pursuance of the laws of the United States and of the law of nations, in such cases provided, it becomes necessary that a competent force be posted so as to prevent the entrance and exit of vessels from the ports aforesaid.

With this view you will establish and enforce a blockade at each and all of the ports in the States enumerated east of Key West, and a sufficient disposable force will be placed under the command of yourself that you may carry these orders into effect. On you will devolve the duty of blockading all the ports east of Key West.

You will duly notify neutrals of the declaration of blockade, and give to it all the publicity in your power. The blockade must be strict and absolute, and only public armed vessels of foreign powers should be permitted to enter the ports which are placed in a state of blockade. To neutral or foreign vessels that are already in the ports, you will allow a reasonable number of days to leave them. The country relies upon your command, with the squadron of the Gulf, to make this blockade effectual, so as to close all the ports of the States above named, protect our commerce from the depredations of privateers, and contribute by your activity and vigilance to the speedy suppression of the insurrectionary movements and the adjustment of the present unhappy difficulties.

It will not be improper to state to you that a lawful maritime blockade requires the actual presence of an adequate force stationed at the entrance of the port sufficiently near to prevent communication. The only exception to this rule which requires the actual presence of an adequate force to constitute a lawful blockade arises out of the circumstance of the occasional temporary absence of the blockading squadron, produced by accident, as in the case of a storm, which does not suspend the legal operation of a blockade. The law considers an attempt to take advantage of such an accidental removal a fraudulent attempt to break the blockade.

You will permit no neutral or foreign vessel proceeding toward the entrance of a blockaded port to be captured or detained if she shall not have previously received from one of the blockading squadron a special notification of the existence of the blockade. This notification must be inserted in writing on the muster roll of the neutral vessel by the cruiser which meets her; and it should contain the announcement, together with statements of the day and the latitude in which it was made.

The United States have at all times maintained these principles on the subject of blockade, and you will take care not to attempt the application of penalties for a breach of blockade except in cases where your right is justified by these rules.

I am [etc.]

G. WELLES

[The two following communications of the British Minister at Washington, printed as annexes to this document, contain reports of American statements regarding the blockade.]

[Annex 1]

The British Minister in the United States (Lyons) to the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Russell) 1

1

WASHINGTON, May 2, 1861.

MY LORD: I have the honour to inclose a copy of the note by which I acknowledged the receipt of Mr. Seward's note of the 27th ultimo, announcing the intention of this Government to set on foot a blockade of the Southern ports. I was careful so to word my note as to show that I accepted Mr. Seward's communication as an announcement of an intention to set on foot a blockade, not as a notification of the actual commencement of one. I believe that most of my colleagues made answers in the same sense.

I have the honour to transmit to your Lordship copies of the President's Proclamation, announcing the extension of the blockade to the ports of Virginia, and North Carolina, which have been sent to me in a blank cover from the State Department.

I have made it my business, since the entrance of the present Administration into office nearly two months ago, to endeavour to ascertain precisely their intentions with regard to the commerce of foreign nations with the States which have withdrawn from the Union. Up to the day before the blockade was announced, the Government had not itself come to any decision on the subject. Nor did I think it expedient to press it to make any declaration so long as the commercial operations of British merchants and British vessels in the seceded States were carried on without hindrance and without inconvenience. But since the blockade has been proclaimed, I have thought myself entitled to ask with persistence for definite information respecting the mode in which it is to be carried into effect. I had in particular a long conversation on the subject with Mr. Seward, in presence of the Chief Clerk of the State Department, on the 29th ultimo. I had prepared Mr. Seward for the interview by suggesting to him, through the Under-Secretary of State, the advisableness of diminishing the disagreeable impression which the announcement of the blockade would make abroad, by giving, as soon as possible, definite assurances that it would be carried on with a liberal consideration for the interests of foreign nations.

1 Correspondence with the United States' Government Respecting Blockade, Parlimentary Paper, United States, 1861, pp. 2–4.

So far as assurances in general terms go, nothing could be more satisfactory than Mr. Seward's language. I did not, however, succeed in obtaining at the time as definite a declaration of the rules which would be observed as I had hoped.

The principal point to which I drew Mr. Seward's attention was the extreme vagueness of the information which was given to us. I referred him to the notifications of blockades made by Great Britain during the late war with Russia, and pointed out to him the care and precision with which every particular was stated in them. I asked whether it was intended to issue similar notices for each Southern port as soon as the actual blockade of it should commence.

The reply which I received was, that the practice of the United States was not to issue such notices, but to notify the blockade individually to each vessel approaching the blockaded port, and to inscribe a memorandum of the notice having been given on the ship's papers. No vessel was liable to seizure which had not been individually warned. This plan had, I was assured, been found to be in practice the most convenient and the fairest to all parties. The fact of there being blockading ships present to give the warning was the best notice and best proof that the port was actually and effectually blockaded.

The principal objection to the plan appeared to me to be that it might in some cases expose foreign vessels to the loss and inconvenience of making a useless voyage, which a more general and public announcement of the blockade would have prevented.

