DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



349 



This answer of Earl Russell was referred by- 

 Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward, who, on the 6th of 

 October, thus replied : 



DEPABTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, ? 

 Oct. 6th, 1863. S 



SIR : Your despatch of the 18th of September, No. 

 500, has been received, together with a copy of the 

 correspondence which has been held by you with Earl 

 Russell on the-subject of the claims of the owners of the 

 ship Nora, which was destroyed by the war steamer 

 Alabama. Earl Russell produces what he pronounces 

 satisfactory evidence that that steamer was not fitted 

 out at Liverpool as a ship-of-war. He then says, 

 that when the United States Government assumes to 

 hold the Government of Great Britain responsible for 

 the captures made by vessels which may be fitted out 

 as vessels-of-war in a foreign port, because such ves- 

 sels were originally built in a British port, he, Earl 

 Russell, has to observe that such pretensions are entire- 

 ly at variance with the principles of international law, 

 and with the decisions of American courts of the high- 

 est authority, and he has only, in conclusion, to ex- 

 press his hope that you may not be instructed again 

 to put forward claims which her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment cannot admit to be founded on any grounds of 

 law or justice. 



You refer me to these statements of Earl Rus- 

 sell, and ask for instructions upon the questions thus 

 raised. 



The United States understand that they are at peace 

 with Great Britain, and that that power is obliged 

 by treaties and international law to refrain and to re- 

 strain its subjects from making war against the United 

 States. Her Majesty's Government probably concur 

 in the legal principle thus asserted. The United States 

 understand the facts of the case of the Alabama in a 

 different sense from that which is accepted by Earl 

 Russell. They understand that the Alabama is a pi- 

 rate ship-of-war, roving over the seas capturing, burn- 

 ing, sinking, and destroying American vessels, without 

 any lawful authority from the British Government or 

 from any other sovereign power, in violation of the 

 law of nations, and contemptuously defying all judi- 

 cial tribunals equally of Great Britain "and all other 

 States ; the United States understand that she was pur- 

 posely built for war against the United States by Brit- 

 ish subjects in a British port, and prepared there to be 

 armed and equipped with a specified armament adapt- 

 ed to her construction for the very piratical career 

 which she is now pursuing ; that her armament and 

 equipment, duly adapted to this ship-of-war and no 

 other, were simultaneously prepared by the same Brit- 

 ish subjects in a British port, to be placed on board 

 to complete her preparation for that career ; that when 

 she was ready and her armament and equipment were 

 equally ready, she was clandestinely and by connivance 

 sent by her British holders, and the armament and 

 equipment were at the same time clandestinely sent 

 through the same connivance by the British subjects 

 who had prepared them, to a common port outside of 

 British waters, and there the armament and equip- 

 ment of the Alabama as a ship-of-war were complet- 

 ed, and she was sent forth on her work of destruction 

 with a crew chiefly of British subjects, enlisted in and 

 proceeding from a British port, in fraud of the laws 

 of Great Britain and in violation of the peace and sov- 

 ereignty of the United States. The United States un- 

 derstand that the purpose of the building, armament 

 and equipment and expedition of the vessel, was one 

 single criminal intent, running equally through the 

 building and the equipment and the expedition, and 

 fully completed and executed when the Alabama was 

 finally despatched, and that this intent brought the 

 whole transaction of building, armament and equip- 

 ment within the lawful jurisdiction of Great Britain, 

 where the main features of the crime were executed. 

 The United States understand that they gave sufficient 

 and adequate notice to the British Government, that 

 this wrongful enterprise was begun and was being 

 carried out to its completion ; and that, upon receiving 



this notice, her Majesty's Government were bound by 

 treaty obligations and by the law of nations to prevent 

 its execution, and that if the diligence which was due 

 had been exercised by the British Government, the ex- 

 pedition of the Alabama would have been prevented, 

 and the wrongful enterprise of British subjects would 

 have been defeated. The United States confess that 

 some effort was made by her Majesty's Government, 

 but it was put forth too late ana was too soon aban- 

 doned. Upon these principles of law and these as- 

 sumptions of fact, the United States do insist, and 

 must continue to insist, that the British Government is 

 justly responsible for the damages which the peaceful, 

 law-abiding citizens of the United States sustain by 

 the depredations of the Alabama. I cannot, therefore, 

 instruct you to refrain from presenting the claims 

 which you have now in your hands of the character 

 indicated. 



In saying this, however, it is not to be understood 

 that the United_ States intend to act dogmatically or 

 in a litigious spirit. They are seriously and earnestly 

 desirous to maintain not only peace, but even amity 

 with Great Britain. They understand how unavoid- 

 ably grievances have reciprocally arisen out of the di- 

 vergence of policies which the two countries have 

 adopted in regard to the present insurrection. This 

 Government thinks it understands, and in some meas- 

 ure appreciates, the difficulties and embarrassments 

 under which her Majesty's Government are laboring, 

 resulting from the pressure of interests and combina- 

 tions of British subjects calculated to compromise the 

 neutrality which her Majesty has proclaimed, and tend- 

 ing even to involve the two nations in a destructive 

 maritime war. This Government confesses very free- 

 ly, that it does not regard the present hour as one that 

 is entirely favorable to a calm and candid examination 

 of either the facts or the principles involved in such 

 cases as the Alabama. It looks forward to a period 

 when our intestine war shall have ceased, and the in- 

 terests and passions which it has awakened abroad as 

 well as at home shall have subsided and disappeared. 

 Though indulging a confident belief in the correctness 

 of our positions in regard to the claims in question, 

 and others, we shall be willing at all times hereafter, 

 as well as now, to consider the evidence and the argu- 

 ments which her Majesty's Government may offer, to 

 show that they are invalid, and if we shall not be con- 

 vinced, there is no fair and just form of conventional 

 arbitrament or reference to which we shall not be will- 

 ing to submit them. Entertaining these views, the 

 President thinks it proper for you to inform Earl Rus- 

 sell that you must continue to give him notice of claims 

 of the character referred to when they arise, and that 

 you shall propose to furnish him the evidence upon 

 which they rest as is customary in such cases, in or- 

 der to guard against ultimate failure of justice. If he 

 shall decline to receive the evidence, you will cause it 

 to be duly registered and preserved, to be presented 

 when a suitable occasion shall hereafter occur for 

 renewing and urging prosecution of the claims. 

 I am, sir, vour obedient servant, 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq , &c., &c., &c. 



This despatch was in substance communicat- 

 ed to Earl Russell by Mr. Adams, on the 23d 

 of October, as his instructions relative to the 

 presentation of further claims upon the British 

 Government. 



On the 26th of October, Earl Russell thus 

 answered: 



FOREIGN OFFICE, October 26A, 1S63. 

 SIR : I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 

 23d instant. In that letter you inform me that you are 

 instructed to say that the "Government of the United 

 States must continue to insist that Great Britain has 

 made itself responsible for the damages which the citi- 

 zens of the United States sustain by the depredations of 

 the vessel called the Alabama. But toward the con- 





