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positions, however, had been received with a good deal of favor, though no definite arrangement had yet been made with any power. Secretary Cass anticipated "with great confidence, that they will ere long receive general assent, and will become the law of the world."

Cass thought it might be within the Chargé's power, by informal communication with the statesmen convened at Paris, to explain fully the American views on the subject of war-time commerce. He said the provision in the protocol of the Paris Conference, which undertook to deprive the parties of the power to enter into any arrangement regarding neutral rights which did not at the same time. recognize the four principles laid down by that conference, had had a tendency to delay the desired action of some of the powers. Cass felt that the provision "was an invidious one and ought not to have been adopted, directed as it was principally against the United States."

CHAPTER XI

THE CIVIL WAR

THE PRESIDENT'S BLOCKADE PROCLAMATIONS

President Lincoln in a proclamation of April 19, 1861, stated that he had "deemed it advisable to set on foot a blockade" of the ports within the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, in pursuance of the laws of the United States and of the law of nations.1 For this purpose a competent force would be posted so as to prevent entrance to and exit of vessels from these ports. If, with a view to violating such blockade, a vessel should approach, or should attempt to leave the ports, "she will be duly warned by the Commander of one of the blockading vessels, who will endorse on her register the fact and date of such warning, and if the same vessel shall again attempt to enter or leave the blockaded port, she will be captured and sent to the nearest convenient port, for such proceedings against her and her cargo as prize, as may be deemed advisable." By a proclamation of April 27, the President extended the blockade to the States of Virginia and North Carolina, stating that an efficient blockade of the ports of those States would also be established.2

INSTRUCTIONS TO BLOCKADING VESSELS

In an instruction of May 1, 1861, the Secretary of the Navy called the attention of the Commander of the Coast Blockading Squadron to the two proclamations of the President, stating that the Commander was to "duly notify neutrals of the declaration of blockade, and give to it all the publicity" in his power. The blockade was to 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 blackade." Neutral or foreign vessels already in the ports were to be given a reasonable number of days to leave. The Secretary said it would "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." No neutral or foreign vessel proceeding toward the entrance of a blockaded port was to be captured or detained if

2

1 Document 117, p. 415. Document 119, p. 420. 3 Document 120, p. 420.

it had not previously received from one of the Blockading Squadron a special notification of the existence of the blockade, which "must be inserted in writing on the muster roll of the neutral vessel." Finally, the Secretary stated that the United States had at all times maintained these principles on the subject of blockade and the Commander was not to attempt the application of penalties for a breach of blockade except in cases where his right was justified by these rules.

SEWARD'S EXPLANATIONS

Secretary of State Seward explained the American intentions regarding the blockade, in conferences with the British Minister at Washington. Lord Lyons reported to the British Foreign Office that on April 29 Seward had stated that the practice of the United States was not to issue blockade notices for each southern port as soon as the actual blockade of it should commence, but to notify the blockade individually to each vessel approaching the blockaded port and to inscribe on the ship's papers a memorandum that the notice had been given.1 Seward told Lyons that no vessel was liable to seizure which had not been individually warned. During the same conversation Seward stated that it was intended to effectively blockade the whole coast from Chesapeake Bay to the mouth of the Rio Grande. On May 4 Lyons reported that he had been informed by the State Department that the President's proclamation was merely "notice of an intention to carry the blockade into effect, and the existence of the blockade will be made known in proper form by the blockading vessels.” 2

3

Seward further explained the blockade in a note of May 27 to the British Minister. He expressed the dissent of the American Government from the position "that temporary absence impairs the blockade and renders necessary a new notice of its existence." He stated that the blockade took effect at Charleston on May 11, that it would be continuously in effect until notice of its relinquishment should be given by a Presidential proclamation and that it was "intended and expected that the blockade will be constantly and vigorously maintained."

The questions of the actual effectiveness of the blockade in general or at particular times and places, and of the relation between these conditions and the nature of the warnings to neutral ships, cannot be given in this survey full and detailed examination. Secretary Seward's general defense in 1862 of the effectiveness of the blockade is treated below.

