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divert attention from America, and which may soon attain a dimension that will eclipse transatlantic affairs altogether.

So far as the future is concerned, the condition of things in the United States, bad as it is, seems to be stability itself when compared with the rickety state of the political system of Europe. The whole continent is but a pent volcano, with only here and there a standing ground not torn with threatening fissures. To say that it has been so from the time of Charlemagne is not to dispute the fact that it is so now in a pre-eminent degree. The desire to transplant this system to the American continent, at this period of the world's history, is an audacity that I do not see any reason for imputing to the troubled heart of European royalty. I believe they are looking to America rather as a refuge than as a future theatre for their offspring. *

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I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most obedient servant,

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SIR: Since my last I have had the honor to receive your two despatches of March 8th and 10th, Nos. 45 and 46.

Your suggestions, now renewedly repeated, that the European governments will have themselves alone to blame if their commercial intercourse with the cotton States is much longer obstructed, if vigorously urged upon the leading maritime powers by our ministers, cannot fail to produce effect. Those powers ought to be earnestly pressed to withdraw their recognition of belligerent rights to the seceding States, and themselves thus end the war which is occasioning them so much concern and inconvenience. I have twice drawn the attention of this government to this point already. But it is hard to move these secondary powers in a matter of general importance before the large powers have acted.

It was only by great urgency that Baron Von Zuylen was induced to adopt the policy of excluding the confederate vessels from the Dutch ports before any other government had adopted it. And the moment a new man took his place who had not been pressed, he immediately ran away from the position. The most I can hope now is, that Mr. Maesen will restore the policy of Baron Von Zuylen, which would be the best starting point for them to get where we would like to have them.

If we could get a good example from Russia, whose sympathies we can surely count on, we might gradually undermine the position of England and France on this question, should they not be otherwise disposed to leave it, by getting the smaller powers to follow her lead.

Since conveying the substance of your despatch on this subject to Mr. Maeson, of which I advised you in my last, I have addressed him the following note.

"UNITED STATES LEGATION,

"The Hague, March 28, 1862.

"SIR: In the absence of any reply to my note addressed to your excellency on the 22d of this month, allow me to solicit your earnest attention to the suggestion contained therein, that this government should review the whole question of granting belligerent rights to the States in revolt against the American government.

"Our late overwhelming successes demonstrate the impossibility of the triumph of the seceding States, and show that the insurrection must fail. "The commercial interests of Europe and the claims of humanity alike demand of European governments a policy adapted to the present situation in the United States.

"If the seceding States were to be informed by the European courts that they would resume their former relations to the United States, and no longer accord the rights of belligerents to the secessionists, Europe would but little longer complain of suffering in consequence of the state of American affairs.

It is hoped by the United States that this view being present to the mind of all European governments they will with a common accord, by this plain and easy line of policy, withdraw that moral support which alone now give a lingering existence to the slaveholders' rebellion.

"The undersigned begs, &c., &c."

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most obedient servant,

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SIR: Your despatch of March 12 (No. 41) has been received. Your ac count of the system of finance and revenue existing in the Netherlands is very interesting. In the belief that it may prove useful in the present emergency, I shall take pleasure in procuring its submission to Congress.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

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SIR: I have read with much pleasure the interesting and encouraging account you give of an improved public opinion concerning our affairs in Europe in your despatch of March 19, (No. 42.)

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

JAMES S. PIKE, Esq., &c., &c., &c.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

No. 45.]

Mr. Pike to Mr. Seward.

UNITED STATES LEGATION,

The Hague, April 9, 1862.

SIR: Since my last I have received a communication from the minister of foreign affairs, of which the following is a copy:

"SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letters of the 22d and 28th of March, relative to the admission of the armed vessels of the secessionist States into the ports of the kingdom of the Netherlands and its colonies, and the recognition of the rights of belligerents to those States.

"You ask, in the name of your government, that that of the King may submit this question to a new examination, in the persuasion which the cabinet of Washington feels that if the moral support given to the confede rates by this recognition of the principal states of Europe were once withdrawn the struggle which now desolates the great American republic would soon come to an end.

"It is useless to renew to you, sir, the assurance so frequently reiterated of the profound interest that the cabinet of the Hague takes in the events which, to its great grief, are passing in America, and that it most heartily desires a solution favorable to the interests of the Union, as well as those of all humanity.

"I am unable, however, to give you an immediate response to your propo sition. Its importance requires a profound examination, and the concurrence of the members of the cabinet, of which I am a part.

"I shall not fail to inform you, in due time, of the result of our delibera tions, and I beg you, meantime, to receive the assurance of my high consideration.

"Monsieur PIKE, &c., &c."

"VANDER MAESEN DE SOMBREFF.

The late combat at Fortress Monroe between the iron-clad vessels continues to be the talk of every salon in Europe, and is conceived to point directly to the inevitable triumph of the United States over the rebellion. I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most obedient servant, JAMES S. PIKE.

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State, Washington.

Mr. Pike to Mr. Seward.

No. 46.]

UNITED STATES LEGATION,

The Hague, April 16, 1862.

SIR: I have the honor to enclose you the communication of this govern ment, in reply to mine of the 22d and 28th of March last, asking for a review of their position on the questions of granting belligerent rights to the seceding States, and of excluding the piratical vessels of those States from the ports of the Netherlands. You will perceive that the government de clines to change its present attitude on these subjects.