I observed to Mr. Seward that the limits of the blockade which it was intended to establish were not clearly stated. It was not easy to understand exactly to what extent of coast the expression “the ports within" the States mentioned was applicable. Mr. Seward said that it was intended to blockade the whole coast from Chesapeake Bay to the mouth of the Rio Grande. I observed to him that the extent of the coast between these two points was, I supposed, about 3,000 miles. Surely the United States had not a naval force sufficient to establish an effective blockade of such a length of coast. Mr. Seward, however, maintained that the whole would be blockaded, and blockaded effectively.

I may perhaps be allowed to refer your Lordship to a clear declaration of the principles of the United States on such matters which is contained in a note from Mr. Buchanan dated 29th December, 1846, and transmitted to the Foreign Office in Sir Richard Pakenham's despatch of the same date.

- Mr. Seward assured me that all foreign vessels already in port when the blockade should be set on foot would be allowed to come

out with their cargoes. I asked whether they would be allowed to come out with cargoes shipped after the blockade was actually established. Mr. Seward did not speak positively on this point; what he said, seemed to imply that the time at which the cargo was shipped would not be inquired into. I said that I supposed it was clearly understood that foreign ships coming out of blockaded ports in which there were no United States' Customs authorities would not be interfered with by the blockading squadron on the plea of their being without clearances or other papers required by the Revenue laws.

Mr. Seward said that it was the bonâ fide intention of the Government to allow foreign vessels already in port when the blockade was established to depart without molestation.

He did not say that any particular term would be fixed after the expiration of which foreign vessels would no longer be allowed to quit blockaded ports.

He did not repeat to me the assurance he gave some time ago to one of my colleagues that vessels arriving without a knowledge of the blockade would be allowed to go into a blockaded port and come cut again.

Nor did he say anything of the intention, which he expressed to another of my colleagues, of proposing to the Legislature that the United States should adhere to the Declaration of the Congress of Paris on Maritime law.

On my pressing Mr. Seward to give me, either in writing, or at all events by a formal verbal announcement, some definite information for the guidance of British merchant-vessels, he promised to send me a copy of the instructions issued to the officers of the blockading squadron, and said he was confident I should find them perfectly satisfactory. He was good enough to add, that if in any individual cases the rules of the blockade should bear hardly on British vessels, he should be ready to consider the equity of the matter, and to receive favourably any representations which I might make on behalf of the interests of British subjects.

Mr. Seward has not yet sent me the copy of the instructions. I reminded him, however, yesterday of his promise, and I hope that he will enable me to transmit a copy to your Lordship by the British packet which will leave New York on the 8th instant.

I have [etc.]

LYONS

P.S. Since I closed this despatch, I have seen in an unofficial newspaper of this morning's date, a notice concerning the blockade of the ports of Virginia, a copy of which I have just time to inclose. I am unable to procure a second copy.

L.

[Annex 2]

The British Minister in the United States (Lyons) to the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Russell)1 WASHINGTON, May 4, 1861.

(Extract.)

In my despatch of the 2nd instant I had the honour to report to your Lordship that Mr. Seward had promised, on the 29th ultimo, to send me a copy of the instructions issued to the officers of the squadron to be employed in blockading the Southern ports.

I took measures, this morning, to remind Mr. Seward privately of this promise; in return, I received the following communication from the State Department: 2

The Secretary of the Navy has furnished us with a copy of his instructions about the blockade, but as we have not been able to find a precedent for communicating them to the Ministers of foreign Governments, you must not expect a copy at present. You may, however, be thus informally assured that the blockade will be conducted as strictly, according to the recognized rules of public law, and with as much liberality towards neutrals, as any blockade ever was by a belligerent.

Upon this, I caused Mr. Buchanan's note to Mr. Pakenham of the 29th of December, 1846, to be pointed out to Mr. Seward as supplying a precedent for the confidential communication of instructions concerning a blockade.

The following was written to me in answer:

I have shown Mr. Seward the precedent to which you refer, but he does not think it would justify him in furnishing a copy of the instructions; for, if given to one, they must be given to all, which might lead to their inconvenient publicity. The blockade, however, will be in strict conformity to the principles mentioned by Mr. Buchanan. The Proclamation is mere notice of an intention to carry it into effect, and the existence of the blockade will be made known in proper form by the blockading vessels.

I had, of course, no other right to ask Mr. Seward for a copy of the instructions than that which he had given me by promising to send me one, in order to remove any unfavourable impression which might be made in Europe by the vagueness of the information given by the United States' Government.

I have the honour to transmit to your Lordship copies of a note addressed by Mr. Seward to the Spanish Minister here; and of an article inserted in the Washington newspaper, which is regarded as the organ of the Administration. These documents appear to contain all the positive information which has hitherto been elicited concerning the mode in which the blockade will be conducted.

1

Correspondence with the United States' Government Respecting Blockade. Parliamentary Paper, United States, 1861, p. 6. 2 Not found in Department files,