236 THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 



entitled in reason and justice to reparation and 

 indemnity. 



Earl Russell s response to these representa 

 tions was in substance as follows. When her 

 Majesty s Government, on May 13, 1861, recog 

 nized the Confederacy as a belligerent power, 

 it was in fact a belligerent, acknowledged to 

 be such by official act of the United States Gov 

 ernment. The fact of belligerency was clear 

 from the great population and territory con 

 trolled by the Confederacy, its complete govern 

 mental organization, its large armies and nu 

 merous fortresses, its undeniable exercise de 

 facto of all forms of sovereign authority, includ 

 ing the issue of letters of marque. The recog 

 nition of belligerency by the United States was 

 equally clear from the blockade of the Con 

 federate coast officially announced by President 

 Lincoln before the I3th of May; and this 

 view had been sustained by the Supreme Court 

 of the United States. The British Govern 

 ment, if it did not recognize the Confederates 

 as belligerents, would have been obliged to 

 treat them as outlaws and pirates, and this the 

 government was unwilling to do in the case of 

 so large, well-organized, and valiant a popula 

 tion. The demands of British merchants and 



