At Cherbourg. on the 16th of August, requiring "coals, provisions, and calking."1 She remained there about two weeks, receiving all she needed without objection on the part of the authorities, and then started north. She coaled at Teneriffe about the 10th of October, and arrived at Cherbourg, in France, on the 28th of the same month.3 There she was admitted into the Government docks, but "her repairs were inconsiderable." She left the roads and sailed from Cherbourg on the 16th of February, 1864. In the mean time she was in constant communication with Great Britain. Recruitment of men for her account was going forward in Liverpool.5 At Liverpool. During her cruise after leaving Cherbourg no prizes were made, and on the 2d of May she found her way back to Liverpool. She had not been a successful cruiser. Her commercial value in money was worth more to the insurgents than her powers as a vessel of war, and, on her arrival, she was dismantled and offered for sale. Great Britain made no objection to the use of her ports for such a purpose. Her Majesty's Government contented itself with a simple notice to the purchaser that he must purchase at his own risk. This notice may have reduced the amount of the proceeds of the sale, but it kept open the ports of Great Britain to the insurgents as a base for their naval operations. They had no ports of their own. The right of a belligerent to make use of the ports of a neutral for the sale of its ships of war was, to say the least, doubtful. Great Britain had been accustomed to resolve all doubts in favor of the insurgents. This new experiment was therefore tried; a sale was effected, and the proceeds went into the treasury of the insurgents. Sale. 1 Brit. App., vol. i, p. 307. 2Am. App., vol. vi, p. 525. 3 Brit. App., vol. i, p. 441. 4 Ibid. 5 Affidavit of Shanley, Brit. App., vol. i, p. 448; affidavit of Matthews, ibid., p. 443 ; Queen vs. Campbell, Am. App., vol. iv, p. 613. IX.-THE SHENANDOAH. want of due dili Open hostilities were commenced by the insurgents against the Government of the United States on the 12th of April, 1861, by General review of an attack on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston and facts establishing State of South Carolina, Previous to that time, W. L. Yan- gence. cey, P. A. Rost, and A. Dudley Mann had been appointed by the insurgent president a commission" to the Government of Her Britannic Majesty. They proceeded to London, and on the Saturday previous to the 11th day of May (being the 4th) were admitted by Earl Russell to an informal interview.1 66 On the 30th of April, Fraser, Trenholm & Co., a branch at Liverpool of the commercial house of John Fraser & Co., at Charleston, became the "financial agents and depositaries" of the insurgent Government, through whom "contracts required abroad" were to be carried out. On the 10th of May the insurgent congress authorized the president "to cause to be purchased, if possible, otherwise to be constructed, with the least possible delay, in France or England, one or two war-steamers of the most modern and improved description, with a powerful armament and fully equipped for. service." On the same day another act was passed making an appropriation "to enable the Navy Department to send an agent abroad to purchase six steam propellers, in addition to those before authorized." Of the sums appropriated by these acts and others which had preceded them, "six hundred thousand dollars" were placed at once in England and agents dispatched abroad to purchase. gun-boats.5 On the 1st of July the insurgent secretary of war, in a letter of instruction to a Mr. Charles Green, who had been appointed to go to London and act with Captain Huse and Major Anderson in the purchase of arms, &c., desired him to give or cause to be given special attention to the shipments. It is then said, " in this connection it is proper to remark that Captain North, of the Confederate States Navy, is now in Europe to purchase vessels for this Government, and it is probable that, being a British subject, you might secure the shipments under British colors." 6 About the same time James D. Bullock was appointed "head agent of the confederate navy in England." He immediately went to England and established his "headquarters" at Liverpool, in one of the rooms of the office of Frazer, Trenholm & Co., the "financial agents and depositaries:"8 As early as the 4th of July the Consul of the United States at that port (Liverpool) informed the head constable of the city and the collector of customs of the port that he had reason to believe Bullock had "come to England for the purpose of procuring vessels to be fitted as privateers to cruise against the commerce of the United States, and that he will make Liverpool the scene of his operations." On the 14th of August, the above-named commissioners, having on "two different occasions" before "verbally and unofficially informed" Earl Russell of their appointment, took occasion to address to him a formal communication in writing, and in that communication, among other things, said "this Government [that of the insurgents] commenced its career