ALABAMA CLAIMS. 177 
States of indemnity for the captures made by the Ala- 
bama, 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 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 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 aeted, 
when no statute existed. It avails nothing to say 
that 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- 
