ALABAMA CLAIMS. 177 



States of indemnity for the captures made by the Ala- 

 bamctjthe Florida, and the SJienandoah; the rise in 

 the cost of cotton and naval stores, and the conse 

 quent losses to commerce, to manufactures, and to la 

 bor, in Great Britain, occasioned by the prolongation 

 of our Civil War : in reflecting on all this, it will be 

 perceived that the hasty issue of the Queen s Procla 

 mation, which gave to the Confederates a standing in 

 Great Britain, and the means and spirit to continue 

 hostilities, was an ill-advised measure, hardly less in 

 jurious to Great Britain than it was to the United 

 States. These are matters which, as questions of di 

 plomacy between the two Governments, the Treaty 

 of Washington and the Award of the Tribunal close 

 up ; but they remain as historical facts, full of admoni 

 tion to all Governments. Discite justitiam moniti. 



FILIBUSTER OBJECTIONS. 



Do the Eules, as construed by the Decision of the 

 Treaty, disclose that due diligence, voluntary dili 

 gence, in the discharge of neutral duties, has relation 

 to the exigency, and that the failure therein is not ex 

 cusable by the insufficiency of statute means of action? 

 So thought Washington and Jefferson. They acted, 

 when no statute existed. It avails nothing to say 

 tint ours is a constitutional government, with legal 

 forms which impede administrative action. If Con 

 gress has not imparted to the Executive adequate 

 powers, if, for want of such fit legislation, the Exec 

 utive can not act effectively in some given cases to 

 prevent illegal expeditions, if, in consequence there- 



M 



