258 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE OF 

 THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT IN 

 1861. The diplomatic correspondence of the 

 United States Government for the year 1861 

 properly commences at the Inauguration of the 

 President on the 4th of March. A new Presi- 

 dent, a new party, a new Cabinet, composed of 

 public men who had never before held such 

 positions, came into power on that day. New 

 and unusual scenes could be discerned rapidly 

 rising to view in the future which would raise 

 new questions . and new aspects of old ones. 

 Commencing about this date, the Secretary of 

 State of the retiring Administration, Mr. Black, 

 appears on the 28th of February addressing a 

 circular "to all the ministers of the United 

 States," in which he states that " the election 

 of last November resulted in the choice of Mr. 

 Abraham Lincoln ; that he was the candidate 

 of the republican or anti-slavery party; that 

 the preceding discussion had been confined al- 

 most entirely to topics connected, directly or 

 indirectly, with the subject of negro slavery ; 

 that every Northern State cast its whole elec- 

 toral vote (except three in New Jersey) for Mr. 

 Lincoln, while in the whole South the popular 

 sentiment against him was almost absolutely 

 universal. Some of the Southern States, imme- 

 diately after the election, took measures for sep- 

 arating themselves from the Union, and others 

 soon followed their example." The result of 

 this was the assembling of a congress of Repre- 

 sentatives from South Carolina, Georgia, Flori- 

 da, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and 

 the adoption of a provisional Constitution for 

 what was styled the " Confederate States of 

 America." He then proceeded to say : 



It is not improbable that persons claiming to repre- 

 sent the States which have thus attempted to throw 

 off their Federal obligations will seek a recognition of 

 their independence by the European powers. In 

 the event of such an effort being made, you are ex- 

 pected by the President to use such means as may in 

 your judgment be proper and necessary to prevent its 

 success. 



The reasons set forth in the President's Message at 

 the opening of the present session of Congress, in 

 support of nis opinion that the States have no consti- 

 tutional power to secede from the Union, are still un- 

 answered, and are believed to be unanswerable. The 

 grounds upon which they have attempted to justify 

 the revolutionary act of severing the bonds which 

 connect them with their sister States, are regarded as 

 wholly insufficient. This Government has not relin- 

 quished its constitutional jurisdiction within the 

 territory of those States, and does not desire to 

 do so. 



On the 9th of March, Mr. Seward, the newly- 

 appointed Secretary of State, addressed a cir- 

 cular to " all the Ministers of the United 

 States," in which he alluded to the instructions 

 of his predecessor, and stated that the Presi- 

 dent, having assumed the administration of the 

 Government, in pursuance of an unquestioned 

 election, and of the directions of the Constitu- 

 tion, renewed the injunction above mentioned, 

 and relied upon the exercise of the greatest 

 possible diligence and fidelity on their part to 

 counteract and prevent the designs of those 



who would invoke foreign intervention to em- 

 barrass or overthrow the Republic. They were 

 instructed to urge upon the Governments to 

 which they were commissioned, the consider- 

 ation that " the present disturbances had their 

 origin only in popular passions excited under 

 novel circumstances of a very transient charac- 

 ter, and that while not one person of well- 

 balanced mind has attempted to show that 

 dismemberment of the Union would be per- 

 manently conducive to the safety and welfare 

 of even his own State or section, much less of 

 all the States and sections of our country, the 

 people themselves still retain and cherish a 

 profound confidence in our happy Constitution, 

 together with a veneration and affection for it 

 such as no other form of government ever re- 

 ceived at the hands of those for whom it was 

 established." 



Another circular was issued by the Secretary 

 to the Ministers of the United States in Great 

 Britain, France, Russia, Prussia, Austria, Bel- 

 gium, Italy, and Denmark, on the 24th of 

 April, relative to the rights of neutrals in mar- 

 itime war. It presents the whole case as it 

 stood at that date. It states the position of the 

 United States, our proposition to the Paris 

 congress in 1856, the action of that congress, 

 and the ground the Administration was ready 

 to assume on the subject. The entire letter is 

 too important to be abridged, as it contains 

 propositions which were the subject of negotia- 

 tion in all the courts above named for ensuing 

 months : 



DEPARTMENT OF STATE, ) 

 WASHINGTON, April 24, 1861. ( 



SIR : The advocates of benevolence and the believers 

 in human progress, encouraged by the slow though 

 marked meliorations of the barbarities of war which 

 have obtained in modern times, have been, as you are 

 well aware, recently engaged with much assiduity in 

 endeavoring to effect some modifications of the law of 

 nations in regard to the rights of neutrals in maritime 

 war. In the spirit of these movements the President 

 of the United States, in the year 1854, submitted to 

 the several maritime nations two propositions, to 

 which he solicited their assent as permanent princi- 

 ples of international law, which were as follows : 



1. Free ships make free goods ; that is to say, that 

 the effects or goods belonging to subjects or citizens 

 of a power or State at war are free from capture or 

 confiscation when found on board of neutral vessels, 

 with the exception of articles contraband of war. 



2. That the property of neutrals on board an enemy's 

 vessel is not subject to confiscation unless .the same be 

 contraband of war. 



Several of the Governments to which these propo- 

 sitions were submitted expressed their willingness to 

 accept them, while some others, which were in a state 

 of war, intimated a desire to defer acting thereon until 

 the return of peace should present what they thought 

 would be a more auspicious season for such interest- 

 ing negotiations. 



On the 16th of April, 1856, a congress was in session 

 at Paris. It consisted of several maritime powers, 

 represented by their plenipotentiaries, namely, Great 

 Britain, Austria, France, Russia, Prussia, Sardinia, 

 and Turkey. That congress having taken up the gen- 

 eral subject to which allusion has already been made 

 in this letter, on the day before mentioned, came to an 

 agreement, which they adopted in the form of a decla- 

 ration, to the effect following, namely : 



1. Privateering is and remains abolished. 



