7. Juli 1862. No 607. On the subject of the alleged blockade, I have received from the Confiderirte, Staaten, Department of State of the Confederate States, and am instructed to lay before your Lordship, as Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the accompanying lists of vessels entered and cleared at the port of Charleston, South Carolina, in the months of November and December, 1861, and of January, February, and March, 1862; at the port of Savannah, Georgia, for the months of October, November, and December, 1861; at Galveston, Texas, for the months of December, 1861, and January and February, 1862; at New Orleans, Louisiana, for the months of November and December, 1861, and February, 1862; at Pensacola, Florida, for the months of December, 1861, and January and February, 1862; at Apalachicola, Florida, for the months of December, 1861, and January, 1862; and at Port Lavaca, Texas, in January, 1862. The doctrines of international law certainly are, that war does not put an end to commerce between a belligerent and neutrals, except at ports and places actually blockaded; and yet in the strange and anomalous pretensions of the United States, apparently acquiesced in by neutral Powers, all commerce between neutrals and the Confederate States is prohibited along an entire coast-line of some 2,500 miles. Armed vessels cruize along the coast, and capture all neutrals that fall in their way, on the allegation that the entire coast is under blockade. The Confederate States, as is known, have never been commercial, their carrying trade being almost entirely in the hands of other nations. Were it otherwise, little effect would be produced upon their commerce by this misnamed blockade. As it is, the few ships and other vessels armed by them have, from the beginning of the war, been actively and profitably employed in carrying their products to foreign ports, and in bringing back supplies. Not one in ten, in the large number of voyages so made, it is believed, has been captured; and had that respect been exacted for neutral rights which the law of nations provides, commerce between Europe and the Confederate States would have been, comparatively, but little interrupted. And in this view, I am instructed to inquire, whether it may not be practicable to require of the blockading Power to specify, from time to time, the ports claimed to be actually blockaded. Besides the larger ports [few in number in the Confederate States] there are numbers of smaller towns, accessible from the sea, where commerce continues to be carried on with foreign nations in the few vessels possessed by Confederate owners, and were blockaded ports designated these latter would at once be open to the commerce of the world in anything not contraband. How far this would be advantageous to neutral Powers it remains for them to determine. The article of cotton alone taken from such ports which are not, and have not been blockaded, but commerce with which is intercepted by armed cruizers, оссаsionally passing along the coast, would go far to supply the pressing demand of European manufacturers. In this connection I am instructed emphatically to disclaim any policy in the Confederate States' Government to prohibit or discourage the export of cotton. It has been the policy of the enemy to propagate such belief, and perhaps to some extent it may have obtained credence in Europe. On the contrary, I am instructed to assure Her Majesty's Government that if Conföderirte 7. Juli 1862. Europe is without American cotton, it is because Europe has not thought it No. 607. proper to send her ships to America for cotton. Were the blockading Power Staaten, required strictly to designate the ports and places blockaded, and to maintain the same by adequate force from those other ports thus clearly ascertained to be open to trade, any amount of cotton required would be freely offered in exchange for the manufactures of Europe. There is no lack of this great article of export in the interior of the Southern States. It has not been brought to the seaboard because there was little demand for exportation, and it would otherwise be subject to depredation by the enemy. Wherever they approach, it is destroyed by fire, to prevent its falling into their hands; but let the blockaded ports be designated, as required by public law, and it will freely flow to the coast at other points thereby opened to the trade of the world. There is one subject further in connection with this alleged blockade to which I am directed to call the attention of Her Majesty's Government: It is, that vessels of war of the United States are stationed off the mouth of the Rio Grande, with orders not to permit shipments of cotton to be made from the Mexican port of Matamoros. It is claimed that cotton taken from the Confederate States to Matamoros is lawful subject of capture. In proof of this I have the honour to transmit herewith a copy of an extract of a letter from J. A. Quintero, the commercial agent of the Confederate States at Matamoros, to the Secretary of State of the Confederate States. I need not say to your Lordship that although a maritime blockade may, in some sense, be frustrated by the carriage of merchandize, through the medium of interior communication, from a blockaded to a neutral port, when shipped from the latter it is no breach of blockade; yet this is now done at the mouth of the Rio Grande, a river forming the boundary between Mexico and the Confederate States of Texas. ¶ I am, &c. To Earl Russell. J. M. Mason. No. 608. CONFÖDERIRTE STAATEN. - Commissar in London an den königl. grossbritannischen Min. d. Ausw. Stimmung der conföderirten Staaten in Betreff europäischer Vermittelungsversuche. 