ALABAMA CLAIMS. 177 



States of indemnity for tlie captures made by the Ala- 

 hama, the Florida^ and the Shenandoah; 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 reflectins: 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 Rules, 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 

 that ours is a constitutional government, wdth 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 