entirely without a navy. * The people of the Confederate States are an agricultural, not a manufacturing or a commercial, people. They own but few ships.. But it is far otherwise with the people of the present United States. They do a large part of the carrying trade of the world. Their ships and commerce afford them the sinews of war, and keep their industry afloat.. To cripple this industry and commerce, to destroy their ships or cause them to be dismantled and tied up to their rotting wharves, are legitimate objects and means of warfare."2 * * ** On the next day (the 15th) Mr. Adams addressed Earl Russell as follows: From information furnished from sources which appear to me entitled to credit, I feel it my duty to apprise Her Majesty's Government that a violation of the act prohibiting the fitting out of vessels for warlike purposes is on the point of being committed in one of the ports of Great Britain, whereby an armed steamer is believed to be about to be dispatched with the view of making war against the people of the United States. It is stated to me that a new screw-steamer, called the Bermuda, ostensibly owned by the commercial house of Frazer, Trenholm & Levy, of Liverpool, well known to consist in part of Americans in sympathy with the insurgents in the United States, is now lying at West Hartlepool, ready for sea. She is stated to carry English colors, but to be commanded by a Frenchman.3 To this Earl Russell replied on the 22d of the same month that he had been advised by the Law-Officers of the Crown" there is not sufficient evidence to warrant any interference with the clearance or the sailing of the vessel."4 This vessel turned out to be only a "transport," and not an "armed vessel of war;" and the United States admit that the evidence, then in the possession of the two Governments, might not have been sufficient to justify her condemnation by the courts upon the proper proceedings instituted for such purpose; but they insist that the complaint of Mr. Adams, following so closely as it did upon the remarkable communication of the insurgents already quoted, was worthy of being kept in the remembrance of Her Majesty's Secretary of Foreign Affairs. As has been seen, Bullock contracted in Liverpool, shortly after his arrival, for the construction of the Florida; not long after a contract was made for the Alabama; and later still, others for the Alexandra and the Laird iron-clads at Liverpool, and for the Georgia and Pampero, (or Canton,) at Glasgow. A purchase was also made of one of Her Majesty's cast-off gun-boats, the Victor, afterward known as the Rappahannock. The Florida, Alabama, and Georgia (the first two after having been made the subject of special complaint by the United States to Her Majesty's Government) escaped from the ports of Great Britain, and their ravages upon the commerce of the United States formed the subject of much correspondence between the two governments. As early as the 20th November, 1862, Mr. Adams called the attention of Earl Russell to this subject by letter, and in so doing said: 1Am. App., vol. vii, p. 72. 4 Brit. App., vol. ii, p. 138. "I have the honor to inform your lordship of the directions which I have received from my Government to solicit redress for the national and private injuries already thus sustained, as well as a more effective prevention of any repetition of such lawless and injurious proceedings in Her Majesty's ports hereafter."1 The Alexandra was made the subject of judicial proceedings, and Her Majesty's Government, through the inefficiency of its laws as actually administered, was compelled to pay the insurgents damages and costs for the detention. The iron-clads were detained, and, to avoid another Alexandra experience, were purchased from the insurgents by Her Majesty's Government at a price which, the United States have reason to believe, did not entail a pecuniary loss upon the sellers. The Pampero (or Canton) was seized, and, by arrangement with the builders, a decree of forfeiture obtained, which was never enforced except for the detention of the vessel until the final defeat of the insurgents. The Rappahannock escaped, but was detained by the Government of France and was never made available against the United States. But she became a subject of annoyance and vexation to Her Majesty's Government, and furnished additional proof that, in the midst of the state of feeling which surrounded Her Majesty's courts of justice in England, her laws could not at all times be made available there to enforce her international obligations and protect her from liability for national wrongs. An offending officer acquitted by a jury on a trial before a judicial tribunal, was punished by the Government by being put on half-pay for life. The Navy Department of the insurgents had and maintained its headquarters at Liverpool. Bullock, the "head agent," issued his orders and commissioned his officers from these headquarters. His seamen were recruited there; his officers congregated there, waiting the preparation of the vessels on which they were to cruise, and when the vessels got out of port, clandestinely or otherwise, had