'the only object of the search, is to ascertain whether the vessel is employed in the African slave-trade, or is fitted up for that trade'-whereas, instead of confining our officers to that only object in this time of war, we have not a cruiser afloat whose commander is not under imperative orders to search all merchant vessels. for contraband of war. We can not consent to abandon the belligerent right of search and seizure in the West Indies, where neutral obligations are disregarded and neutral flags are prostituted to aid the insurgents-consequently, I must for the present omit to issue any instructions under the treaty which permits no commander having instructions under the treaty to search a vessel in certain localities for any other purpose than that of detecting slaves. "Whenever the condition of affairs will permit us to set apart cruisers for the special service required, it will give me pleasure to furnish a list of them as requested and to perform the duties which devolve upon the department for a strict execution of the treaty. "HON. W. H. SEWARD, "I am, respectfully, "Secretary of State." "Your Obed't Serv't, "GIDEON WELLES, "Sec't'y of the Navy." I on the same day addressed the subjoined communication, adverting to the unfortunate complications and difficulties in which we were likely to become involved by this confused mixture of executive, legislative and diplomatic proceedings, under the treaty, under the law of Congress which he had procured to be enacted, and under the Danish treaty which had never been ratified. "SIR : "NAVY DEPARTMENT, Oct. 9. 1862. "Since the receipt of your unofficial note of the 30th ultimo, with the proposed form of a draft as a substitute for my letter of the 29th ultimo, I have given the subject much thought and examination. That a copy of my letter would have to be communicated to the British Government had not occurred to me. That fact, and some defects of full explanation in my letter of the 29th ultimo to you, render it proper that I should revise and modify my communication. "I have therefore prepared the enclosed with some care, as better adapted, I think, to the case than the form you were so kind as to send me. This whole subject has become strangely complicated; there is, in the first place, the conceded privilege of reciprocal search by the treaty, and there is the unquestioned belligerent right of search which cannot be surrendered. Yet the two are in conflict. Then we come in contact with that strange anomaly, a treaty with Demmark, which has never been ratified by the Senate-concluded and signed by the Danish Charge d'affaires on behalf of the government of Demmark, and by the Secretary of the Interior on behalf of the government of the United States-not negotiated in conformity with the requirements of the Constitution, nor through the department that is charged with the special duty of making treaties, but by an entirely different department and under an Act of Congress which assumes to authorize the treaty or agreement regardless of the Constitution. "The treaty with Great Britain provides that instructions shall be given to our cruisers. The form of letter which you send me promises that orders will be given for captured slavers to be sent into port for adjudication according to the terms of the treaty, and this without instructions, "The mixed commission under the treaty cannot adjudicate the questions, if instructions are not given, and are precluded from action. "In addition to this, by the Danish treaty or agreement, it is stipulated to the effect that all negroes, mulattoes, or persons of color on board of vessels seized in the prosecution of the slave-trade shall be sent to West End, in the Island of St. Croix, and our commanders, exercising the belligerent right of search, are to be instructed accordingly. "It is true that this strange, unconfirmed and singular instrument makes no provision for adjudication and condemnation of any captured slaver. Ordering the negroes to be sent to St. Croix, therefore, may not be inconsistent with a condemnation under the treaty, but how can the slaves and slaver be brought before the mixed com mission established by the treaty, when they are not captured by officers instructed under that instrumentsuch instructions being made a condition-precedent under that instrument, of all proceedings by the mixed commission? "I find myself, I confess, embarrassed in several respects by the stipulations and complications involved in this subject of captured slavers, and see no other course to pursue, than to wholly abstain from any action whatever under the treaty, so long as the war continues. "The privilege of reciprocal search for slavers being conceded by the treaty, I do not see that the English government can complain if we do not avail ourselves of it, but permit them to enjoy it. "Incidentally our own cruisers will, with greater energy and effect, aid in enforcing the object of the treaty under the more comprehensive belligerent right of search. "It appears to me that this whole subject of slaves and slavers has become so involved and complicated by treaties and agreements and statutory enactments—the reciprocal right of search, and belligerent right of search-the process of adjudication under the mixed commission, under the stipulations to adjudicate by the British treaty, and the arrangements to send the negroes to St. Croix under the Danish agreements, that some measures should be adopted to disembarrass the question. "I am, respectfully, "HON. Wм. H. SEWARD, Whether a copy of my letter was ever sent to Lord Lyons is problematical, but he was made aware that the Secretary of the Navy was disinclined and believed it impracticable to carry out the stipulations of the treaty during the existence of hostilities. It was unquestionably an unpleasant topic to one of the temperament and mind of the Secretary of State to dwell upon, nor was it pleasant for him to admit that in a treaty on which he prided himself, he had com mitted an error or been overreached. I supposed at the time that the exceptional provision was an inadvertence on the part of both the negotiators, and have no doubt it was as regards the Secretary of State, but subsequent developments in regard to the treatment of mails captured and the simultaneous establishment of a line of British mail-packets to the Rio Grande, which was within the prescribed latitudes, where naval vessels under treaty instructions could only search for slaves, rendered it doubtful whether the English legation had not shrewdly availed itself of the zeal of the Secretary of State against slave traffic to adopt a measure which would promote English commercial enterprise by securing immunity to their vessels and thus opening a way for intercourse with the blockaded rebels. Mr. Seward did not submit to me his letter to the English legation stating the obstacles which intervened to prevent the consummation of the treaty or action under it in the existing state of things, nor do I think the President was fully apprised of it. I only know that the treaty was necessarily suspended. The tenor of his communication to Lord Lyons, I learned some eighteen months later from the following letter, written several weeks after my communication of the 9th of October, stating the objections to issue instructions which would circumscribe and impair the rights and efficiency of our cruisers. "SIR: "WASHINGTON, November 27, 1862. "Mr. Stuart did not fail to communicate to her Majesty's government the note which you did him the |