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Mr. Benavides requested me to write to you about it; and it being tacitly understood that this government would not proceed at all in this business until your instructions should be received by me, the subject dropped.

I have the honor to remain, with the highest respect, sir, your obedient servant,
HORATIO J. PERRY.

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State, Washington.

No. 176.]

Mr. Perry to Mr. Seward.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Madrid, March 11, 1865.

SIR: I have had the honor to receive your instruction No. 68, of the 20th February, in reply to my despatch of February 4, No. 162.

The information which had arrived at your department when that instruction was written, as to the character and movements of the rebel pirate ships in this jurisdiction, was still confused, though my telegram of 5th February, through the United States consul at Queenstown, and which announced an iron-clad ram at Ferrol, was intended to correct the misapprehension into which I had been led in my despatch of the 4th, when the new-comer was supposed to be the Shenandoah.

But your instructions are alike adapted to either case, and I have taken especial satisfaction in observing that the view of this subject, which I was forced by the pressure of circumstances to adopt on my own responsibility, is not dissimilar from that dictated by your superior judgment.

My first steps in this affair, as reported on the 4th February, are approved by you, while those which were taken subsequently seem to be covered by your instruction with singular precision and forecast, to which I am happy to have conformed.

Having occasion to see Mr. Benavides yesterday on the subject of impeding the thirty men released from the Florida from embarking on the Stonewall, which point was gained as reported in my No. 174, of yesterday, I also put your instruction just arrived into my pocket, and, in the course of conversation, read

it to Mr. Benavides.

Much of the conversation in that interview was subsequent to this reading of your instruction, and all that relating to Hayti, as reported in my No. 175, of to-day, and in which Mr. Benavides took occasion to announce the principal features of his policy in American affairs, took place afterwards.

Seeing the opportunity favorable, I did not fail to urge again upon Mr. Benavides the considerations which, in my opinion, ought to separate the policy of Spain in America from that which might guide the conduct of France and England, and to this reasoning Mr. Benavides fully assented in principle, as you will observe by my despatch No. 175. Bringing the matter into a concrete form, I then referred to the late glorious news from our armies and fleet in the Carolinas, and said that the situation of things was to-day undoubtedly very different from that of June, 1861, when the royal decree of neutrality was adopted by Spain in imitation of France and England. Mr. Benavides agreed to this, and rejoiced that it was so. I then said that, as the state of political relations created by those decrees of neutrality was about to terminate at any rate, I was personally desirous that Spain should seize the occasion for an act of prevision which could not fail to be of the best effect in the United States. I wished him spontaneously, in view of the change of circumstances, to review the policy of 1861, in which Spain had followed England and France, and now to take the lead of those powers by abolishing the royal decree of June, 1861, and placing Spain frankly on the footing of a friend to

the government of Washington, and recognizing the insurgents as insurgents, and nothing more.

Mr. Benavides assented to all the reasoning by which I arrived at this conclusion, and said he would take the measure I indicated into serious consideration. He would study the point, and we would have another interview concerning it.

I have the honor to remain, with the highest respect, sir, your obedient

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SIR: It has been acertained that the number of American merchant ships which were built and owned in the United States, and which, in the year 1858, were transferred to a British registry, was 33, and their tonnage was 12,684; that the number of that class which were so transferred in 1859 was 49, and their tonnage 21,308; that the number in 1860 was 41, and their tonnage 13,683; that in 1861 the number rose to 126, and the tonnage to 71,673; that in 1862 the number reached 135, and their tonnage was 64,578; that in 1863 the number was no less than 348, and the tonnage 252,379; and that in 1864 the number fell to 106, and their tonnage to 92,052. It thus appears that from the beginning of our civil war until the first of January last the number of our merchant ships which assumed a British registry was 715 or thereabout. We do not know what number of our merchant ships have sought safety by acquir ing other registry than that of Great Britain, and, therefore, we do not assume that any have done so. Mr. Adams is instructed to submit the foregoing statement to Earl Russell, and to say to him that they are regarded as illustrating the great disturbance and derangement of our national commerce; that it is our opinion that this derangement is a necessary and legitimate result, not of our domestic civil war, but of the intervention in it of piratical cruisers built in British ports, and issuing from them to devastate our trade on the high seas in violation of municipal laws, treaties, and the law of nations; and that the ability of these cruisers, when once afloat to commit such devastations, is vastly increased by the recognition accorded to them as belligerent vessels, which recognition has, with greater or less reservation, been extended to them in courts and ports of the British realm and its dependencies.

