DIPLOMATIC (JOKUKSPONDENOE AND FOREIGN REI.A'i . 



pcruii.v. and fnigalily in life, doubtless pro- 

 longed hi- : enabled him to retain his 

 vigor au<l i to cxtivm. 



DIPLOMATIC COi:UKSPONDi:Ni T: AND 



!i,N RELATIONS. . I /.!////* Claims. 



"i'ho following letter from Mr. Sc\vard to Mr. 



Adams Contains a clear and succinct statement 



Ition uiaiiitaiiR'd by tin- I'nited States 



.-MtiicMt ill ivleivnco to tlic- claim- of 



American dlizons upon tlio Kritish (Jov-in- 



mciit I'.ir 1 'oncd by tlio depredations 



of ilii- Alabama and otlicr vessels in the service 



Southern States, and which had 



or harbored in British port-, : 



DEPARTMENT or STATE, | 

 "W^siuxuTON, January 12, 1SG7. | 



S i it : A copy of n dispatch, written by Lord Stanley 

 >f November last, has been submitted to 

 her Majesty's minister plenipotentiary here, 

 A. Bruce. It contains a review of 

 my dispatch No. 1, "'">, concerning the so-called Ala- 

 bama claim -. 



You will please lay before Lord Stanley this 

 reply : 



The President appreciates the consideration and 

 courtesy manifested by her Majesty's Government. 

 1 shall be content, on this occasion, with defending 

 such of my former statements as Lord Stanley has 

 disallowed. I think it unnecessary to disclaim a 

 purpose of impugning the motives of the late, or of 

 tlie present ministry. Governments, like individu- 

 als, necessarily take their measures with reference 

 to facts and circumstances as they at the time appear. 

 The aspect often changes with further developments 

 ,its. It is with ascertained facts, and not in- 

 tentions, that we are concerned; and it is of Great 

 Britain as a State, and not of any minister or minis- 

 try, that we complain. 



Lord Stanley justly reminds me that the Sumter 

 was of American, not of British origin, and that she 

 began her career by escaping from New .Orleans, and 

 not from a British port. I think, however, that the 

 correction does not substantially affect the case. 

 The Sumter, belonging to loyal owners, was em- 

 ployed in trade between New York and New Orleans. 

 Insur^ -nts seized and armed her there, and sent her 

 out through the blockade. She captured several 

 United States merchant- vessels, and sent them into 

 Cieui'uegos. On the 30th of July, 1801, she entered 

 the British port of Trinidad, in the West Indies, os- 

 tentatiously displaying an insurgent flag, which had 

 not then, nor has it ever since, been recognized as a 

 naiioaal ensign, either by the United States or by 

 ilrituiu, or by any other State. Being chal- 

 lenged, she presented a pretended commission, 

 signed, not by the President of the United States, 

 but by Jefferson Davis, an insurgent chief. The 

 nor of Trinidad exhibited the British standard 

 as a compliment to the insurgent visitor. The'Sum- 

 ter was entertained there six days, and supplied 

 with coal. After renewed deprecations she took 

 shelter, on the 19th of January, 1802, in the British 

 port of Gibraltar, in Continental Europ'c. Being 

 ell'ectually locked in there for months by the United 

 States cruisers, she was, against the protest of this 

 Government, allowed to be sold to British buyers for 

 the account and benefit of the insurgents. She then 

 i till- r>ritishflag, and under it was received at 

 Liverpool, within the British realm. 



