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Seward's state papers. The correspondence was communicated to Congress, and a concurrent resolution was passed by that body of a very comprehensive character, as expressive of the sentiments of the people of th United States respecting the war, and the attitude of foreign nations to it, and it announced that intervention was not desired, and would not be entertained.2 This closed the efforts at combined action by the European powers, but the troubles growing out of our for eign relations were by no means at an end.

England was the scene of other events during the year 1862 which embittered the people of the United States far more strongly against that country than these attempts at intervention. As they were disastrous and lasting in their effects, the conduct of the British government in allowing the Confederate cruisers to be built in and depart from its ports to prey upon American commerce is still cherished in the memories of our people as a wrong of so flagrant a character as to be hardly atoned for by the heavy damages paid after the war and the many words and acts of sympathy of the British nation in later years. From the beginning of the war the Confederates had made England a most important base of military operations.

Mr. Adams was kept busy calling the attention of the Foreign Office to violations of the neutrality proclamation, but usually to no purpose, as the eyes of the officials were deliberately closed to any infringement of the laws. Although he had informed the government

1 For correspondence, S. Ex. Doc. No. 38, 37th Cong. 3d Sess.
2 Congressional Globe, March 3, 1863, pp. 1497, 1541.

of the construction and fitting out of the Florida as a rebel cruiser, she was permitted to sail in March, 1862, on her errand of destruction. Early in the year year notice was also given by our minister of the construction of a vessel at Liverpool, known as No. 290, designed for the Confederate service. The fact was announced in Parliament, and it became a matter of public notoriety. And yet the authorities at Liverpool reported to the ministry that there was not sufficient evidence of a legal character to justify their interference.

On June 23, Mr. Adams gave to Lord John Russell, in writing, such notification of the character of the vessel and its destination as should have led to positive action on the part of the British authorities, but no such action was taken. Not discouraged, the diligent American consul at Liverpool collected further legal evidence required by the neutrality laws, and Mr. Adams submitted it to an eminent lawyer, Sir Robert Collier, a queen's counsel, who gave the opinion that upon these papers the authorities at Liverpool were in duty bound to detain the vessel, and said: "It appears difficult to make out a stronger case of infringement of the foreign enlistment act, which, if not enforced on this occasion, is little better than a dead letter."1 Mr. Adams laid this legal opinion and accompanying papers before Russell on July 22, as they had previously been submitted to the authorities at Liverpool. Years afterwards Earl Russell wrote: "I ought to have been satisfied with the opinion of Sir Robert Collier, and to have given orders to detain the Alabama," but in place

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1 Dip. Cor. 1862, p. 152. 2 Recollections, etc., by Earl Russell, 235.

of discharging his plain duty, he referred the papers to the law officers of the crown.

Meanwhile, No. 290, christened the Alabama, was being as rapidly as possible prepared for sea. Six days elapsed before the law officers gave their opinion, on July 29, that without loss of time the vessel should be seized. On that very morning the Alabama left her dock and went down the Mersey, under the pretense of a trial trip, with a party of Confederate sympathizers on board. The party returned on a tug, but the Alabama went to sea flying the British flag, and after tak ing on board in the Azores her armament, she entered upon her career of devastation.1

She was built with British money, under a Confederate loan, in a British port, armed with British guns, manned by British seamen, frequently displayed the British flag, and was given a hearty welcome in British ports throughout the world. At a meeting in Oxford, England, a few months later, Professor Goldwin Smith said: "No nation ever inflicted upon another a more flagrant or more maddening wrong. No nation with English blood in its veins had ever borne such a wrong without resentment." 2

Within a year it and its sister cruisers had swept the American shipping from the seas.3 At the opening of the Civil War, this shipping was second in the world's commerce, and was pressing the British mercantile marine with a sharp competition. It was a source of great national wealth, furnished employment to

1 For official correspondence, Dip. Cor. 1862, pp. 128, 149, 162. 2 London News, April 8, 1863.

$ 12 Sumner's Works, 77.

many thousands of hardy seamen, and it was the proud boast of every American that the national flag floated on every sea and was displayed in almost every port of the globe. When we reflect that this great industry has never recovered from that destructive blow, and that it was brought about by the criminal failure of the British authorities to observe the principles of international law and their own domestic statutes, it is little wonder that resentment at the wrong has not become wholly extinct.

While the news of the devastating work in all waters of the British-built Confederate cruisers was being received in England and America, authentic intelligence was brought to Mr. Adams that the British sympathizers with the rebellion, not satisfied with the severe blow they had already inflicted upon the Union cause, were preparing a still more deadly measure of attack. Contracts had been entered upon with the builders of the Alabama for the construction of two powerful ironclad rams, designed to raise the blockade of the Southern ports and put in peril the Northern seaboard cities. Bulloch, the intelligent agent having the construction of these vessels in charge, wrote the secretary of the navy at Richmond that with them he expected to sweep the blockading fleet from the sea-front of every harbor," ascend the Potomac, render Washington untenable, and lay the Northern cities under contribution.1 Captain Page, who had been detailed by the Confederate government to command the vessels, has recently stated that it was his purpose to sail at once to Wil

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1 1 Bulloch's Secret Service of the Confederate States, 411.

mington, to raise the blockade there and at Charleston, thence proceed to the gulf ports, and cut off all water communications with New Orleans. He adds: "I had at the time perfect confidence in my ability to accomplish my purpose, and I now [1898] believe, in the light of what I have since learned, that if the rams had been permitted to leave England I would have been successful." 1

In the light of these declarations, it is seen that a great danger menaced the Union cause, and our indefatigable minister in London might well be concerned for the result of his efforts to avert it. In order to secure the funds for the construction of the rams a Confederate loan for £3,000,000 was openly put upon the London market, secured by a pledge of cotton, and was readily and largely oversubscribed at better figures than United States government bonds could command. A noble peer boasted in the House of Lords: "Is the issue doubtful? The capitalists of London, Frankfort, Paris, Amsterdam, are not of that opinion. Within the last few days the Southern loan has reached the highest place in our market. £3,000,000 were required; £9,000,000 were subscribed for." This loan was made the subject of a remonstrance by Mr. Adams to Earl Russell, but to no purpose.2

A debate which occurred in the House of Commons, March 27, 1863, had an ominous aspect for the North. Forster called attention to the construction and departure of the Alabama, and the solicitor-general contended that the government was without blame. John Bright 14 Rhodes's U. S. 385, note. 2 Dip. Cor. 1863, p. 239.

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