Europe many regiments were detained in their camps in Chap. XIII. the different States. Orders were sent abroad by the Governors of States, and many arms were imported at high prices, although inferior, most of them very much so, to those of American manufacture." 1 "Of the foreign arms imported, the best," continues the annalist, "are the Enfield rifles, made at the Government Armoury at Enfield, England." Many rifles were also imported from Prussia. The demands of the war, as it advanced, were met, in large measure, by the activity of private manufacturers in the Northern States; but the export of arms and military stores from Great Britain went on freely and without intermission as long as the contest lasted; and the supplies thus drawn by the Federal Government from this country appear to have considerably exceeded in quantity those obtained by the South.

There was at first, and probably for a considerable time, no want of arms in the Confederate States. The Federal arsenals and magazines in the South had all fallen into the hands of the State authorities, and had by them been transferred to the Confederate Government; and these had a little while before been filled to overflowing from the arsenals of the North by Mr. Floyd, who had not scrupled to use for this purpose the power entrusted to him as Secretary at War in Mr. Buchanan's Administration. As the war proceeded, and so long as it lasted, they obtained what supplies they could from the European market. But every cargo had to run the gauntlet of the blockade, except what could be transported overland from Mexico. The extent, therefore, to which exportation was possible must have been limited. in proportion to the effectiveness of the blockade.2

1 American Annual Cyclopædia for 1861, p. 28.

2 Of the quantities really shipped to either North or South we have, so far as I am aware, no accurate account. The total value of arms and munitions of war shipped from this country, during the war

Chap. XIII.

An export trade, more or less considerable, in arms and munitions of war was carried on from this country to both the Northern and the Southern ports. Whether the goods were purchased in the English market by persons who came over for the purpose, or were shipped to order, or were consigned for sale in America on account of the shippers; whether the purchases were effected by agents for the two Governments respectively, or by private speculators; and whether those agents or speculators were American or English, firms trading at Liverpool or firms trading at New York or Charleston, I do not know, and it is absolutely immaterial to inquire. None of these circumstances could affect, to the slightest degree, the character of the transaction; nor was it the duty, or within the power, of the neutral Government to interfere with a sale and purchase conducted in one of these ways, more than with a sale and purchase effected in any other of them.

Nor is it material to know how much of the supplies

and in the years which immediately preceded and followed it, to the United States and to the "British West India Islands, &c.," were as follows:

:

These figures show the demands of the war. The increase in the West India trade was doubtless due to the activity of the blockaderunners. Shipments direct to any of the Southern ports would be included under the heading "United States," but these were probably inconsiderable.

A Customs Return moved for and presented to Parliament in 1864 states the aggregate value of the rifles, muskets, ordnance and ordnance stores, and percussion caps, shipped under those descriptions to Northern ports in 1861 at 20,3867., and in 1862 at 550,1361. The shipments to

sent to either Northern or Southern ports was conveyed Chap. XIII. in American bottoms, and how much in English bottoms. Articles of military use, when transported over sea to the ports of either belligerent in neutral ships, are during the transit designated contraband, and may be captured under the neutral flag, the neutral carrier suffering the loss of his freight and getting no compensation for the interruption of his voyage and the breaking up of the cargo. In this case, both goods and carriage are obtained in the neutral country; in the other case (where the transportation is effected by merchantmen belonging to the belligerent), the neutral supplies the goods, but does not supply the carriage. This, and this only, is the real difference between the two classes of transactions considered in themselves and International Law, when it "prohibits " (as the phrase is) the carriage of contraband, declares in effect that the belligerent importer shall not, by having the goods conveyed to him under a neutral

Southern ports are valued in the return at 1,8507. in the former year, and nil in the latter. No distinction is made between Northern and Southern ports as such; but the names of the ports are given under the general title "America."

