708 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



I hold this consideration to be aii imperative obli- 

 gation for forbearance on the part of the belligerent 

 and the dismissal of the neutral vessel. 



J. HOPE, Vice-Admiral. 



The answer of Lieutenant-Commanding Morris to 

 the foregoing communication is as follows : 



C. 8. STEAMER FLORIDA, ) 



ST. GEORGE'S, BERMUDA, Juno 20, 1SC4. j 



Sin: Having considered the confidential communi- 

 cation of Sir James Hope, I have no hesitation in as- 

 suring you that it has been, and is now my intention 

 to allow all neutral vessels (*. e. vessels producing 

 legal papers) to pass, and that such are my instruc- 

 tions from my Government. I am, sir, respectfully, 

 your obedient servant. 



C. M. MORRIS, Lieut. Com. 



J. W. ASHLEY, Esq., R. N. 



After conference with the President, it has been 

 deemed unnecessary to make extended comment on 

 the paper signed by the vice-admiral, for the reason 

 that it was evidently hazarded with distrust, until 

 instructions could be obtained from his superiors. 

 It can scarcely be assumed by us as possible that the 

 British Government will concur in opinion with the 

 distinguished naval officer that British Admiralty 

 Courts have jurisdiction over the ships of war of a 

 foreign Government with which Great Britain is at 

 peace; or that the rights of this Government, as an 

 acknowledged belligerent, can be affected by the fact 

 that Great Britain has not chosen to recognize the 

 independence of the Confederacy ; or that the proper 

 course for a professedly neutral nation, when com- 

 plaining of alleged aggressions on its neutral com- 

 merce, is to commence hostilities on the high seas 

 against one belligerent on the first occasion for com- 

 plaint and without previous remonstrance or demand 

 for redress, while remaining passive as to the other 

 belligerent, after three years of constant and unavail- 

 ing remonstrances against hundreds of outrages and 

 aggressions. 



The purpose of the President in requesting that 

 the papers should be referred to this Department was 

 to obtain for the guidance of the naval officers in 

 command of our cruisers such further and fuller in- 

 structions for the discharge of their duties as the 

 experience, of the war has shown to be necessary. 

 These instructions I have now the honor to forward 

 to you for transmission to your subordinates. 

 Miii ute of Instructions. 



The cases which occur for decision by our cruisers 

 may be classified as follows : 



A. A vessel under enemy's flag without cargo, or 

 with cargo, belonging exclusively to enemy. 



B. A vessel under enemy's flag with cargo, wholly 

 or in part belonging to neutrals. 



C. A vessel really neutral with cargo wholly or in 

 part belonging to the enemy. 



D. A vessel ostensibly neutral, but really hostile, 

 fraudulently placed under a neutral flag and furnish- 

 ed with fraudulent papers as a cover to protect her 

 from capture. 



A. The right of our cruisers to capture enemy's 

 property on the high seas is of course unquestioned. 

 No condemnation by an Admiralty Court is neces- 

 sary to vest title to such property in this Govern- 

 ment. The capture itself gives instant title to the 

 captors. The property so captured should in all 

 cases be at once destroyed if it be not in the power 

 of the captors to dispose of it otherwise for the bene- 

 fit of the Confederacy. Enemy's vessels thus cap- 

 tured maybe armed by the captors and placed under 

 command of any commissioned officer of the Con- 

 federate States, and used either as tenders to the 

 captors or detached as independent cruisers. Such 

 vessels, so armed and commanded, are as fully en- 

 titled to the rights of national armed vessels as if 

 built and equipped in our own waters. On this point 

 it may be proper to observe that the British Govern- 

 ment, after violating this principle of public law by 



the seizure of the Tuscaloosa at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, is understood to have admitted its error, and 

 although it has not yet tendered us the satisfaction 

 due for so violent an aggression on our rights, it 

 published on the 2d of June last instructions rela- 

 tive to the treatment of prizes captured by either bel- 

 ligerent ; and while refusing them permission to entei 

 British ports, makes an express exception in favor of 

 " a vessel which shall have been actually and lonafidt 

 converted into, and used as, a public vessel of war." 



B. A vessel under enemy's flag with cargo whollj 

 or in part belonging to neutrals : 



Under ordinary circumstances this case would 

 present no embarrassment. The captured vessel 

 would be taken into a port of the captors, or of a 

 neutral country ; the portion of the cargo belonging 

 to the neutral would be delivered- to the owners, and 

 the vessel, with such portion of the cargo as belonged 

 to the enemy, would be condemned as prize. 



The action of neutral governments has placed 

 serious obstacles in the way of doing justice to their 

 own people. They have closed their ports to the 

 admission of captured vessels, and have thus ren- 

 dered it impossible to make delivery in their owu 

 ports of the property of their own subjects found on 

 board of the vessels of our enemies ; while it would 

 be exposing those vessels to almost certain recapture 

 to attempt to bring them into our ports, for the cap- 

 tured vessels are almost invariably sailing vessels, 

 and the enemy's cruisers of our ports are steamers. 

 In most instances heretofore it has been found prac- 

 ticable to reconcile to a certain extent the exercises 

 of our own just rights as belligerents with a due re- 

 gard for the claims of neutrals, by allowing the ves- 

 sels of the enemy when partially laden with neutral 

 goods to be relieved on ransom bonds. But it is 

 obvious that this is a mode rather of eluding than of 

 solving the difficulty, and that we cannot allow to be 

 established as a rule that our enemies may cover 

 their shipping from capture during the war, by sim- 

 ply carrying neutral goods as a part of their cargo. 

 If, for instance, Great Britain will not permit a cap. 

 tured enemy's vessels to be carried into one of her 

 ports for the purpose of their delivering to a British 

 subject his goods found on board, she would certainly 

 have no just ground of complaint that the goods were 

 not restored to their owner. If, therefore, on the 

 renewed representations we are about to make, we 

 find neutral nations persist in refusing to receive the 

 property of their subjects in their own ports, when 

 captured by us on enemy's vessels, it will become 

 necessary to instruct our cruisers to destroy such 

 property whenever they are unable to bring the 

 prize into our ports. In the mean time it is deemed 

 proper, as evidence of that respect for the rights of 

 others which has t>een so seldom extended toward 

 us in this war, that the commanders of our national 

 cruisers should be instructed to continue their former 

 practice of allowing the enemy to ransom his vessel 

 in cases where the neutral property on board is of 

 large value, or bears any considerable proportion to 

 that of the enemy ; but if a ransom bond is refused, 

 or if the proportion of neutral property on board is 

 small compared with the value of the vessel and hos- 

 tile cargo, the whole should be destroyed, whenever 

 the prize cannot be brought into a port of our own or 

 of a neutral country. 



C. A vessel really neutral, with cargo wholly or in 

 part belonging to the enemy. 



Under the law of nations as established prior to 

 the year 1856, such a vessel would have been liable 

 to capture, for the purpose of being brought into 

 port, when the hostile cargo would be condemned as 

 prize, and the neutral vessel and the neutral portion 

 of the cargo would be liberated. 



By the Paris Declaration of 1856, it was declared 

 that "the neutral flag covers enemy's goods, with 

 the exception of contraband of war;" and this rule 

 was adopted bv the resolutions of Congress of Augusf 

 13, 1801. 



