PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



785 



tion of the Congress of Paris in 1856, in the fond hope 

 of imposing an enduring check on the very abuse of 

 maritime power which is now renewed by the United 

 States in 1861 and 1862, under circumstances and with 

 features of aggravated wrong without precedent in 

 history. 



The records of our State Department contain the 

 evidence of the repeated and formal remonstrances 

 made by this Government to neutral Powers against 

 the recognition of this blockade. It has been shown 

 by evidence not capable of contradiction, and which 

 has been furnished in part by the officials of neutral 

 nations, that the few ports of this confederacy, before 

 which any naval forces at all have been stationed, 

 have been invested so inefficiently that hundreds of 

 entries have been effected into them since the declara- 

 tion of the blockade ; that our enemies have them- 

 selves admitted the inefficiency of their blockade in 

 the most forcible manner, by repeated official com- 

 plaints of the sale to us of goods contraband of war 

 a sale which could not possibly affect their interests 

 if their pretended blockade was sufficient really to pre- 

 vent access to our coast; that they have gone farther, 

 and have alleged their inability to render their paper 

 blockade effective, as the excuse for the odious bar- 

 barity of destroying the entrance to one of our har- 

 bors, by sinking vessels loaded with stone in the chan- 

 nel; that our commerce with foreign nations has been 

 interrupted, not by the effective investment of our 

 ports, or by the seizure of ships in the attempt to en- 

 ter them, but by the capture on the high seas of neutral 

 vessels by the cruisers of o\y enemies, whenever sup- 

 posed to be bound to any point on our extensive coast, 

 without inquiry whether a single blockading vessel 

 was to be found at such point ; that blockading ves- 

 sels have left the ports at which they were stationed, 

 for distant expeditions, have been absent for many 

 days, and have returned without notice either of the 

 cessation or renewal of the blockade. In a word, that 

 every prescription of maritime law, and every right 

 of neutral nations to trade with a belligerent under 

 the sanction of principles heretofore universally re- 

 spected, have been systematically and persistently 

 violated by the United States. Neutral Europe has 

 received our remonstrance, and has submitted in al- 

 most unbroken silence to all the wrongs that the Uni- 

 ted States have chosen to inflict on its commerce. 



The cabinet of Great Britain, however, has not con- 

 fined itself to such implied acquiescence in these 

 breaches of international law as results from simple 

 inaction, but has, in a published despatch of the Sec- 

 retary of State for Foreign Affairs, assumed to make a 

 change in the principle enunciated by the Congress of 

 Paris, to which the faith of the British Government 

 was considered to be pledged a change too impor- 

 tant and too prejudicial to the interests of the confed- 

 eracy to be overlooked, and against which I have di- 

 rected solemn protest to be made, after a vain attempt 

 to obtain satisfactory explanation from the British 

 Government. In a published despatch from her Maj- 

 esty's Foreign Office to her Minister at Washington, 

 under date of February llth, 1862, occurs the follow- 

 ing passage : 



Her Majesty's Government, however, are of opinion that, 

 assuming that the blockade was duly notified, and also that 

 a number of ships are stationed and remain at the entrance 

 of a port sufficient really to prevent access to it, or to cre- 

 ate an evident danger of entering it or leaving it, and 

 that these ships do not voluntarily permit ingress or egress, 

 the fact that various ships may have successfully escaped 

 through it (as in the particular instance here referred to) 

 will not of itself prevent the blockade from being an effec- 

 tual one by international law. 



The words which I have italicized are an addition 

 made by the British Government of its own authority 

 to a principle, the exact terms of which were settled 

 with deliberation by the common consent of civilized 

 nations, and by implied convention with this Govern- 

 ment, as already explained, and their effect is clearly 

 to reopen, to the prejudice of the confederacy, one of 

 the very disputed questions on the law of blockade, 

 VOL. in. 50 A 



which the Congress of Paris professed to settle. The 

 importance of this change is readily illustrated by 

 taking one of our ports as an example. There is evi- 

 dent danger in entering the port of Wilmington, from 

 the presence of a blockading force ; and by this teat 

 the blockade is effective. " Access is not really pre- 

 vented " 4 by the blockading fleet to the same port; for 

 steamers are continually arriving and departing; so 

 that, tried by this test, the blockade is ineffective and 

 invalid. The justice of our complaint on this point is 

 so manifest, as to leave little room for doubt that fur- 

 ther reflection will induce the British Government to 

 give us such assurances as will efface the painful im- 

 pressions that would result from its language if left 

 unexplained. 



From the foregoing remarks you will perceive that, 

 during nearly two years of struggle, in which every 

 energy of our country has been evoked for maintain- 

 ing its very existence, the neutral nations of Europe 

 have pursued a policy which, nominally impartial, has 

 been practically most favorable to our enemies and 

 most detrimental to us. 



The exercise of the neutral right of refusing entry 

 into their ports to prizes taken by both belligerents, 

 was eminently hurtful to the confederacy. It was 

 sternly asserted and maintained. The exercise of the 

 neutral right of commerce with a belligerent whose 

 ports are not blockaded by fleets sufficient really to 

 prevent access to them, would have been eminently 

 hurtful to the United States. It was complaisantly 

 abandoned. The duty of neutral States to receive 

 with cordiality and recognize with respect any new 

 confederation that independent States may think 

 proper to form, was too clear to admit of denial ; but 

 its postponement was obviously beneficial to the Uni- 

 ted States and detrimental to the confederacy. It was 

 postponed. 



In this review of our relations with ihe neutral na- 

 tions of Europe, it has been my purpose to point out 

 distinctly that this Government has no complaint to 

 make that those nations declared their neutrality. It 

 could neither expect nor desire more. The complaint 

 is that the neutrality has been rather nominal than 

 real, and that recognized neutral rights have been al- 

 ternately asserted and waived in such manner as to 

 bear with great severity on us, and to confer signal 

 advantages on our enemy. 



I have hitherto refrained from calling your attention 

 to this condition of our relations with Toreign Powers 

 for various reasons. The chief of these was the fear 

 that a statement of our last grounds of complaint 

 against a course of policy so injurious to our interests, 

 might be misconstrued into an appeal for aid. Un- 

 equal as we were in mere numbers and available re- 

 sources to our enemies, we were conscious of powers 

 of resistance in relation to which Europe was incredu- 

 lous, and our remonstrances were therefore peculiarly 

 liable to be misunderstood. 



Proudly self-reliant, the confederacy, knowing full 

 well the character of the contest into which it was 

 forced, with full trust in the superior qualities of its 

 population, the superior valor of its soldiers, the 

 superior skill of its generals, and, above all, in the jus- 

 tice of its cause, felt it to be useless to appeal for the 

 maintenance of its rights to other earthly aids, and 

 it began and has continued this struggle with the 

 calm confidence ever inspired in those who, with con- 

 sciousness of right, can invoke the Divine blessing on 

 their cause. This confidence has been so assured that 

 we have never yielded to despondency under defeat, 

 nor do we feel undue elation at the present brighter 

 prospects of a successful issue to our contest. It is, 

 therefore, because our just grounds of complaint can 

 no longer be misinterpreted^ that I lay them clearly 

 before you. It seems to me now proper to give you 

 the information, and though no immediate results may 

 be attained, it is well that truth should be preserved 

 and recorded. It is well that those who are to follow 

 us should understand the full nature and character of 

 the tremendous conflict in which the blood of our peo- 

 ple has been poured out like water, and in which we 



