of money and ambition, would, if honestly written, form a curi

plet allied to the Northern States of America

*Professor Cairnes, in his volume on " The Attempt to Explain the Real Issue involved in the American

Contest," said: "The Northern people, conscious looked abroad for sympathy, and especially looked

that it had risen above the level of ordinary motives,

to England. It was answered with cold criticism and derision. The response was perhaps natural under the circumstances, but undoubtedly not more

so than the bitter mortification and resentment

which that response evoked." The learned and clear-minded professor of jurisprudence forgot to give due weight to the motives we have above asscribed, as having been most powerful in influencing English "opinion" and directing English conduct. The response to our claim for at least the sympathy of a professedly anti-Slavery people in our war with the Slave power was not "natural;" it was unnatu

Still further: it gave the insurrectionists a party and made them a power in Great Britain; and, from the date of its promulgation, there arose a powerful influence for the direct recognition of the Southern Confederacy. The interests of Cotton factors and manufacturers represented many millions of property and several hundred thousand operatives-all of which were paralyzed and brought to the door of ruin by the blockade.ral, under the circumstances. The future will not These interests ere long became almost a unit for recognition. Then the Iron interest, finding their usual trans-Atlantic market cut off by the operation of the Morrill tariff, and by the existing state of war, became willing converts to the Southern party. Lastly came the influence of the aristocracy as represented by Lord Brougham, who, viewing in the United States England's most powerful competitor in the race for supremacy, looked zpon a dissolution of the Union, and the ormation of two rival confederacies, as a

fail to characterize England's conduct towards the North as anomalous to a surprising degree.

† We say people-looking at the results instead of the details-viewing the sum of opinions and ac

tions; but, as heretofore stated, [see Vol. I, page 495,] we are convinced that the Queen of England and that class who really form the base of the best class of her subjects, were truly desirous of the suc

cess of the Union cause. In Prince Albert America

lost a good friend-one whose sagacity and firmness as Queen's counsellor quite compensated for the trickery of her Ministers of State.

Attitude of Great
Britain.

used:

The Position of
France.

"The reasons set forth in the President's Message at the opening of the present session of Congress, in support of his opinion that the States have no constitutional power to secede from the Union, are

still unanswered, and are believed to be unanswerable. The grounds upon which they have attempted to justify the revolutionary act of severing the bonds which connect them with their sister States are re

by consanguinity, by treaty, | ters of the United States to by social ties, by commerce, European courts, in which by affinity of tastes and la- the following language was bor, by anti-Slavery and religious sympathy, to enter at once* and suddenly upon a crusade of disparaging criticism, of fault-finding, of invective, of misrepresentation, and, finally, of downright falsification-all to palliate the openly expressed sympathy at length bestowed upon the cause of Slavery and to prepare the way for the recognition of the Pro-Slavery Confederacy, certainly presents a spec-garded as wholly insufficient. This Government has tacle calculated to inspire a want of confidence in human nature. Yet England (we purposely omit Ireland and Scotland, for the Irish and Scotch people were steadfast in their hopes for the cause of the North) presented that anomaly; and future writers on the philosophy of history will find in her case significant data for new speculations in politics and morals. The greatest of her intellects has been characterized as "the wisest and the meanest of mankind;" it is now to be proven that the aphorism should not at tach to her living controlling classes instead of to a dead man.

The Position of
France.

The position of France, from the earliest moment of our difficulties, gave the Federal Government less concern than the suspicious trimming and bracing of their British ally. Judge Black, Secretary of State in Mr. Buchanan's cabinet, had addressed a Circular (February 28th, 1861) to all minis

*The press of England, with only one or two exceptions, was adverse to the principles and cause of the Secessionists, up to March, [see pages 492-95, Vol. I.] From the date of the establishment of the blockade, when English commerce and manufactures first began to experience the effects of the war, the change of opinion commenced; until, by March, 1862, those journals which supported the cause of the North were the exception! These honorable exceptions included the Daily News, the Morning Star, the Spectator, &c. Among those most vicious in their defamation of the North were the Times, Herald, Review and Economist-all organs of the aristocracy or of trade interests. The Times became exceedingly virulent and defamatory; but, its animosity seemed directed less toward the North than toward the United States as a power, which it sincerely desired to see humiliated and reduced to a subordinate position in the family of nations.

not relinquished its jurisdiction within the Territory of those States, and does not desire to do so.

"It must be very evident that it is the right of this Government to ask of all foreign powers that the latter shall take no steps which may tend to encourage the revolutionary movement of the Seceding States, or increase the danger of disaffection in those which still remain loyal. The President feels assured

that the Government of the Emperor will not do anything in these affairs inconsistent with the friendship which this Government has always heretofore experienced from him and his ancestors. If the independence of the Confederated States' should be acknowledged by the great powers of Europe, it would tend to disturb the friendly relations, diplomatic and commercial, now existing between those powers and the United States."