1 Document 120, annex 1, p. 422. 2 Document 120, annex 2, p. 425. 3 Document 122, p. 427.

PROPOSAL TO ACCEDE TO THE DECLARATION OF PARIS

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Secretary of State Seward on April 24, 1861, sent an instruction to the American representatives in Great Britain, France, Russia, Prussia, Austria, Belgium, Italy, and Denmark, in which he discussed commerce in war.1 He observed that the advocates of benevolence and the believers in human progress" had been recently engaged in endeavoring to effect some modification of the law of nations in regard to the rights of neutrals in maritime war. In the spirit of these movements, the President in the year 1854 had submitted to the maritime nations two propositions to which he solicited their assent as permanent principles of international law. The Declaration of Paris, issued two years later, had included the two American propositions and, in addition, carried a provision for abolishing privateering and another defining a binding blockade. The declaration was submitted to the Government of the United States, and the President had expressed his unwillingness to accede unless the proposition to abolish privateering were amended to exempt private property of individuals, though belonging to belligerent states, from seizure or confiscation. This amendment had not been accepted and negotiations had been suspended.

The Ministers were now to ascertain whether the governments to which they were accredited were disposed to enter into negotiations for the accession of the United States to the declaration of the Paris Congress, with the conditions annexed to it by that body. If the governments were so disposed, the ministers were to enter into a convention to that effect. A draft convention reciting the four points of the Declaration of Paris was enclosed with the instruction.

Seward stated that the President adhered to the opinion "that it would be eminently desirable for the good of all nations that the property and effects of private individuals, not contraband, should be exempt from seizure and confiscation by national vessels in maritime war." If the time and circumstances were propitious to a prosecution of the negotiation with that object in view, he would direct that it be assiduously pursued. But the right season seemed to have passed, at least for the time. Europe seemed once more on the verge of quite general wars and, on the other hand, a portion of the American people had raised the standard of insurrection and proclaimed a provisional government and had "taken the bad resolution to invite privateers to prey upon the peaceful commerce of the United States." Finally, Seward stated that prudence and humanity combined in pursuading the President, under the circumstances, that it was wise to secure the lesser good offered by the Paris Congress without wait

1Document 118, p. 416.

ing indefinitely in the hope of obtaining the greater one offered by the United States.

The negotiations regarding this proposal broke down over the insistence of the French and British Governments upon accompanying the conventions by declarations to the effect that they should have no bearing on the internal differences then prevailing in the United States. In instructions to the Minister in Great Britain, September 7, 1861,' and the Minister in France, September 10, 1861,2 Seward directed the discontinuance of the discussion until a more propitious time, asserting the intention of the United States to observe the principles of the Declaration of Paris in its treatment of British and French commerce.

STATEMENTS OF BELLIGERENT POLICY

In a note of May 21, 1861, Secretary Seward informed Minister Adams in Great Britain of the policy of the United States as a belligerant. As to the blockade, he was to state that by our own laws, the laws of nature, and the laws of nations, the Government of the United States had a clear right to suppress insurrection, and that exclusion of commerce from national ports which had been seized by insurgents, in the equitable form of blockade, was a proper means to that end. He was not to insist that the blockade was to be respected if it was not maintained by a competent force, but he was to add that the blockade was at the time, and would continue to be, so maintained, and therefore the United States expected it to be respected by Great Britain.

In answer to a communication from the Prussian Minister asking about the treatment to which neutral shipping might be subjected during the Civil War, Secretary Seward replied on July 16, 1861,* that the American Government cheerfully declared its assent to the second and third principles of the Paris declaration "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." In giving this assurance Seward mentioned the American proposal of April 24 for adherence to the Declaration of Paris.

In a note of August 22, 1861, to the Minister Resident of Austria, Secretary Seward stated that the American Government "does adopt, and that it will apply" the second, third, and fourth principles of the Declaration of Paris.5

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