It is indeed true, as Lord Stanley has observed, 

 that the Alabama, when she left England, was wholly 

 unarmed, and not fully equipped as a war-vessel. It 

 is also true that she received an armament, a further 

 equipment, a commander, and a crew in Angra Bay, 

 Azores a possession of the crown of Portugal 

 where the British Government had no jurisdiction, 

 and could exercise no lawful control, even if they 



li.:.l :t:i .])|)or; uiMiy. Hut, on tlir i.tlii-r hand, it U to 

 be remuniiicred that, not only WUH tlie vc-**:l !uilt at 

 I '.ill. but tlie armament mid the Mi;ip!--inntal 



i-i|iiipmcnt were built and provided t 



usly, and by the same linti-h hand*, and 

 also that the commander and crew were gathered 

 and orirani/ed at the same time and the same 

 the whole vessel, armament, equipment, comi: 

 and crew were adapted, each part to the other, end 

 all WIT*- prepared lor one complete cvpe.-liti'.: 

 ji.iri- were fraudulently separat'-d in Liverpool, to be 

 put together elsewhere, and they were fraudulently 

 i-onveved theiuv to Angrii Bay, and there put fraud- 

 ulently together by her Majesty's subject*, n 

 in violation of British than of Portuguese oUi. 

 to the Tinted States. The offenders were never 

 brought to justice by her Majesty'.- ( ;it, nor 



complained of by that government to the Queen of 

 Portugal. The Alabama, from the laying of her 

 timbers in Liverpool until her destruction by the 

 Kcarsarge, off Cherbourg, never once entered any 

 port or waters of the United States. Whatever pre- 

 tended commission she ever had as a ship-of-war 

 must have been acquired either in Great Britain or 

 some other foreign country at peace with the United 

 States, or on the high-seas. Nevertheless, the Ala- 

 bama was received, protected, entertained, and sup- 

 plied in. her devastating career in the British ports 

 of Capetown and Singapore, in the East, and when 

 she was finally sunk tn the British Channel, her 

 commander and crew were, with fraudulent conni- 

 vance, rescued by British subjects, and ostenta- 

 tiously entertained and caressed as meritorious but 

 unfortunate heroes at Southampton. With these 

 explanations, I leave the affair of the Alabama 

 where it was placed in the representation of Mr. 

 Adams. 



Lord Stanley says that the Florida, under the 

 original name of Oreto, left England unarmed and 

 unequipped. It must not be forgotten, however, 

 that while building she was denounced to her 

 Majesty's Government by Mr. Adams. Lord Stanley 

 also says that the Shenandoah left England unob- 

 served, and therefore unquestioned, and, for any thing 

 that bad transpired, on a legitimate voyage, and that 

 she was only "armed, equipped, and manned as a 

 war-vessel off Funchal, within Portuguese dominion. 

 I am sure that it must be unnecessary to refer hero 

 to the fact that the building of the Florida, this 

 Georgia, and the Shenandoah in British ports, and 

 the arming and equipment of them outside of 

 British jurisdiction, were fraudulent in the same 

 manner that has been specially described in regard 

 to the Alabama. The Shenandoah was received, 

 protected, and supplied, in defiance of our protest, 

 at Melbourne, in Australia. She proceeded thence 

 to the Arctic seas, where she destroyed twenty-nine 

 United States merchant-vessels, and finally, after 

 the end of the rebel hostilities here, she returned to 

 Liverpool, the place from whence she had Erst gone 

 forth, and there surrendered herself to her Majesty's 

 Government as to an ally or superior. 



Lord Stanley excuses her Majesty's Government, 

 in part upon the ground that sufficient evidence or 

 notice was not presented by the United Stat 

 part upon the ground of accidental hinderances or 

 embarrassments, while in one place he seems to im- 

 ply that the oily devastating vessels of which we 

 complain are the the Sumter, the Alabama, the 

 Florida, and the Shenandoah. In regard to the first 

 excuse, I have to say that British complaints of lack 

 of vigor on our part would, under any circum- 

 stances, be unreasonable. International, as well as 

 municipal, laws depend for their execution in Great 

 Britain upon her Majesty's Government, and not 

 upon our own. Again, t think that Lord Stanley 

 will find, by referring to unpublished records in, the 

 Foreign Office, what certainly appears in our confi- 

 dential archives, that at the 'time when the fraudu- 

 lent building, arming, and equipping of those TOMMi 



