271 



In reply to strictures upon the course of the Secretary of State, 

 Mr. Seward remarked: " The President, it seems, took pains to ob- 

 tain information informally, and he caused it to be published, in a 

 notice issued by the Secretary of State, and dated at the Department 

 of State July 6, 1852, and which has been called here the ' procla- 

 mation ' of the Secretary. 



" The Senate will see that the Secretary of State set forth such un- 

 official information (and all the information was unofficial) as had 

 been obtained, and stated the popular inference then prevalent, saying 

 that the imperial government 'appeared ' now to be willing to adopt 

 the construction of the convention insisted on by the colonies. Infer- 

 ring, from circumstances, the hazards and dangers which would arise, 

 he set forth the case precisely as it seemed to stand. He adverted to 

 the question understood as likely to be put in issue, and, admitting that 

 technically the convention of ISIS would bear the rigorous construc- 

 tion insisted on by the colonies, he declared the dissent of the govern- 

 ment of the United States from it ; and then communicated the case 

 to the persons engaged in this hard and hazardous trade, that they 

 mio'ht be 'on their ffuard.' 



"I am surprised that any doubts should be raised as to the procla- 

 mation being the act of the government. I do not understand how a 

 senator or a citizen can officially know that the Secretary of State is 

 at Marshfield, or elsewhere, when the seal and date of the depart- 

 ment affirm that he is at the capital. I w^ould like to know where or 

 when this government or this administration has disavowed this pro- 

 clamation. 



"In issuing this notice, the Secretary of State did just what the Sec- 

 retary of State had been in the habit of doing in such cases from the 

 foundation of the government, viz : he issued a notice to the citizens 

 of the United States to put them on their guard in a case of apparent 

 danger, resulting from threatening embarrassment of our relations 

 •v^dth a foreign power. The first notice of the kind which I have found 

 in history is a notice issued by Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State 

 under George Washington, to the merchants of the United States, in- 

 forming them of the British Orders in Council, and of the decrees of 

 the French Directory, and of the apprehended seizure and confisca- 

 tion of American vessels under them ; and assuring the American 

 merchants that, for whatever they might unlawfully lose, the govern- 

 ment of the United States would take care that they would be indem- 

 nified. I brought that to the notice of the Senate heretofore, and upon 

 the ground, among others, that they have twice sanctioned a bill pro- 

 viding for the payment of losses by French spoliations. 



have previously spoken,) to be fitted, provisioned, officered, and manned by the British gov- 

 ernment. The Buzzard, hourly expected from Portsmouth, brings out men to man these 

 hired vessels. To these must be added two from New Brunswick, one from Canada, and one 

 from Pince Edward Island, making a total of nineteen armed vessels, from the ' tall Admi- 

 ral' to the tiny tender, engaged in this important service. His E.xcellency the Vice Ad- 

 miral deserves the thanks of the people of British North America for the zeal with which he 

 has taken up this momentous matter, and also for the promptitude of his co-operation with the 

 provincial government. Janus comes to Newfoundland direct from Gibraltar, she is an ex- 

 perimental steamer, constructed by Sir Charles Napier, and by some said to be a splendid 

 failure. Cumberland sails immediately for St. John and the Newfoundland coast. " 



