I have been informed, but not directly or officially, that in no case will less than fifteen days from the effective establishment of the blockade at each point be allowed for merchant-vessels already in port to take their departure; and that the effective blockade of the mouths of the Mississippi will not be begun until the 25th of this month.

[No signature indicated]

121

The Secretary of State (Seward) to the Minister in Great Britain (C. F. Adams)1

No. 10

WASHINGTON, May 21, 1861. SIR: This government considers that our relations in Europe have reached a crisis, in which it is necessary for it to take a decided stand, on which not only its immediate measures, but its ultimate and permanent policy can be determined and defined. At the same time it neither means to menace Great Britain nor to wound the susceptibilities of that or any other European nation. That policy is developed in this paper.

The paper itself is not to be read or shown to the British secretary of state, nor are any of its positions to be prematurely, unnecessarily, or indiscreetly made known. But its spirit will be your guide. You will keep back nothing when the time arrives for its being said with dignity, propriety, and effect, and you will all the while be careful to say nothing that will be incongruous or inconsistent with the views which it contains.

As to the blockade, you will say that by our own laws and the laws of nature, and the laws of nations, this government has a clear right to suppress insurrection. An exclusion of commerce from national ports which have been seized by insurgents, in the equitable form of blockade, is a proper means to that end. You will not insist that our blockade is to be respected, if it be not maintained by a competent force; but passing by that question as not now a practical or at least an urgent one, you will add that the blockade is now, and it will continue to be, so maintained, and therefore we expect it to be respected by Great Britain. You will add that we have already revoked the exequatur of a Russian consul who had enlisted in the military service of the insurgents, and we shall dismiss or demand.

1

Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs (Diplomatic Correspondence) 1861, pp.

the recall of every foreign agent, consular or diplomatic, who shall either disobey the federal laws or disown the federal authority.

As to the treatment of privateers in the insurgent service, you will say that this is a question exclusively our own. We treat them as pirates. They are our own citizens, or persons employed by our citizens, preying on the commerce of our country. If Great Britain shall choose to recognize them as lawful belligerents, and give them shelter from our pursuit and punishment, the laws of nations afford an adequate and proper remedy.

Happily, however, her Britannic Majesty's government can avoid all these difficulties. It invited us in 1856 to accede to the declaration of the congress of Paris, of which body Great Britain was herself a member, abolishing privateering everywhere in all cases and forever. You already have our authority to propose to her our accession to that declaration. If she refuse it, it can only be because she is willing to become the patron of privateering when aimed at our devastation.

I am [etc.]

122

WILLIAM H. SEWARD

The Secretary of State (Seward) to the British Minister (Lyons)1 WASHINGTON, May 27, 1861.

MY LORD: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's note of the 22nd instant. Having first submitted the same to the Secretary of the Navy for the purpose of obtaining information concerning the facts which it presents, I proceed to answer it.

The intention of the Government of the United States is to exclude all commerce, as well its own as that of foreign nations, from the ports of certain States which are in an insurrectionary condition, with a view to suppress the insurrection and establish the authority of the Federal Government.

The equitable form of a blockade was adopted for that purpose, due notice of this purpose was given by the proclamation of the President, the blockade as to the port of Charleston was carried into effect on the 11th day of this month, the United States Ship of War Niagara having taken her position there and enforced the blockade.

MS., Notes to Great Britain, vol. vii, pp. 429-431.

The blockade of the port of Charleston has been neither abandoned, relinquished, nor remitted, as the letter of Her Britannic Majesty's Consul would lead you to infer.

We are informed that the Niagara was replaced by the Steamer Harriet Lane but that owing to some accident, the latter vessel failed to reach the Station as ordered, until a day or two after the Niagara had left.

I forbear from discussing the effect of the absence of the blockading force upon any vessel that might have entered or departed from the port of Charleston during that brief time. Your note does not submit any such case as having actually occurred. I hasten, however, to express the dissent of this Government from the position which seems to be assumed in your note that that temporary absence impairs the blockade and renders necessary a new notice of its existence. This Government holds that the blockade took effect at Charleston on the 11th day of this month, and that it will continually be in effect until notice of its relinquishment shall be given by proclamation of the President of the United States. It is intended and expected that the blockade will be constantly and vigorously maintained. If any failure in that respect shall occur to the prejudice of any party or nation, its representations to that effect will be promptly considered. I avail [etc.]

WILLIAM H. SEWARD

123

The Secretary of State (Seward) to the Prussian Minister (Gerolt)1

WASHINGTON, July 16, 1861.