These instructions Mr. Faulkner imme

diately laid before the French Emperor through his Foreign Minister, M. Thouvenel, and afterwards repeated them in person to Louis Napoleon. Writing to Mr. Black,* under date of March 19th, the American Minister-said:

"I have no hesitation in expressing it as my opin ion, founded upon frequent general interviews with the Emperor, although in no instance touching this particular point, that France will act upon this delicate question when it shall be presented to her consideration in the spirit of a most friendly power; that she will be the last of the great States of Europe to give a hasty encouragement to the dismem berment of the Union, or to afford to the Govern ment of the United States, in the contingency to which you refer, any just cause of complaint. The unhappy divisions which have afflicted our country have attracted the Emperor's earnest attention since the first of January last, and he has never, but upon

*Not having then been officially informed of Mr. Black's retirement from office, the Minister of course still addressed his letters to him as Secretary of State.

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often of comment. He looks upon the dismember-rated States, in any form, for the recognition of their ment of the American Confederacy with no pleasure, but as a calamity to be deplored by every enlightened friend of human progress. And he would act, not only in conflict with sentiments often expressed, but in opposition to the well-understood feelings of the French people, he should precipitately adopt any step whatever tending to give force and efficacy to those movements of separation, so long as a reasonable hope remains that the Federal authority can or should be maintained over the seceding States.

independence; that the French Government was not in the habit of acting hastily upon such questions, as might be seen by its tardiness in recognizing the new kingdom of Italy; that he believed the maintenance of the Federal Union, in its integrity, was to be desired for the benefit of the people North and South, as well as for the interests of France, and the Government of the United States might rest well assured that no hasty or precipitate action would be taken on that subject by the Emperor. But whilst he gave utterance to these views, he was equally bound to say that the practice and usage of the present century had fully established the right of de facto Governments to recognition when a proper case was made out for the decision of foreign

"The Emperor Napoleon has no selfish purpose to accomplish by the dismemberment of the American Union. As he has upon more than one occation said to me: There are no points of collision between France and the United States; their inter-powers." ests are harmonious, and they point to one policy, Mr. Seward's instructions to Mr. Dayton, althe closest friendship and the freest commercial in-ready referred to, [see pages 186–87,] will intercourse.' He knows full well that the greatness form the reader of the decision expressed, at of our Republic cannot endanger the stability of his the start, by Mr. Lincoln's administration, throne, or cast a shadow over the glory of France. regarding foreign recognition of the ConfedHe would rather see us united and powerful than erate States and of interference with Amerdissevered and weak. He is too enlightened to mis- ican affairs by foreign Governments. Mr. apprehend the spirit of conciliation which now actu- Dayton held a long audience with M. Thouvenel, May 16th, which resulted in a thorough canvassing of the entire question of relations between the two Governments. The French Minister demanded the right of the Southern

ates the conduct of the Federal authorities. He

knows that appeals to the public judgment perform that function in our Republic which is elsewhere only accomplished by brute force. And if armies have not been marshaled, as they would have been ere this in Europe, to give effect to the Federal author-States to be treated as belligerents, "applyity, he is aware that it is not because the General Government disclaims authority over the seceding States, or is destitute of the means and resources of war, but from an enlightened conviction on its part that time and reflection will be more efficacious than arms in re-establishing the Federal authority, and restoring that sentiment of loyalty to the Union which was once the pride of every American heart. "I have not, so far, heard that any commissioners have been sent by the seceding States to France. Should they, as you anticipate, arrive shortly, I think I am not mistaken in saying that they will find that the Imperial Government is not yet prepared o look favorably upon the object of their mission." In answer to Mr. Seward's first Circular (March 9th) to our Ministers abroad, inclosing copies of the President's Inaugural Message, and recurring to the policy which would govern the new Administration, Mr. Faulk ner, under date of April 15th, 1861, stated the substance of his interview with the French Minister-among other things saying:

ing," as Mr. Dayton said, "the same doctrine to them as always had been upheld by the United States." The blockade would be respected. To fit out letters-of-marque in French ports, or even to shelter them except in stress, was forbidden by the Imperial Government; nor would it allow the bringing in, or sale of, prizes at French ports. An interview was held with the Emperor on the 19th of May, on which occasion Louis Napoleon repeated his kindly expressions toward the United States Government, and also added that he had been, and still was, ready to offer his services to the contending parties, if such offer would be mutually agreeable, &c. The interview with the Empress also was well calculated to reassure the American Minister of the disposition of the French Government to act openly and candidly in its dealings with the Federal Government.

This reassurance was welcome because our

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