I neglected in my last to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of March 15, (No. 47.)

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most obedient servant,

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

JAMES S. PIKE.

Secretary of State, Washington.

Mr. Maesen De Sombreff to Mr. Pike.

[Translation]

THE HAGUE, April 14, 1862.

SIR: As a continuation of my communication of the 1st of this month, I have the honor to bring to your knowledge that the government of the Netherlands considers that it ought to sustain the principles held in 1861. Whatever may be its desire to please the cabinet at Washington, it cannot withdraw from the self-styled Confederate States the rights of belligerents, nor modify the instructions given in the month of December, 1861, to its colonial authorities relative to the duration of the sojourn of armed vessels of the United States of the north and of the south in the Netherlands ports, without limit of time, as well as privilege which has been given to them to ship coal without limit as to quantity. A fresh examination of the question has only confirmed the King's government in the opinion maintained by those who preceded them in power, that is to say, that civil war exists in America, and that the Netherlands have proclaimed their neutrality, it followed logically that the States self-styled confederate should be recognized as belligerents.

This opinion, based in theory on the authority of the best publicists, and confirmed in practice by the conduct pursued not only at an anterior epoch but even in modern times by the principal European powers, and, what is more, by the United States themselves; this opinion has guided the ministers of the King in their line of conduct towards the two parties in opposition in America, and is the same as that which prevailed in the councils of France, of Great Britain, and of other powers.

After the developments entered into upon this subject in the communica. tions to the legation of the United States, under date of 17th September, 15th and 29th October, and 14th December, 1861, it will be, without doubt, useless to turn back to them, or to support them by new arguments.

Recognized as belligerents, the secessionist States might, according to the law of nations, arm privateers, and they could not be treated as pirates, as the cabinet at Washington would have it, only seeing such States in the light of rebels, and in the violation by them of the Constitution, only rebellion.

Besides, all their armed vessels could not be regarded prima facie as privateers. This lies in the very nature of things, and results likewise from the definition of privateer, (corsair.)

It followed, consequently, from the attitude taken by the government of his Majesty, that the vessels-of-war of both parties should be admitted on the same conditions into the ports of the Netherlands, our proclamations excluding only privateers, except in case of stress.

This consequence was admitted, in what regards France, by Mr. Dayton, American minister at Paris, who writes to Mr. Seward the 12th June, 1861, "that part of the declaration (the French declaration of the 10th June') which puts the vessels of the United States in the same category as the

vessels of the Confederate States, may, I think, be justly complained of ; but this grows, at most, out of the recognition of those States as belligerents.”

The recognition of the rights of belligerents in the Confederate States is not a question of opportunity nor of policy; if such were the case, one might discuss its maintenance in relation with the ever-varying exigencies of the latter. But the question here treated belongs to the law of nations, of a consequence inherent in neutrals towards belligerents.

I will content myself with citing an author generally esteemed, Mr. Hautefeuille, on rights and duties of neutral nations, (I, 450:) "Nations," says he, "which desire to remain neutral, must accept the position; in fact, if they would be respected by the two parties, they must recognize and respect alike both of the two. The foreign prince who should refuse to fulfil the obligations of neutrality towards insurgents could not require of them to consider him as neutral; he would be in their eyes the ally of their enemy, and they would treat him as such with justice."

It is therefore impossible to the King's government to change the line of conduct thus far followed. How could it, besides, by no longer conceding to the southern States the rights of belligerents, by excluding their vessels from its ports, by treating them, in a word, as pirates, apply to them a treatment from which the United States themselves have recoiled, as has been observed in the despatch of December 14, 1861? The northern States have not condemned as pirates the privateers of the southern confederates, but have considered them as lawful combatants. We cannot do more than the government of the Union. This is what caused the remark, so far back as the month of June, 1861, of Lord Russell in his despatch to Lord Lyons, (North America I, p. 42:)

"We could not treat 5,000,000 of men, who had declared their independence, like a band of marauders or filibusters. If we had done so we should have done more than the United States themselves. We surely could not be expected to go beyond the United States government themselves in measures of severity."

It must, then, be well understood that, under such conditions, and whatever may be its regrets for the evils which now afflict the great American republic, the King's government cannot consider the two contending parties otherwise than as two belligerents, the one employing against the other the forces at its disposal, conformably to the principles of the law of nations.

It refers to its anterior communications, and repeats the assurances given again and again that, in continuing to receive in the Netherlands poris the vessels-of-war of the northern States and of the secessionist States, it will not be permitted that such vessels should make of one or other of her ports the base of their operations against the commerce of their adversaries.

I pass now to the second question contained in your letter of 22d March last, to wit: whether the government of the Netherlands, if it refuses to exclude from its ports the vessels of the confederates, will return to the restrictive measures adopted when the Baron de Zuylen was at the head of the department for foreign affairs, and which have since been changed under Mr. Strens.

In this regard I permit myself to observe to you that I could not understand how your government could desire the re-establishment of measures which actually were, and would again be, applicable to both parties, and which were, at the time, the cause why the Union ship Iroquois would not enter the port of Curaça under the rule of said restrictive measures.

It was on that occasion that the last were modified, which was brought to your notice the 30th of December, 1861.

It follows, from advices which have since reached the government, that the new commander of the Iroquois has expressed himself well satisfied

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