The undersigned, Secretary of State of the United States, has the honor of acknowledging the receipt of a copy of a letter of instruction, under the date of the 13th of June, from Baron Schleinitz, the minister of foreign affairs of his Majesty the King of Prussia, to Baron Gerolt, his Majesty's envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the United States, which Baron Gerolt has submitted for perusal to the undersigned.

Baron Gerolt, in pursuance of this instruction, has referred to doubts said to prevail in Europe about the treatment to which neutral shipping may be subjected during the continuance of the internal disturbance now existing in the United States, and has requested from the undersigned an explanation of the views of this government thereupon.

1

Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs (Diplomatic Correspondence), 1861, pp. 28-29.

Baron Schleinitz, in this communication, has remarked that it would certainly be most desirable for Prussia that this government should embrace this occasion to announce its adhesion to the celebrated declaration of Paris. But that if this could not be attained, then, for the present, the government of Prussia would urge that an exposition might be made to be obligatory during the present intestine disturbances in the United States, in regard to the application generally of the second and third principles of the Paris declaration to neutral shipping.

The second principle of the Paris declaration is, that the neutral flag covers the enemy's goods, not contraband of war.

The third principle is, that the goods, not contraband of war, of a neutral found on board an enemy's vessel are exempt from confiscation.

The undersigned has the pleasure of informing Baron Gerolt, by authority of the President of the United States, that the government cheerfully declares its assent to these principles in the present case, and to continue until the insurrection which now unhappily exists in the United States shall have come to an end, and they will be fully observed by this government in its relations with Prussia. But the undersigned would be doing injustice to this government if he should omit to add, by way of explanation, that so long ago as the 24th of April last he transmitted ample instructions and powers to Mr. Judd, the then newly appointed Minister of the United States to Berlin, authorizing him to enter into a treaty (subject to the consent of the Senate of the United States) with the kingdom of Prussia for the adhesion of this government to the declaration of the congress at Paris. Similar instructions and powers were given to all the ministers appointed to conduct diplomatic intercourse with all existing maritime powers. This government in these instructions declared its continued desire and preference for the amendment of the Paris declaration proposed by this government in 1856, to the effect that the private or individual property of non-combatants, whether belonging to belligerent States or not, should be exempted from confiscation in maritime war. But recurring to the previous failure to secure the adoption of that amendment, this government instructed its ministers, if they should find it necessary, to waive it for the present, and to negotiate our adhesion to the declaration pure and simple.

The delay of Mr. Judd in his departure for Berlin is probably the cause why this proposition was not made by him to the Prussian government previous to the date of the instruction given by Baron

Schleinitz to Baron Gerolt, which formed the occasion of the present

note.

This government having thus practically anticipated the wishes of the Prussian government, the undersigned has, of course, been the more at liberty to accede to those wishes in the more limited extent in which they are expressed by Baron Schleinitz.

The undersigned at the same time holds himself none the less bound to proceed with a view to a more ample and more formal establishment of the benign principles of maritime war in regard to neutral commerce as indicated in the instructions given to Mr. Judd.

Of course the undersigned will be understood as not qualifying or modifying by this communication the right of the United States to close any of the national ports which have already fallen or which may fall into the hands of the insurgents, either directly or in the lenient and equitable form of the blockade which is now in full force.

The undersigned cannot close this communication without expressing to Baron Gerolt the great satisfaction with which this government has learned through the communication now acknowl edged, that his Majesty the King of Prussia faithfully adheres to the existing treaties between the two countries, and fulfils, without question or reservation, all their obligations. This announcement is accompanied by assurances of good feeling and good will that will not fail, under the peculiar circumstances of the times, to make a deep and lasting impression on the government and the people of the United States, and to perpetuate the friendship that for near a century has existed between the two countries to the great advantage and lasting honor of both.

Baron Gerolt may be assured that the government and the people of the United States have deliberately and carefully surveyed the unhappy disturbance of their social condition which has caused so much anxiety to all friendly commercial nations, and have adopted the necessary means for its speedy and complete removal, so that they expect to be able to prosecute their accustomed career of enterprise, and, while fulfilling all the national obligations, to co-operate with enlightened nations engaged, like Prussia, in enlarging and increasing the sway of commerce, and in promoting and advancing the high interests of civilization and humanity.

The undersigned offers to Baron Gerolt renewed assurances [etc.] WILLIAM H. SEWARD