54, Devonshire Street, Portland Place, London, July 17, (received July 17) 1862. My Lord, In late proceedings of Parliament, and in reply to inquiries made in each House, as to the intention of Her Majesty's Government to tender offices of mediation to the contending Powers in North America, it was replied, in substance, by Lord Palmerston and your Lordship, that Her Majesty's Government had no such intention at present; because, although this Government would be ever ready to offer such mediation, whenever it might be considered that such interposition would be of avail, it was believed by the Government that, in the present inflamed or irritated temper of the belligerents, any such offer might be misinterpreted and might have an effect contrary to what No. 608. Staaten, Conföderirte 17. Juli 1862. No. 608. was intended. Conföderirte 17. Juli I will not undertake, of course, to express any opinion of the Staaten, correctness of this view so far as it may apply to the Government or people of 1862. the United States; but as the terms would seem to have been applied equally to the Government or people of the Confederate States of America, I feel warranted in the declaration, that whilst it is the unalterable purpose of that Government and people to maintain the independence they have achieved, whilst under no circumstances or contingencies will they ever again come under a common Government with those now constituting the United States; and although they do not in any form invite such interposition, yet they can see nothing in their position which could make either offensive or irritating a tender of such offices on the part of Her Majesty's Government, as might lead to a termination of the a war hopelessly carried on against them, and which is attended by a wanton waste of human life, at which humanity shudders. On the contrary, I can entertain no doubt that such offer would be received by the Government of the Confederate States of America, with that high consideration and respect due to the benign purpose in which it would have its origin. ¶ I have, &c. To Earl Russell. J. M. Mason. war, No. 609. No. 609. 24. Juli 1862. GROSSBRITANNIEN. Min. d. Ausw. an den Commissar der conföderirten Foreign Office, July 24, 1862. Sir, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the britannien, 17th instant, respecting the intention expressed by Her Majesty's Government to refrain from any present offer of mediation between the contending parties in North America, and I have to state to you, in reply, that, in the opinion of Her Majesty's Government, any proposal to the United States to recognize the Southern Confederacy would irritate the United States, and any proposal to the Confederate States to return to the Union would irritate the Confederates. This was the meaning of my declarations in Parliament upon the subject. ¶ I am, &c. To Mr. Mason. Russell. No. 610. No. 610. Conföderirte CONFODERIRTE STAATEN. schen Min. d. Ausw. Commissar in London an den k. grossbritanniAnsprüche der conföderirten Staaten auf Anerkennung als unabhängige Macht. 54, Devonshire Street, Portland Place, London, Juli 24, (received July 24) 1862. - My Lord, In the interview I had the honour to have with your LordStaaten, "ship in February last, I laid before your Lordship, under instructions from the Government of the Confederate States, the views entertained by that Govern 24. Juli 1862. Conföderirte 24. Juli 1862. ment, leading to the belief that it was, of right, entitled to be recognized as a No. 610. separate and independent Power, and to be received as an equal in the great Staaten, family of nations. I then represented to your Lordship that the dissolution of the Union of the States of North America', by the withdrawal therefrom of certain of the Confederates, was not to be considered as a revolution, in the ordinary acceptation of that term; far less, was it to be considered as an act of insurrection or rebellion; that it was, both in form and in fact, but the termination of a Confederacy which, during a long course of years, had violated the terms of the Federal compact by the exercise of unwarranted powers, oppressive and degrading to the minority section. That the seceding parties had so withdrawn as organized political communities, and had formed a new Confederacy, comprising