THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 235 



government had acted in a manner that was 

 without precedent in the practice of nations. 

 This action in its essence created an ocean bel 

 ligerent instead of recognizing one that was 

 already self-created. Thereafter the belliger 

 ent character on the ocean was maintained 

 exclusively by vessels built, equipped, and 

 manned in British ports, in spite of protests by 

 the United States and demands that such viola 

 tions of neutrality be prevented. Freely con 

 ceding the desire of her Majesty s government 

 to maintain a real neutrality, Adams declared 

 that all efforts to that end had proved ineffec 

 tual, first because the laws were inadequate, 

 and second because the government did not 

 secure such change in the laws as would have 

 healed the defects. In consequence of this 

 failure of real neutrality, hundreds of American 

 ships, with millions of dollars worth of cargo, 

 had been destroyed, and the commercial marine 

 of the United States had been transferred to 

 the protection of the British flag, insuring thus 

 to the British people an unjust advantage from 

 the wrong committed against a friendly nation. 

 For such manifest injuries, due to the defects 

 in the British law and the failure of the govern 

 ment to remedy them, the United States was 



