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CHAPTER III

TH

DIPLOMACY OF 1862

HE second year of Mr. Lincoln's Administra- CHAP. III. tion was one of serious dangers and complications in the foreign relations of the United States. It was in this year that were seen the most mischievous results of the precipitate recognition of the Confederacy as a belligerent power. The original mistake of the French and British governments in putting upon equal terms a great and friendly power and the insurgent organization of a portion of its citizens, had its condemnation repeated in the events of every month of the year 1862. The complications forced upon the diplomacy of all three nations by this state of things were met by the President and Mr. Seward, not only with unyielding firmness and fortitude, but with prudence and skill, a broad comprehension of legal principles, and an instinctive adherence to justice and equity. An international tribunal stamped their action with its authoritative approval after both of them were dead, in a decision which all parties accepted, and which will probably be confirmed by the final verdict of history.

We have not the space to give any adequate abstracts of the correspondence between the State VOL. VI.-4

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CHAP. III. Department and the American Legation in London during this eventful year. But the instructions of Mr. Seward and the dispatches of Charles Francis Adams will remain in the published archives of the department a monument of the unsleeping vigilance, the unwearied industry, the patriotic devotion, and the remarkable ability of both of these statesmen, while through the whole course of these momentous discussions, the guiding and controlling hand of Mr. Lincoln is continually seen as the responsible director of American policy. We can only mention a few of the more important events which came under discussion during the year.

Among the earliest subjects of difference which arose between the two countries was the refusal of the British Government to allow the United States naval vessels to supply themselves with deposits of coal which the Government of the United States had provided for them at Nassau. This injurious action of the British authorities was rendered still more flagrant by permission granted to Confederate vessels to buy and take on coal in the same ports where United States vessels had not been allowed to load coal belonging to their Government. At this time also Confederate cruisers were allowed to supply themselves with coal in the ports of England. All these acts, being complained of by Mr. Adams, were defended by Lord Russell on the ground that they were strictly within the provision of the Queen's proclamation of neutrality. Mr. Seward protested against the approval by the British Government of the proceedings of the Governor of Nassau as unfriendly towards a power that extends unrestricted hospitality towards the

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naval as well as the mercantile marine of Great CHAP. III. Britain in its ports and harbors." The fact that the British Government justified such proceedings by a reference to the Queen's proclamation of neutrality did not alleviate the grievance. "The explanation," said Mr. Seward, "obliges us to renew the declaration this Government has so often made, that it regards the proclamation itself as unnecessary, unfriendly, and injurious."

But by far the most important subject of discussion in its immediate and ultimate bearings was the building and fitting out in English ports of Confederate cruisers to destroy the commerce of the United States. In reviewing this long correspondence, lasting through several years, one would hesitate to say that the British Government was actuated by feelings positively unfriendly to the United States. It is easier to conclude that not being sure which side would win, and being entirely indifferent to the contest between the Federal Government and the rebellion, it stood simply upon the letter of the English law without regard to any consequences which might result from such action. The fact is, that under the eyes X of the British Government the work of building and making ready for sea these swift cruisers, whose only object was the destruction of the peaceful commerce of a friendly nation, went on to its end, month after month, although every stage of the progress of such hostile preparations was made known to the Government by the incessant and vehement protests of the American Minister in London. On the 18th of February, 1862, Mr. Adams informed Earl Russell that an armed steamer

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CHAP. III. was preparing to sail from Liverpool to make war against the United States. Earl Russell replied, on the authority of the Commissioners of Customs at Liverpool, that the steamer was built for the purpose of peaceful commerce to be sent to Palermo, in Sicily; and work on the vessel went on. A month later Mr. Adams again wrote to the English Foreign Secretary repeating his conviction that the Oreto, as the vessel was then called, was a war-ship destined to be used by the insurgents in America; to which, on the 8th of April, Earl Russell replied, repeating, this time upon the authority of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, the assurance that the Oreto, which in the mean while had sailed from Liverpool, was an unarmed and innocent commercial vessel. A week later, in a personal interview, Mr. Adams again assured Earl Russell that the fact of the true destination of the vessel was notorious all over Liverpool; no commercial people were blind to it; and the course taken by Her Majesty's officers in declaring ignorance only led to an inference most unfavorable to all idea of their neutrality in the struggle; to which Lord Russell replied by a polite expression of regret at these circumstances, but could not see how the Government could change its position. Shortly after, this innocent trading vessel arrived at Nassau, where she found her destined Confederate commander, and after some futile legal proceedings sailed for Mobile Bay, which she entered under the British naval flag, and thence sailed to begin her career of destruction on the ocean under the name of the Florida and the flag of the Confederacy.

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Meanwhile a more serious violation of the CHAP. III. friendly obligations of England was in progress in the port of Liverpool. A vessel, called at the time by her dock number of "290," but which afterwards achieved a wide notoriety under the name of the Alabama, was in process of construction in that port and preparing for sea under circumstances which left no doubt whatever of her errand. One of her owners was Mr. Laird, a Member of Parliament who had distinguished himself by a conspicuous advocacy of the Confederate cause in England, and those in charge of the vessel, emboldened by the action of the Government in the case of the Oreto, made no special effort to dissemble her object and purpose. Mr. Adams brought these facts to the notice of Lord Russell on the 23d of June, and the Lords Commissioners, to whom the subject was referred, reported with unusual promptitude, only a week later, that the fitting out of the vessel did not escape the notice of the revenue officers, but that, as yet, nothing special had come to light. The vessel was intended for a ship of war; it was reported to be built for a foreign government; but the builders were not talkative, and there were not sufficient grounds to warrant her detention. Mr. Adams, unable to gain the attention of the Government, ordered the consul at Liverpool to lay all the facts in his possession before the Commissioners, and requested Captain Craven, commanding the United States ship Tuscarora, to endeavor to intercept the cruiser on her way out. The consul performed his duty with so much energy and fullness of detail that the Commissioners felt bound to give the subject further

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