ALABAMA CLAIMS. 15 
CHAPTER II. 
ALABAMA CLAIMS. 
CONDUCT OF GREAT BRITAIN TOWARD THE UNITED STATES 
DURING THE LATE CIVIL WAR. 
Ar the conclusion of the Civil War, intense feeling 
of indignation against Great Britain pervaded the 
minds of the Government and Congress, of the United 
States, and of the people of those of the States which 
had devoted themselves to maintaining in arms the 
integrity of the Union against the hostile efforts of 
the Southern Confederation: 
We charged and we believed that Great Britain 
and her Colonies had been the arsenal, the navy-yard, 
and the treasury of the Confederates. 
We charged and we believed that Confederate 
cruisers, which had.depredated largely on our ship- 
ping eal maritime commerce, never could have taken 
and never held the sea, but for the partiality and 
gross negligence of the British Government. 
We charged and we believed that but for the pre- 
mature recognition of the belligerence of the Confed- 
erates by Great Britain, and the direct aid or sup-. 
plies which were subsequently furnished to them in 
British ports, the insurrection in the Southern States 
never would have assumed, or could not have retained, 