The government of Spain has concurred with that of Great Britain in attribating a belligerent character to the piratical vessels of which mention has been made. I need not repeat here that the President has always protested equally against the departure of such piratical vessels from Spanish ports, and the recognition of them before mentioned. Still insisting on that protest, you will inform her Catholic Majesty's minister for foreign affairs that, in the opinion of this government, all previous justification of a continuance of that recognition has now failed by a practical reduction of all the ports heretofore temporarily held by the insurgents. The President, therefore, now looks to her Catholic Majesty's government for an effectual removal of the evils complained of, so far as depends upon Spain, in order that the foreign commerce of the United States may hereafter be carried on in peace and safety.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

HORATIO J. PERRY, Esq., &c., &c., Madrid.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

No. 177.]

Mr. Perry to Mr. Seward.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
Madrid, March 15, 1865.

SIR: I have the honor to enclose copy of Mr. Bigelow's letter to me of 12th instant, received last evening, and mine to Commodore Craven, enclosing copy of Mr. Bigelow's, and sent off by mail to Corunna last night. These letters explain themselves.

Both the Niagara and Sacramento left their anchorage at Corunna the day before yesterday in the afternoon, and lay about eight or ten miles off the harbor at nightfall; yesterday morning they were not visible.

This movement was undoubtedly in consequence of my letter of the 7th instant, which reached Commodore Craven on the 10th. On the night of the 11th or 12th instant he telegraphed me his thanks for that information.

On the night of the 11th, I also received from our consular agent at Ferrol the repetition of a telegraphic despatch he had just received from Mr. Bigelow, conveying the same information.

These telegrams are copied, and go enclosed, and the situation at Corunna and Ferrol is thus before you.

I have the honor to remain, with the highest respect, sir, your obedient ser

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DEAR SIR: I am reliably informed that it is the intention of the confederate officer in command on this station, Commodore Barron, to change the upper works of the Stonewall, so that she may mount ten guns-four on a side, and two pivots, one on each end, as heavy as can be bought. It is also proposed to cover her sides, to protect her machinery, with chains after the Winslow pattern, and then to cover them again with wood to complete the disguise.

She is expected to muster 140 men, and to be ready for sea in fifteen days from the 10th instant.

Yours, very respectfully,

Hon. H. J. PERRY, Chargé d'Affaires.

JOHN BIGELOW, Chargé d'Affaires.

B

Mr. Perry to Commodore Craven.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
Madrid, March 14, 1865.

DEAR SIR: I have just received from Mr. Bigelow the information that considerable changes have been decided on in the construction and armament of the Stonewall, and that he has sent you a copy of his letter to me.

I have it not merely by word, but in writing also, that the Spanish government will not permit any more work to be done on that ship.

Either the decisions of Commodore Barron in this respect are thus so much waste paper, or the Stonewall must leave the Spanish jurisdiction and go into some other for the purpose of getting this work done. You will be able to judge whether it was perhaps supposed by the confederate officers, at the time the work mentioned by Mr. Bigelow was decided on, that this work could be executed in Spain, or whether they mean to move the ship as she is.

I incline to the former supposition, and imagine they will still waste some time in efforts to bring the Spanish authorities to consent to the work projected.

But it is clear that, once this is definitively refused, the day will have come for them to decide whether they will take the ship out as she is, or resign themselves to let her rot in port at Ferrol.

My despatches from Mr. Seward, of February 20, do not mention the sending out of any re-enforcements for you, though it is evident from his despatch that there was such a confusion of information from Paris, Nantes, Madrid and Ferrol, that there was no clear intelligence by that steamer of what had really happened.

I shall have despatches again the day after to-morrow, and no doubt something more explicit will be heard from Washington.

No important news by telegraph from this steamer arrived yesterday.

Orders have been sent to all the Atlantic ports and to the frontiers of France and Portugal to stop the thirty Florida's men, and not allow them to traverse Spain in a direction towards Ferrol. New orders to the authorities of that port not to permit their embarcation on the Stonewall if they should by any chance reach that port.

I have the affair of the Cleadon's men also in good train.

Did you ever see a negro man James who started from Madrid to go to you on the 27th

ultimo!

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Commodore CRAVEN, Commanding Squadron at Corunna.

HORATIO J. PERRY.

NOTE.-A copy of Mr. Bigelow's letter of 12th instant also accompanied this letter.