no difficulty in finding the means to reach them. Bounties, advances, half-pay notes, and wages were made payable and paid there. When a ship went out of commission or enlistments expired, officers and other seamen made their way back there to the "Department." In the mean time the British flag was allowed to cover cargoes, contraband of war, intended to pass a blockade maintained by the United States and supply the insurgents with the means of carrying on their operations. Ships were purchased by the insurgents intended for and maintained as 66 transports," "all which were permitted to and did sail under the British flag. Constant complaint of this was made by the United States to Her Majesty's Government, and the reply uniformly came back that international obligations did not make it incumbent upon Her Majesty to interfere. In the fall of 1864 the insurgents were again without any available Navy. The Florida and the Alabama had been sunk; the Sumter and the Georgia had been dismantled and sold in British ports to British subjects, the proceeds of the sales finding their way from thence into the Treasury of the insurgents. The Tallahassee had succeeded in running the blockade and in making a port of the insurgents after her short though destructive career, but was then held by the blockade maintained by the United States. The Rappahannock was held firm in the hands of the Government of France, and the Chickamauga, although 1Adams to Russell, Nov. 20, 1862, Am. App., vol. i, p. 666. commissioned, was still detained by the blockade. In the mean time the commerce of the United States had largely disappeared. Nearly two hundred vessels, with their cargoes, had been committed to the flames.1 Over seven hundred, with an aggregate of nearly half a million of tonnage, had been transferred for self-preservation from the flag of the United States to that of Great Britain.2 All or nearly all of this had been caused by vessels fitted out in the ports of the Clyde or the Mersey. They had been manned and supplied from Great Britain. Their commissioned officers were chiefly from the insurgents; but they were commissioned in Great Britain and took their orders and departure there. But there was still left in the frozen seas of the North Pacific a little fleet of vessels from which it was supposed the flag of the United States could be floated with safety. This fleet was largely owned, and entirely officered and manned, by bold and daring seamen who made the Arctic seas their home in order that they might supply the inhabitants of more favored regions with such necessaries as those seas alone produced. This little fleet destroyed, and the commerce and carrying trade of the United States would be substantially gone. This "legitimate object and means of warfare," so early brought to the attention of Earl Russell by the "commission" sent from the insurgents, would then have fully accomplished its work. No vessels or cargoes had been condemned as prize and sold, but all had been destroyed. To accomplish this further destruction a Navy must be provided. It need not be large, but still something must be had. It could not be obtained from France, because "no violation of its neutrality would be permitted," and work upon vessels of war would not be allowed there unless the builders could satisfy the Minister of Foreign Affairs that they "were honestly intended" for a government other than that of the insurgents. The minister of marine there had also declared that suspected vessels "should not be delivered to the Confederates."5 The hospitalities of the ports of Great Britain had never been refused to a ship having a commission of the insurgents. Her Majesty's Government had acknowledged the inefficiency of her laws as enforced in her courts and executed by her officers, yet Her Majesty's prime minister had declared, from his place in the House of Commons, that the Government and people of the United States "must not imagine that any cry which may be raised will induce us (Her Majesty's Government) to come down to this House with a proposal to alter the law." If by chance a vessel was detained, no pecuniary loss to the insurgents would be likely to follow, for the money invested would be paid back, and, possibly, a profit be added. The "navy agent" and the only efficient "Navy Department" of the insurgents were still tolerated and permitted to maintain "headquarters" at the principal commercial port of the Empire. Great Britain had never yet resented an insult to her neutrality by the insurgents. There never had been so great activity in the construction and purchase of steamers in Great Britain for "transports" as at this time." Consequently the Navy Department, located in Great Britain, sought there to obtain its means of operation. A vessel known as the Sea King, which, while building at Glasgow, a year previous, had attracted 1 Am. App., vol. iv, p. 446. 2 Brit. App., vol. i, p. 504. 3 Am. App. Counter Case, p. 897. Ibid., p. 904. Am. App. Counter Case, p. 916. 6 Am. App., vol. iv, p. 531. "Bullock to Memminger, and other correspondence, August 23, 1864; Am. App., vol. vi, p. 169. |