then, as now, thirteen separate and sovereign States, embracing an area of 870,610 square miles, and with a population of 12,000,000. This new Confederacy has now been in complete and successful operation, as a Government, for a period of nearly eighteen months; has proved itself capable of successful defence against every attempt to subdue or destroy it; and in a war, conducted by its late Confederates, on a scale to tax their utmost power, has presented everywhere a united people, determined at every cost to maintain the independence they had affirmed. Since that interview more than five months have elapsed, and during that period events have but the more fully confirmed the views I then had the honour to present to your Lordship. The resources, strength, and power in the Confederate States developed by those events, I think' authorize me to assume, as the judgment of the intelligence of all Europe, that the separation of the States of North America is final; that under no possible circumstances can the late Federal Union be restored; that the new Confederacy has evinced both the capacity and the determination to maintain its independence, and, therefore, with other Powers the question of recognizing that independence is simply a question of time. The Confederate States ask no aid from, nor intervention by, foreign Powers. They are entirely content that the strict neutrality which has been proclaimed between the belligerents shall be adhered to, however unequally it may operate, because of fortuitous circumstances, upon them. But if the principles and the morals of the public law be, when a nation has established before the world both its capacity and its ability to maintain the Government it has ordained, that a duty devolves on other nations to recognize such fact, then I submit that the Government of the Confederate States of America, having sustained itself, unimpaired, through trials greater than most nations have been called to endure, and far greater than any it has yet to meet, has furnished to the world sufficient proof of stability, strength, and resources, to entitle it to a place amongst the independent nations of the earth. I have, &c. J. M. Mason. To Earl Russell. No. 611. GROSSBRITANNIEN. Min. d. Ausw. an den Commissar der conföderirten Foreign Office, July 31, 1862. - Lord Russell presents his compliments to Mr. Mason. He begs to Gross- assure Mr. Mason that it is from no want of respect to him that Lord Russell No. 611. britannien, 1862. 31. Juli has delayed sending an answer to his letter of the 24th instant. ¶ Lord Russell has postponed sending that answer in order that he might submit a draft of it the Cabinet on Saturday next. It will be forwarded on Monday to Mr. Mason. Lord Russell does not think any advantage would arise from the personal interview which Mr. Mason proposes, and must therefore decline it. Russell. To Mr. Mason. No. 612. Conföderirte 1. Angust 1862. No. 612. CONFÖDERIRTE STAATEN. Commissar in London an den königl. grossbritannischen Min. d. Ausw. — Weitere Gründe für die Anerkennung der Conföderation. 54, Devonshire Street, Portland Place, August 1, (received August 1) 1862. My Lord, In the interview I had the honour to propose in my late Staaten, note, I had intended briefly to submit the following views, which I thought might not be without weight, in the consideration to be given by Her Majesty's Government to the request for recognition of the Confederate States, submitted in my letter of the 24th July ultimo. I ask leave now to present them as supplemental to that letter. If it be true as there assumed, that in the settled judgment of England the separation of the States is final, then the failure of so great a power to recognize the fact in a formal manner, imparts an opposite belief, and must operate as an incentive to the United States to protract the contest. In a war, such as that pending in America, where a party in possession of the Government is striving to subdue those, who for reasons sufficient to themselves, have withdrawn from it, the contest will be carried on in the heat of blood, and of popular excitement long after its object has become hopeless in the eyes of disinterested parties. The Government itself may feel that its power is inadequate to bring back the recusant States, and yet be unable at once to control the fierce elements which surround it whilst the war rages. Such it is confidently believed is the actual condition of affairs in America. It is impossible in the experience of eighteen months of no ordinary trial-in the small results attained-and in the manifest exhaustion of its resources, that any hope remains with the Government of the United States either of bringing about a restoration of the dissevered Union, or of subjugating those who have renounced it. And yet the failure of foreign Powers formally to recognize this actual condition of things, disables those in authority from conceding that fact at home. Again, it is known that there is a large and increasing senti |