H. J. P.

Mr. Fernandez to Mr. Perry.
[Telegram.]

Sr. ENCARGADO de negocios de los Estados Unidos:

FERROL, March 11, 1865.

In this moment I received from Paris the following despatch to communicate you. I am advised by the United States consul at [Liverpool that the corsair Florida were paid off on or about 20th February last, at Liverpool, when they received a leave of absence until the 10th instant, when they were to re-embark at Calais on board the Rappahannock.

A subsequent letter from the same informs me that these men are to be sent to the Stonewall, Ferrol, by sea, on their arrival at Calais. By post I will send to you the original despatch. FERNANDEZ.

Commodore Craven to Mr. Perry.
[Telegram.]

Hon. H. J. PERRY, American Chargé d'Affaires :
Thanks for your despatch received yesterday.

Mr. Perry to Mr. Seward.

CORUNNA, March 11, 1865.

CRAVEN.

No. 179.]

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
Madrid, March 20, 1865.

SIR: The captain of the Stonewall returned to Ferrol, as expected. The Niagara and Sacramentó returned to their old anchorage at the Corunna on the 15th instant. Last evening a telegram from our cousular agent at Ferrol informed me that the Stonewall was now ready to leave Ferrol at the first moment the weather should permit, and that he is not afraid of our ships. A telegram to the Spanish government also informs them that the rebel had taken leave of the authorities at Ferrol preparatory to sailing.

This determination corresponds exactly to what was foreseen in my letter to Commodore Craven of 14th instant, transmitted to you with my No. 177 of the 15th instant. Meantime we have no news of any re-enforcement for Com

modore Craven, and I cannot help fearing that the class and power of this formidable iron-clad have been imperfectly comprehended at Washington, or you would have been able to inform me before this that a force sufficient to control this vessel had left our waters. It is now six weeks since I had the honor to telegraph you her description, without, however, being able to give you details as to her casemated artillery, which may be compared in power to that of our best monitors. I am informed that a single shell from the 300-pounder Armstrong, impelled by 50 pounds of powder, and with a bursting charge of 17 pounds, may be expected to render such a ship as the Niagara useless.

It is probable that the guns of the latter will be unable to penetrate the 5,-7 and 8 inch iron plates under which the three Armstrong guns are casemated aboard the Stonewall. Besides her battery, the Stonewall is reported to steam twelve knots, which would enable her to use her spur 40 feet long with terrible effect in smooth water.

We shall see if the superior sea-going qualities of our ships can be made to compensate in any way for these tremendous advantages on the side of the Stonewall. Fortunately the stormy weather promises to still spare us for some days the cruel spectacle of our two wooden ships in action against this monster, in whose construction the best inventive talent of France has been exhausted, and I still hope re-enforcements may arrive.

I have the honor to enclose copy of my last letter to Commodore Craven, 18th instant, enclosing copy of letter from the consulate at Liverpool, in which our accounts of the ram are confirmed by a correspondent on board that vessel.

The dispositions of the Spanish government, and the measures taken according to my request to prevent any more men from joining the ram, are satisfactory. With sentiments of the highest respect, sir, your obedient servant, HORATIO J. PERRY.

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State, Washington.

Mr. Perry to Commodore Craven.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
Madrid, March 18, 1865.

DEAR SIR: I hasten to forward copy of a letter just received from our consulate at Liverpool. The information it contains may not be new to you, except the latter part, which would seem to indicate a good lookout for vessels under the Dutch flag. Of course the manner of fighting of the ram is indicated by her build and armament.

Mr. Seward, under date of 27th, informs me that Admiral Goldsborough is preparing for a cruise with a considerable fleet in European waters, but that many vessels of our navy are now engaged repairing damages.

Nothing definite. No later news from Sherman.

Very respectfully, &c., &c.,

Commodore CRAVEN,

HORATIO J. PERRY.

Commanding Squadron near Corunna.

Mr. Wilding to Mr. Perry.
[Extract.]

UNITED STATES CONSULATE,
Liverpool, March 14, 1865.

A person here who was formerly in one of the rebel privateers holds a commission, and is waiting orders; has received a letter from a man on board the Stonewall, in which the writer gives some particulars of the vessel which it might be well to communicate to Commodore Craven.

He says she is brig-rigged; top-gallant forecastle has a ram (spur) projecting 40 feet; 2 turrets; forward turret has one rifled gun, shot 11-inch shell, 50 pounds in cartridge, 17

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