:

Mr. Davis, in his Message of 12th January, 1863, gave a glowing account of the resources of the Confederacy:- "Our armies are larger, better disciplined, and more thoroughly armed and equipped, than at any period of the war; the energies of a whole nation, devoted to the single object of success in this war, have accomplished marvels, and many of those trials have by a beneficent Providence been converted into blessings. The injuries resulting from the interruption of foreign commerce have received compensation by the developments of our internal resources. Cannon crown our fortresses that were cast from the proceeds of mines opened and furnaces built during the war. Our mountain caves yield much of the nitre for the manufacture of powder, and promise increase of product. From our own foundries and laboratories, from our own armouries and workshops, we derive in a great measure the warlike material, the ordnance and ordnance stores, which are expended so profusely in the numerous and desperate engagements that rapidly succeed each other. Cotton and woollen fabrics, shoes and harness, waggons and gun-carriages, are produced in daily increasing quantities by the factories springing into existence."

The need for arms appears to have become urgent at the beginning of 1865.

Chap. XIII. flag, escape the risk of having them captured at sea; and that the neutral who chooses to undertake the conveyance must hazard all the losses which may attend on such an adventure. Russia, if she be at war with France, cannot be prevented from getting guns from private manufacturers at Berlin across the Prussian frontier. But if she gets them from England, French cruisers may seize them anywhere on the high seas, whether under the Russian or under the English flag: the English shipowner must run the risk of that: and, if he be the owner of both ship and goods, he may lose his ship into the bargain. To the people of the South it was almost a matter of necessity that the bulk of what they bought in Europe should be conveyed to them in neutral vessels, because their own mercantile marine was insignificant; to the people of the North it was in each particular transaction a mere question of price and convenience, which the exporter decided for himself as he judged best for his own interest. It is not, however, more unlawful to convey munitions of war to a belligerent who has few or no merchant-ships of his own than to a belligerent who has many-to a belligerent who is weak at sea than to one who is powerful; nor, where a great disparity of force renders the business of transportation difficult and precarious on one side, and safe and easy on the other, is the transaction which is difficult and precarious more unlawful than that which is safe and easy. The stronger belligerent, in spite of all that the neutral trader can do, has the advantage of his strength, and the weaker suffers the disadvantage of his inferiority; but neutral Governments are not called upon to interdict to the weaker that which they permit to the stronger, and they would cease to be neutral if they did. The overwhelming maritime preponderance of the Union enabled it during the late war to blockade, more or less effectively, all the Southern coasts; hence, in carrying on this trade with the South, the "offence," as a Prize Court would say, of breaking a blockade was superadded to that of conveying contra

band-which means that the neutral trader was doing Chap. XIII. two things, each of which by itself would have exposed him to a penalty. But the neutral Government, which is not bound to prevent blockade-running and the export of contraband when distinct transactions, is under no greater obligation to prevent them when combined in one transaction.

I state these simple propositions as plainly as I can, because there is reason to think that they were not, and are not now, clearly apprehended by the Government of the United States. In the tissue of complaints which that Government has again and again presented to the Government of Great Britain, blockade-running and the export of contraband to the South are large ingredients, and hold a conspicuous place. That Great Britain did not put a stop to these enterprises, while permitting the export of arms to the North, has been reckoned a grievance by the United States, and employed to swell their list of grievances; and the only known facts alleged in support of this contention have been the facts that the Southern States were in rebellion, and the Southern ports under blockade.1

1 The latest official statement, I believe, previous to the war, of the American view and practice in this matter is to be found in President Pierce's Message of December 1854:

"The laws of the United States do not forbid their citizens to sell to either of the belligerent Powers articles contraband of war, or to take munitions of war or soldiers on board their private ships for transportation; and although in so doing the individual citizen exposes his property to some of the hazards of war, his acts do not involve any breach of national neutrality, nor of themselves implicate the Government. Thus, during the progress of the present war in Europe, our citizens have without national responsibility therefor sold gunpowder and arms to all buyers, regardless of the destination of those articles. Our merchantmen have been, and still continue to be, largely employed by Great Britain and France in transporting troops, provisions, and munitions of war, to the principal seat of military operations, and in bringing home the sick and wounded soldiers; but such use of our mercantile marine is not interdicted either by the international or by our municipal law, and, therefore, does not compromise our neutral relations with Russia."